Canada says it will resume US trade talks 'when appropriate'
Home Blog
David Benavidez shocks world with announcement of title fight in May following knockout victory over Anthony Yarde
David Benavidez already has his next fight lined up following his victory over Anthony Yarde.
Benavidez successfully made the first defence of his WBC light heavyweight title with a stoppage win over Yarde in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
‘The Mexican Monster’ dominated the majority of the action, and despite Yarde showing heart throughout the bout, an onslaught in the corner two minutes into round seven forced the referee to step in and wave off the bout.
Benavidez has extended his unbeaten record to 31-0 with 25 knockouts following the win, and it didn’t take him long to make his next move perfectly clear.
Speaking in his post-fight interview, Benavidez revealed that he is now set to move up to cruiserweight to challenge Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez.
“I got some news for you guys. May 2nd, me vs Zurdo Ramirez, I’m going up to cruiserweight to challenge for his titles, so I’m excited for that. I think it might be in Las Vegas. Cinco de Mayo, see you guys soon.”
Ramirez currently holds the WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles, becoming unified champion after victories over fighters such as Chris Billam-Smith, Arsen Goulamirian and most recently Yuniel Dorticos back in June.
He was previously world champion at super-middleweight before initially stepping up to 175lbs, but suffered a loss to Dmitry Bivol, prompting the move to cruiserweight.
Benavidez will be attempting to become a three-weight world champion if he is able to defeat Ramirez, having also held world honours at super-middleweight earlier in his career.
Functional Brain-Like Tissue Created Using New Synthetic Material
Neural tissue engineering aims to mimic the brain’s complex environment, the extracellular matrix, which supports nerve cell growth, development, and proper connectivity. This environment is carefully structured and carries signals that guide how cells behave and interact.
3D tissue-engineered models have strong potential to mimic the brain’s complex structure and function. Yet it’s still difficult to reproduce the brain’s subtle design features in lab settings, since current methods often miss the fine details that shape cell behavior.
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside have now, for the first time, developed functional brain-like tissue without relying on animal-derived materials or biological coatings. Their innovation, called the Bijel-Integrated PORous Engineered System (BIPORES), offers a new, fully synthetic platform for neural tissue engineering.
This breakthrough could significantly reduce, and potentially eliminate, the need to use animal brains in research. It also supports the US FDA’s ongoing initiative to phase out animal testing in drug development.
The new material is mainly made of polyethylene glycol (PEG), a chemically neutral polymer. On its own, PEG is like Teflon to cells; they slide right off. Usually, it needs a helping hand from proteins like laminin or fibrin to keep cells from falling off.
Scientists previously developed a technique called STrIPS to continuously produce tiny particles, fibers, and films with sponge-like internal structures. However, until now, these materials could only be made up to about 200 micrometers thick, limited by how molecules move through the material during formation.
To overcome this, researchers developed the BIPORES system. It combines large-scale fibrous shapes with intricate pore patterns inspired by bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels (bijels), soft materials with smooth, saddle-shaped internal surfaces. These BIPORES fibers are made from a gel-like PEG solution, which is transformed into a porous network and stabilized using silica nanoparticles.
Using a custom microfluidic setup and a bioprinter, the team then built 3D structures with layered, interconnected pores. These allow nutrients and waste to move freely and support deep cell growth. When tested with neural stem cells, the material encouraged strong cell attachment, growth, and even the formation of active nerve connections.
“Since the engineered scaffold is stable, it permits longer-term studies,” said Prince David Okoro, the study’s lead author. “That’s especially important as mature brain cells are more reflective of real tissue function when investigating relevant diseases or traumas.”
To build the scaffold, the team used a special liquid mix made of PEG, ethanol, and water. PEG doesn’t mix well with water, so it behaves like oil, while ethanol helps everything blend smoothly. This mix flowed through tiny glass tubes.
When it met a stream of water, the ingredients started to separate. A quick flash of light froze that moment, creating a sponge-like structure full of tiny pores. These pores let oxygen and nutrients move freely, helping nourish the stem cells placed inside.
“The material ensures cells get what they need to grow, organize, and communicate with each other in brain-like clusters,” Iman Noshadi, a UCR associate professor of bioengineering, said. “Because the structure more closely mimics biology, we can start to design tissue models with much finer control over how cells behave.”
