Friday briefing: a new climate fund approved
The climate summit approves a fund to help poor countries
On the first day of the UN’s COP28 talks, diplomats from nearly 200 countries approved a draft plan for a fund to help vulnerable countries hit by climate disasters, made worse by pollution from rich countries.
For more than three decades, developing countries have pushed for compensation from richer, more industrialized countries to help with the costs of devastating storms, heat waves and droughts fueled by global warming. The fund is widely seen as a positive sign for the two-week summit in Dubai and is expected to be operational this year.
Of the countries contributing, the United Arab Emirates and Germany each pledged $100 million, while Britain pledged about $76 million and Japan said it would give $10 million. The EU climate commissioner said the union would contribute at least around $245 million. The US pledged $17.5 million, an amount criticized by some activists as too low for the world’s largest economy.
Although initial commitments total approximately $549 million, climate-related damage is expected to cost developing countries between $280 billion and $580 billion per year by 2030.
Kissinger’s complicated legacy
Henry Kissinger, the most powerful secretary of state of the postwar era, died Wednesday at his home in Connecticut at the age of 100. His death sparked widely differing opinions around the world: he was both celebrated and vilified.
The US is trying to guide the next steps of the war
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders yesterday to try to extend the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas – which expires today -, improve conditions for Gaza’s citizens and influence what Israel promised would be next. phase of his military offensive.
Here’s the latest.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his country’s goal of crushing Hamas, a task that both Israel and US officials say is far from complete. The new phase of the offensive is expected to focus on southern Gaza, where US and Israeli officials say senior Hamas leaders are trapped.
The State Department released a statement after the meeting, saying Blinken had “stressed the need to take into account the humanitarian and civil protection needs in southern Gaza before any military operations there.”
The best albums of 2023
It was a year of personal reflections instead of big statements. It was a year when albums from around the world expanded the idea of what pop music could be. And it was a smart, dumb and fully alive year in which music provided a much-needed escape.
Our critics Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica and Lindsay Zoladz took stock of the albums they thought had the biggest impact last year.
“For me there was no overwhelming, year-defining album; this list might as well be alphabetical,” writes Jon Pareles. View the full list.