Climate change makes drought recovery tougher in U.S. West


A pedestrian carries an umbrella while crossing a street at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. Showers drifted across the drought-stricken and fire-scarred landscape of Northern California on Wednesday, trailed by a series of progressively stronger storms that are expected to bring significant rain and snow into next week, forecasters said. 

(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Californians rejoiced this week when big drops of water started falling from the sky for the first time in any measurable way since the spring, an annual soaking that heralds the start of the rainy season following some of the hottest and driest months on record.

But as the rain was beginning to fall on Tuesday night, Gov. Gavin Newsom did a curious thing: He issued a statewide drought emergency and gave regulators permission to enact mandatory statewide water restrictions if they choose.

Newsom’s order might seem jarring, especially as forecasters predict up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain could fall on parts of the Northern California mountains and Central Valley this week. But experts say it makes sense if you think of drought as something caused not by the weather, but by climate change.

For decades, California has relied on rain and snow in the winter to fill the state’s major rivers and streams in the spring, which then feed a massive system of lakes that store water for drinking, farming and energy production. But that annual runoff from the mountains is getting smaller, mostly because it’s getting hotter and drier, not just because it’s raining less.

In the spring, California’s snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains was 60% of its historical average. But the amount of water that made it to the reservoirs was similar to 2015, when the snowpack was just 5% of its historical average. Nearly all of the water state officials had expected to get this year either evaporated into the hotter air or was absorbed into the drier soil.

“You don’t get into the type of drought that we’re seeing in the American West right now just from ... missing a few storms,” said Justin Mankin, a geography professor at Dartmouth College and co-lead of the Drought Task Force at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “A warm atmosphere evaporates more water from the land surface (and) reduces (the) amount of water available for other uses, like people and hydropower and growing crops.”

In this April 21, 2021, file photo, California Gov. Gavin Newsom holds a news conference in the parched basin of Lake Mendocino in Ukiah, Calif., where he announced he would proclaim a drought emergency for Mendocino and Sonoma counties. Much of California is seeing the first heavy rain of the season this week. But that didn't stop Gov. Gavin Newsom from expanding a drought emergency declaration to the entire state and giving regulators permission to enact mandatory water restrictions. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via AP, File)

California’s “water year” runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. The 2021 water year, which just ended, was the second driest on record. The one before that was the fifth driest on record. Some of the state’s most important reservoirs are at record low levels. Things are so bad in Lake Mendocino that state officials say it could be dry by next summer.

Even if California were to have above-average rain and snow this winter, warming temperatures mean it still likely won’t be enough to make up for all the water California lost. This past year, California had its warmest ever statewide monthly average temperatures in June, July and October 2020.

Jeanine Jones, interstate resources manager for the California Department of Water Resources, said people should not think about drought “as being just this occasional thing that happens sometimes, and then we go back to a wetter system.”

“We are really transitioning to a drier system so, you know, dry becomes the new normal,” she said. “Drought is not a short-term feature. Droughts take time to develop, and they usually linger for quite some time.”

Water regulators have already ordered some farmers and other big users to stop taking water out of the state’s major rivers and streams. Mandatory water restrictions for regular people could be next.

In July, Newsom asked people to voluntarily reduce their water use by 15%. In July and August, people cut back 3.5%. On Tuesday, Newsom issued an executive order giving state regulators permission to impose mandatory restrictions, including banning people from washing their cars, using water to clean sidewalks and driveways and filling decorative fountains.

State officials have warned water agencies that they might not get any water from the state’s reservoirs this year, at least initially. That will be very challenging, said Dave Eggerton, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.

But he said he believes Californians will start to conserve more water soon with the help of a statewide conservation campaign, which will include messages on electronic signboards along busy highways.

“It’s going to happen,” he said. “People are starting to get the message, and they want to do their part.”

Climate crisis: Why do we need COP anyway?

With COP26 to get underway in Glasgow in a few weeks, let's assess what has been achieved — and what hasn't — over the past quarter of a century of climate conferences.


Many young people have been vocal about what they expect from COP26

It's nearly time that the Conference of the Parties (COP), the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), takes place, this time in Glasgow from October 31 until November 12.

At the COP's very first meeting, in Berlin in 1995, the members already saw the need to reduce emissions and agreed to meet annually to discuss how to maintain control over global warming.

But what concrete actions have 25 years of these meetings resulted in so far? According to most climate change activists, not that many.

Greta Thunberg recently told the Guardian: "Nothing has changed from previous years really. … We can have as many COPs as we want, but nothing real will come out of it."

So do we really still need COP?

The Paris Accord: COP's biggest milestone

Though experts agree that important progress was not made at all of these annual meetings — and the pace of decision-making has been slower than expected — they say COP's most vital achievement so far has been the Paris Agreement of COP21, the biggest global treaty against climate change yet.