Right now, the scaffold is just two millimeters across but the team is now working to scale it up and has even submitted a new paper exploring how the same approach could be applied to liver tissue.
Their big-picture vision? To build a network of lab-grown mini-organs that talk to each other, just like real systems do in the human body. They’re aiming for models that are not only stable and long-lasting, but also just as functional as their brain tissue breakthrough.
“An interconnected system would let us see how different tissues respond to the same treatment and how a problem in one organ may influence another,” Noshadi explained. “It is a step toward understanding human biology and disease in a more integrated way.”
From a biomimicry lens, this layered fabrication approach does a much better job of mimicking how real brain tissue behaves. That makes it a powerful tool for studying diseases, testing new drugs, and even developing future treatments to repair or replace damaged neural tissue.
The new study was published in Advanced Functional Materials.
Ukraine’s E3 to Begin Geneva Talks; Rubio Dismisses Russia’s ‘Wish List’ Allegations | Latest Updates on Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Stakeholders are gathering to start negotiations based on a text that the EU believes mostly favours Russian demands.
Published On 23 Nov 2025
Senior Ukrainian, European Union, United Kingdom and United States officials will soon start talks in Geneva as ambiguity and deep-seated concerns hover over the fate of the 28-point plan put forward by Washington to end the war with Russia.
At the talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be the top representative of the administration of President Donald Trump, who has given his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy until Thursday to take the deal.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Rubio emphasised in a Sunday post on X before flying to Switzerland that the proposal was authored by the US.
“It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations,” he wrote. “It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
The comments came in rejection of a claim made by a bipartisan group of veteran US senators, most focused on foreign policy, who told a panel discussion at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada that the plan is a Russian “wish list” and not the actual proposal offering Washington’s positions.
“This administration was not responsible for this release in its current form,” said Republican Mike Rounds from South Dakota, adding that “it looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with”.
State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott called the claim “blatantly false”.
The senators earlier Saturday said the plan would only “reward aggression” by Moscow and send a message to other leaders who have threatened their neighbours.
Critics of the plan have said it heavily leans into the Kremlin’s oft-repeated demands and war narrative.
The plan would stress Ukrainian sovereignty and provide a security guarantee that it will not be attacked in the future, but also includes Ukraine ceding territory and making its army smaller.
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the proposal late Friday, saying it “could form the basis of a final peace settlement” if Washington can get Ukraine and its European allies on board.
Ukraine has been careful with its rhetoric, with Zelenskyy saying he will “work calmly” with the US and his Western allies to get through what he called “truly one of the most difficult moments in our history”.
Ukraine’s European allies are not happy with the plan, either, saying the military limitations would leave Ukraine “vulnerable to future attack”, so more talks are necessary.
France, the UK and Germany, also known as the E3, will have national security advisers at the Geneva talks.
The troubled US-led diplomatic efforts are inching forward as intense fighting continues to rage in eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces are pushing to take control of more territory in Zaporizhia and in Donetsk, part of the eastern Donbas region that is seeing fierce fighting and that Russia wants in its entirety, while also fending off Ukrainian air attacks on their oil and fuel infrastructure.
Over 50% of American homes have decreased in value in the past year
The share of U.S. homes that have lost value in the past year is the highest since the aftermath of the Great Recession, according to Zillow.
In October, 53% of homes saw their “Zestimates” decline, the most since 2012 and up from just 16% a year earlier. Losses were most widespread in the West and South.
In fact, those regions have housing markets where nearly all homes declined in value over the last year. Denver topped the list with 91%, followed by Austin (89%), Sacramento (88%), Phoenix (87%) and Dallas (87%).
The Northeast and Midwest, by contrast, have largely avoided such losses, but declines are spreading to more homes in all metros, Zillow said.
In addition, most homes also dropped from their peak valuations, with the average drawdown hitting 9.7%. While that has soared from 3.5% in the spring of 2022, it’s still well below the 27% average drawdown in early 2012.
To be sure, lower home values are just losses on paper and aren’t realized by homeowners unless actual sale prices undercut their initial purchase prices.
By that score, homeowners are still ahead as Zillow data shows that values are up a median 67% since the last sale, and just 4.1% of homes have lost value since their last sale.
“Homeowners may feel rattled when they see their Zestimate drop, and it’s more common in today’s cooler market environment than in recent years. But relatively few are selling at a loss,” Treh Manhertz, senior economic researcher at Zillow, said in a statement. “Home values surged over the past six years, and the vast majority of homeowners still have significant equity. What we’re seeing now is a normalization, not a crash.”
