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Nations are struggling to reach a final text agreement at the COP30 U.N. climate summit in Belém, Brazil. Decisions are made by consensus at COPs, requiring consent among 192 countries, and the biggest fight over the draft text is the exclusion of a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels. Reportedly Saudi Arabia, China, Russia and India are among those that rejected the roadmap. But more than 30 countries are saying they will not accept a final deal without one. "We came to this COP to get a very concrete decision on just transitioning away from fossil fuels, to get a mechanism so that we can do it in a much more cooperative manner," says Harjeet Singh, strategic adviser to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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The former leader of Reform UK in Wales has admitted to bribery and will be sentenced later.
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(Second column, 2nd story, link)
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The group, which powered Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's rise in 2018, is backing Darializa Avila Chevalier's primary challenge against Representative Adriano Espaillat.
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As we broadcast from the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, calls are growing for stronger protections for refugees and migrants forcibly displaced by climate disasters. The United Nations estimates about 250 million people have been forced from their homes in the last decade due to deadly drought, storms, floods and extreme heat — mainly in the Global South, where many populations have also faced repeated displacement due to war and extreme poverty. Meanwhile, wealthier Global North nations disproportionately responsible for greenhouse emissions that fuel global warming are intensifying their crackdowns on migrants and climate refugees fleeing compounding humanitarian crises.
"The main issue is always poverty, lack of opportunity, and climate change is basically exacerbating this problem," Guatemala's vice minister of natural resources and climate change, Edwin Josué Castellanos López, told Democracy Now!
"This is not abstract," Nikki Reisch, director of climate and energy at the Center for International Environmental Law, says of climate-induced migration. "This is about real lives. It's about survival. It's about human rights and dignity, and, ultimately, about justice."
Reisch also gives an update on the state of the COP30 negotiations, noting the "big-ticket items" on the agenda are providing financing for transition and adaptation, phasing out fossil fuels and preserving forests. "The big polluters need to phase out and pay up," says Reisch.
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In a wide-ranging conversation, Brazil's first minister of Indigenous peoples, Sônia Guajajara, spoke with Democracy Now! at the COP30 climate summit in Belém. She addressed criticisms of the Lula government in Brazil, which has championed climate action even while boosting some oil and gas exploration in the country; celebrated the strong presence of Indigenous representatives at this year's climate talks; and stressed the need to phase out fossil fuels. Guajajara also criticized the Trump administration for pressuring Brazil to release former President Jair Bolsonaro after he was convicted of involvement in a coup attempt. Bolsonaro was an opponent of Indigenous rights, and if he is sent to prison, "we expect he will be paying for all his crimes," including "everything he has done against us," says Guajajara.
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At the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil, we sit down with Colombian environmentalist Susana Muhamad, who served as Colombia's minister of environment and sustainable development from 2022 to 2025. Muhamad discusses the U.N.'s mandate to mitigate the acceleration of human-caused climate change and condemns the powerful, diverting influence of the fossil fuel lobby. Muhamad, who is of Palestinian descent, also responds to the United States' attacks on boats in the Caribbean and to the ongoing Israeli genocide of Gaza. "These are not issues that are not correlated," she says. "Humanity can do better. [We] can be very proactive and productive in shifting this situation of climate crisis, rather than continue investing in arms, in armies and in defense."
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Sudan's military is accusing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of killing at least 2,000 people since seizing control of El Fasher in the Darfur region, including some 460 at the Saudi Maternity Hospital. Meanwhile, tens of thousands have fled.
"What's happening is no less than a … campaign of destruction and annihilation," says Mathilde Vu, Sudan advocacy manager at the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaking to Democracy Now! from Kenya.
What's unfolding in El Fasher is "the sum of all our fears," adds Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health. He urges the United States to put pressure on the United Arab Emirates, which has backed the RSF in the civil war as the group carries out "acts that are tantamount to genocide."
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