Zillow
The lower values come as the housing market has been frozen for much of the past three years after rate hikes from the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 sent borrowing costs higher, discouraging homeowners from giving up their existing ultra-low mortgage rates.
But the dearth of new supply kept home prices high, shutting out many would-be homebuyers who were also balking at elevated mortgage rates.
With demand weak, the housing market has been shifting away from sellers and toward buyers. The pendulum has swung so far the other way that delistings soared this year as sellers become fed up with offers coming in below asking prices and just take their homes off the market.
But the National Association of Realtors sees a turnaround coming next year. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun predicted earlier this month existing-home sales will jump 14% in 2026 after three years of stagnation, with new-home sales rising 5%. Those sales will support a 4% uptick in home prices.
“Next year is really the year that we will see a measurable increase in sales,” Yun said at a conference on Nov. 14. “Home prices nationwide are in no danger of declining.”
US claims ownership of peace plan
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted that a proposed plan to end the Ukraine war, which has been widely viewed as favourable to Russia, was “authored by the US”.
It comes after a group of senators said they had been told by Rubio that the draft – which one said he described as a Russian “wish list” – did not reflect Washington’s position.
Rubio later distanced himself from those claims and said the plan came from the US, and was “based on input” from both Russia and Ukraine.
His intervention came as he flew to Geneva in Switzerland for talks with Ukrainian and European security officials on the plan, which US President Donald Trump has called for Kyiv to agree to swiftly.
Ukraine’s allies in Europe have pushed back on major provisions in the draft, which has not been made public but details of which have been widely leaked.
It includes Ukraine agreeing to withdraw troops from eastern areas which Russia has been unable to take by force, and to limit the size of its armed forces.
On Saturday, Republican senator Mike Rounds said Rubio had told a group of lawmakers that the draft plan was not US policy.
Speaking at the Halifax Security Forum, he said: “What [Rubio] told us was that this was not the American proposal.”
Rounds said he had been assured that the plan was presented to Steve Witkoff, who acts as Trump’s overseas diplomatic envoy, by “someone… representing Russia”. The senator continued: “It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan.”
Shortly after, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Rounds’s account of his conversation with Rubio was “blatantly false”.
Writing on X, he said: “As Secretary Rubio and the entire Administration has consistently maintained, this plan was authored by the United States, with input from both the Russians and Ukrainians.”
Rubio then posted on social media himself, saying: “The peace proposal was authored by the US. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
On Saturday, Trump – who has made securing a deal to end the conflict a central foreign policy goal during his second term – said the plan did not represent a “final offer” for Ukraine, having previously said President Volodymyr Zelensky “will have to” approve it.
When details of the 28-point plan first emerged, Zelensky warned that his country faced “one of the most difficult moments in our history” over US pressure to accept it, while Russian President Vladimir Putin said it could form the “basis” of an agreement.
Trump previously gave Ukraine until Thursday to approve the proposal, though said that deadline could be extended if talks progress.
Both Rubio and Witkoff will attend the Geneva meeting on Sunday alongside security officials from the UK, France and Germany, as well as Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies have already publicly pushed back against the plan, saying in a joint statement issued at the G20 summit in South Africa that it “would leave Ukraine vulnerable to attack”.
It said the plan had elements “essential for a just and lasting peace” but would “require additional work”, citing concerns over border changes and caps on Ukraine’s army.
The statement was signed by the leaders of Canada, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Germany and Norway. Two senior EU officials were also among the signatories.
Speaking at the gathering in Johannesburg, French President Emmanuel Macron said the plan “cannot simply be an American proposal”, adding that any agreement had to also guarantee security for “all Europeans”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said “we are still quite a long way from a good outcome for everyone”.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke to both Zelensky and Trump on Saturday. No 10 said he briefed the US president on European talks about the plan.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after which Ukraine became heavily dependent on US-manufactured weapons.
In its current form, the plan would see Ukrainian troops withdraw from the part of the eastern Donetsk region that they currently control, and de facto Russian control of Donetsk, as well as the neighbouring Luhansk region and the southern Crimea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
The plan also includes freezing the borders of Ukraine’s southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along the current battle lines. Both regions are partially occupied by Russia.
Kyiv would receive “reliable security guarantees”, the plan says, although no details have been given. The document says “it is expected” that Russia will not invade its neighbours and Nato will not expand further.
On Saturday, Zelensky announced that his head of office Andriy Yermak would lead Ukraine’s negotiating team for future talks on a peace deal, including any that may involve Russia.
“Our representatives know how to defend Ukraine’s national interests and exactly what must be done to prevent Russia from launching a third invasion, another strike against Ukraine,” the president said in a video statement posted on social media.
TikTok is experimenting with restricting AI-generated content in user feeds
TikTok is testing a feature that gives users control over how much artificial intelligence-generated content appears in their feeds.
The ByteDance-owned video-sharing platform announced on Wednesday (November 19) that it will begin testing the feature in the coming weeks through its existing ‘Manage topics’ feature.
Users can adjust a slider to increase or decrease the amount of AI content they see, similar to how they currently adjust their exposure to categories like dance, sports and food and drinks.
TikTok explained: “Like those controls, the AIGC setting is intended to help people tailor the diverse range of content in their feed, rather than removing or replacing content in feeds entirely.”
Instead of eliminating AI content completely, the upcoming feature allows users to adjust their feeds based on personal preference. Someone interested in AI-generated historical content can opt to see more, while others can reduce their exposure, said TikTok.
“Like those controls, the AIGC setting is intended to help people tailor the diverse range of content in their feed, rather than removing or replacing content in feeds entirely.”
TikTok
The announcement comes amid increasing competition between TikTok and other social media giants like Meta and Google. In September, Meta introduced Vibes, a feed within its Meta AI application that is dedicated to AI-generated short videos. Meanwhile, Google announced the same month that it would integrate Veo 3, its latest video generation model, into YouTube.
Also in September, ChatGPT maker OpenAI released a standalone application for Sora 2, its next-generation video creation model to succeed last year’s Sora.
The timing comes amid the growing number of AI-generated videos on TikTok.
In addition to the AI limit, TikTok is also testing “invisible watermarking” technology that will require creators to label realistic AI-generated content on the platform.
TikTok said: “This includes labeling tools we offer creators as well as our own detection models. We also use a cross-industry technology called C2PA Content Credentials, which embeds metadata into content that lets us—as well as other platforms who use C2PA—know when something is AI-generated.”
TikTok says these efforts have resulted in labels on over 1.3 billion videos to date.
The company will apply these watermarks to content created with its tools including AI Editor Pro, and to uploads bearing C2PA Content Credentials. TikTok said the technology will improve labeling and provide more information about changes made to content.
TikTok also announced a $2 million fund for AI literacy education. The money will support experts and organizations, including GirlsWhoCode, to create content teaching users about AI literacy and safety. More than 20 experts across a dozen global markets are participating, with more expected to join.
The company has also committed to sponsor the nonprofit Partnership on AI. TikTok will join two steering committees researching AI’s impact on enterprise and human connection.
TikTok said: “We continue to refine our labeling approach as industry norms and expert guidance evolve, while maintaining firm policies against harmful AIGC. For example, over the last year, we enhanced our AIGC labels by adding more context around whether content was labeled due to our AI detection, creator labels, or TikTok AI tools. We’ll continue to iterate as our industry evolves in the months to come.”
“We continue to refine our labeling approach as industry norms and expert guidance evolve, while maintaining firm policies against harmful AIGC.”
TikTok
Last week, TikTok also launched a new feature that makes it easier for creators with large followings on the platform to communicate and share content with their followers.
The new ‘bulletin board’ feature rolled out globally on November 13, available to all creators aged 18 and over who have at least 50,000 followers.
Music Business Worldwide
Russia-Ukraine war: Recap of major events on day 1,368 | Latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Here are the key events from day 1,368 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 23 Nov 2025
Here’s where things stand on Sunday, November 23.
Trump’s plan
- Officials from Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union are set to hold talks in Geneva to discuss US President Donald Trump’s proposed 28-point plan for ending the war with Russia.
- Trump, who initially demanded Ukraine accept his plan by Thursday, told reporters on Saturday that the proposal was not his final offer. “We’d like to get to peace. One way or another, we’ll get it ended,” he said.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that he has signed a decree approving the composition of Kyiv’s delegation to the talks.
- “Our representatives know how to defend Ukraine’s national interests and exactly what must be done to prevent Russia from launching a third invasion,” he wrote in a social media post, adding that Russia’s “crimes” should not be “rewarded”.
- European and Western leaders welcomed Trump’s plan in a statement on Saturday, but said the draft requires “additional work”.
- They also pushed back against some of its elements, including the ceding of territory to Russia and limits on the size of the Ukrainian military. “We are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force,” they said.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed the need for Ukraine to be involved in any resolution of the conflict and to decide its own fate. “Wars cannot be ended by major powers over the heads of the countries affected,” he told reporters.
- The leaders of eight Nordic-Baltic countries released a separate statement, reaffirming their commitment to support Ukraine, including by continuing to arm its military. “We have, from the outset of Russia’s war of aggression, stood by Ukraine’s side, and we will continue to do so,” they said.
- In Washington, DC, Trump’s proposal continued to face opposition from Democrats and some Republican hawks in Congress. Senator Angus King called it one of the worst “geopolitical mistakes” he has ever seen.
Fighting
- Russian forces launched more than 60 strikes on the Nikopol district of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing at least one person and wounding five others, according to local officials.
- Another Russian strike on a store in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia wounded five people, while Russian shelling killed three people, including two women in Kherson, officials said.
- The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said it ended its search and rescue operation following the deadly Russian missile attack in Ternopil in the west of the country on November 19.
- The final death toll of that attack was 33, including six children, according to the agency. Ninety-four others were also wounded.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces captured two villages in eastern Ukraine – Zvanivka in Donetsk and Nove Zaporizhzhia in the Zaporizhia region.
- The claim came as Ukraine’s Kyiv Independent reported that Russian forces appear to have captured more than 15 villages in Zaporizhia. It cited the Finnish open-intelligence collective, the Black Bird Group.
- The months-long battle for the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk also continued, with Russia’s TASS news agency reporting that Russian troops have “encircled Ukrainian units” in several neighbourhoods there.
- For its part, the Ukrainian military said Russian attempts to reach the town’s centre were unsuccessful and that its forces were holding designed lines in northern Pokrovsk.
Challenge from the Client
A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.
Five main points from a highly polarizing climate summit
Justin Rowlatt,Climate Editor and
Matt McGrath,Environment correspondent
gettyIn three decades of these meetings aimed at forging global consensus on how to prevent and deal with global warming, this will go down as among the most divisive.
Many countries were livid when COP30 in Belém, Brazil ended on Saturday with no mention of the fossil fuels that have heated up the atmosphere. Other nations – particularly those with most to gain from their continued production – felt vindicated.
The summit was a reality check on just how much global consensus has broken down over what to do about climate change.
Here are five key takeaways from what some have called the “COP of truth”.
Brazil – not their finest hour
The most important thing to come out of COP30 is that the climate ‘ship’ is still afloat
But many participants are unhappy that they didn’t get anything close to what they wanted.
And despite a great deal of warmth for Brazil and for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, there is frustration with the way they ran this meeting.
Right from the off there seemed to be a gulf between what President Lula wanted this meeting to achieve, and what COP president President André Corrêa do Lago felt was possible.
So Lula talked of roadmaps away from fossil fuels to the handful of world leaders that came to Belém before the official start of the COP.
The idea was taken up by a number of countries including the UK, and within days there was a campaign to get this roadmap formally into the negotiations.
Do Lago wasn’t keen. His north star was consensus. He knew that forcing the issue of fossil fuels on the agenda would rupture that.
While the initial text for agreement had some vague references to things that looked like a roadmap, within days they were gone, never to return.
Colombia and the European Union and around 80 countries tried to find some language that would signal a stronger step away from coal, oil and gas.
To find consensus, do Lago convened a mutirão, a kind of Brazilian group discussion.
It made matters worse.
Negotiators from Arab countries refused to join huddles with those who wanted a pathway away from fossil energy.
The EU were given short shrift by major producers.
“We make energy policy in our capital not in yours,” the Saudi delegate told them in a closed-door meeting, according to one observer.
Ouch!
Nothing could bridge the gap – and the talks teetered on the verge of collapse.
Brazil came up with a face-saving idea of roadmaps on deforestation and fossil fuels that would exist outside the COP.
These were heartily applauded in the plenary halls – but their legal standing is uncertain.
Tom Ingham/BBCEU had a bad COP
They are the richest group of nations still in the Paris Agreement but this COP has not been the European Union’s finest hour.
While they have been grandstanding on the need for a fossil fuel roadmap, they backed themselves into a corner on another aspect of the agreement that they eventually couldn’t get out of.
The idea of tripling money for climate adaptation was in the early text and survived into the final draft.
The wording was vague so that the EU didn’t object – but crucially the “tripling” word stayed in the text.
So when the EU tried to press the developing world to support the idea of a fossil fuel roadmap, they didn’t have anything to sweeten the deal – as the tripling concept was already baked in.
“Overall we are seeing a European Union that has been cornered,” said Li Shuo, from the Asia Society, a long-time observer of climate politics.
“This partly reflects the power shift in the real world, the emerging power of the BASIC and BRICs countries, and the decline of the European Union.”
The EU fulminated but apart from shifting the tripling of finance from 2030 to 2035, they had to go along with the deal, and they achieved very little on the fossil fuel front.
Getty ImagesFuture of COP in question
The most persistent question asked here at COP30 over the two weeks was about the future of the ‘process’ itself.
Two often heard positions:
How barmy is it to fly thousands of people half-way around the world to sit in giant air-conditioned tents to argue about commas, and interpretations of convoluted words?
How ridiculous that the key discussions here, on the very future of the way that we will power our world occur at 3am in the morning among sleep deprived delegates who haven’t been home in weeks?
The COP idea served the world well in ultimately delivering the Paris climate agreement – but that was a decade ago and many participants feel that it doesn’t have a clear, powerful purpose anymore.
“We can’t discard it entirely,” Harjeet Singh, an activist with the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, told BBC News.
“But it requires retrofitting. We will need processes outside this system to help complement what we have done so far.”
Energy costs and the valid questions about how countries reach net zero emissions have never been more critical – yet the COP idea seems very far removed from the day to day lives of billions of people.
It is a consensus process that comes from a different era. We are not in that world anymore.
Brazil recognised some of these issues and tried to make this an “implementation cop” and put a lot of focus on the “energy agenda”. But no one really knows what those ideas actually meant.
COP leaders are reading the room – they are trying to find a new approach that is needed or this conference will lose all relevance.
Trade comes in from the cold
For the first time global trade became one of the key issues at these talks. There was an “orchestrated” effort to raise it in every negotiating room, according to veteran COP-watcher Alden Meyer of the climate think-tank E3G.
‘What’s that got to do with climate change?’ you are probably thinking.
The answer is that the European Union is planning to introduce a border tax on certain high-carbon products like steel, fertiliser, cement, and aluminium and lots of its trading partners – notably China, India and Saudi Arabia aren’t happy about it.
They say it isn’t fair for a big trading bloc to impose what they call a one-sided – “unilateral” is the technical term – measure like this because it will make the goods they sell into Europe more expensive – and therefore less competitive.
The Europeans say that’s wrong because the measure is not about stifling trade but about cutting planet-warming gases – tackling climate change. They already charge their own producers of these products a fee for the emissions they create and say the border tax is a way to protect them from less environmentally friendly but cheaper imports from abroad.
If you don’t want to pay our border tax, they say, just charge emissions fees on your polluting industries – collect the money yourselves.
Economists like that idea because the more expensive it is to pollute, the more likely we all are to switch to clean energy alternatives. Although – of course – it also means we’ll pay more for any goods we buy that contain polluting materials.
The issue was resolved here in Brazil with a classic COP compromise – pushing the discussions into future talks. The final agreement launched an on-going dialogue on trade for future UN climate talks, involving governments as well as other actors like the World Trade Organization.
Tom Ingham/BBCTrump gains by staying away – China gains by staying quiet
The world’s two biggest carbon emitters, China and the US, had similar impacts on this COP but achieved them in different ways.
US President Donald Trump stayed away, but his stance emboldened his allies here.
Russia, normally a relatively quiet participant, was to the fore in blocking efforts on roadmaps. And while Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers were predictably hostile to curbing fossil fuels, China stayed quiet and concentrated on doing deals.
And ultimately, say experts, the business China is doing will outdo the US and their efforts to sell fossil fuels.
“China kept a low political profile,” says Li Shuo from the Asia Society.
“And they focussed on making money in the real world.”
“Solar is the cheapest source of energy, and the long term direction is very clear, China dominates in this sector and that puts the US in a very difficult position.”