It was a historic moment when the Paris Accord was signed by almost all nations in the world after decades of negotiation

It may have taken 20 years of negotiations to get there, but, in 2015, the Paris Accord was finally adopted by 196 countries, declaring the goal of limiting an increase in global average temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F), with a target of 1.5 C, over preindustrial levels.

And this has provoked a major change in terms of climate action and where we are heading, David Ryfisch, team leader for international climate politics at the nongovernmental environment and development organization Germanwatch, told DW.

"I believe that the Paris Accord is the starting point for a whole series of change," Ryfisch said. "It's a signal that has been sent to the real economy, to other actors, that the intent by countries is real and that it will have real-world implications."

COP and its Paris Accord have already translated into action, Ryfisch said, from the dramatic drop in the cost of clean energy, to the financial sector's moving away from fossil fuels and unwillingness to insure new coal projects any longer, to countries' signing up for a quick phaseout of coal, as well as internal combustion engines.
CO2 challenge

Still, it's hard to really grasp tangible impacts the accord has had.

The challenge for COP and the Paris Accord is that it revolves around CO2, a greenhouse gas that has caused most of the observed warming we've had.

The word has to dramatically reduce its CO2 emissions in order to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius

"CO2 is our main issue if we want to address the climate problem," Paul Young, climate scientist at Lancaster University, told DW.

"CO2 just pervades everything, the whole economy," Young said. "And it is quite hard to turn that oil tanker around. Carbon dioxide is not something we can just swap out with another chemical."

Charles Parker, a political scientist at the University of Uppsala in Sweden who has focused his research on climate change politics, leadership and crisis management, offered a similar analysis.

"We ultimately need to find substitutes for fossil fuels and find low-carbon and no-carbon energy sources. But there are many vested interests, veto players and lobby groups who have no interest in doing that," he said.

Setting ambitious targets

That's why the target negotiations at COP are so vital.

Every country that signed the Paris Agreement had to make pledges, also known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, for how they plan on reducing their emissions. Over time, they have to make these targets more ambitious, which is called the ratcheting mechanism. So, every five years, they have to submit new, updated NDCs on how they want to keep the promises made in 2015.

"What we've seen between 2015 and 2020 is that these targets have significantly improved already, not sufficient to be in line with 1.5 degrees, but they have significantly improved. That is the first clear signal that something is working," Ryfisch said.

The problem many critics see is that there aren't any financial or legal sanctions if countries don't reach their targets. The sanctioning comes rather through public pressure, Ryfisch said, as countries have a reputation to lose.

"So then it actually comes down to the role of civil society, youth movements and academia to question their respective countries. Obviously, that works better in some countries than others. But there is a symbiosis between what came out of Paris and the actions that we saw on the ground by civil society over the past years," he said.
COP and climate action: A symbiosis

Another sign that points to this symbiosis are two recent court cases in Europe. Germany's Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the freedoms and fundamental rights of young people have been violated by insufficient climate protection from the state.

A coalition of environmental groups is calling for a Europe-wide ban on fossil fuel advertising ahead of COP26

And in the Netherlands, a court-ordered gas company Shell to reduce its worldwide CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030, compared to 2019 levels.

"Now that we've seen these success cases, I believe that more companies and potentially countries will be brought in front of courts," Ryfisch said.

He believes this will result in a chain reaction and trigger companies and countries to take action instead of also being dragged before court.

"All of that would not have been possible without COP," he said.

So, despite its shortcomings, experts believe having a global governance meeting such as COP is crucial for the future of the climate.

"I absolutely believe we need COP. We are now in the decisive decade where we can still stay within the 1.5-degree limit. Glasgow has to show that 1.5-degree is the limit," Ryfisch said.

But that won't be easy to reach. According to the UN, the world is on a catastrophic way to 2.7 degrees of heating by the end of the century unless wealthy nations commit to tackling emissions now.

7 WAYS AFRICA IS ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Feeding frenzy

Locusts, boosted by drought, heavy rains and warm temperatures, have devastated crops in East Africa. Pesticides can help, though they're not exactly environmentally friendly. Scientists in Nairobi have experimented with fungi and other microbes to make safer poisons. They've also used the locusts' unique smell, which changes as they mature, to break up swarms and even drive them to cannibalism.

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Global governance challenge

Experts believe that COP meetings are not only not superfluous, but that they will be needed in the coming years to establish a fair way of how to reach these targets.

Given that developed countries have fallen short of their promises to reduce emissions, they need to find a way to make up for that so that developing countries are not bearing the brunt, Ryfisch said.

"We have to understand that there is a need for development in many countries, but it cannot take the same fossil fuel-intense path that the Global North has taken," he said.

Parker said that was why it's of the utmost importance for developed countries to show solidarity and financially support developing countries.

"So that's another test of Paris," he said.

Ryfisch is optimistic, though, that the Paris Agreement will hold up to the test.

"Over the past years, I've seen the turning point. I see the acceleration of the action and I see that things are happening and that finally, COP is delivering what we would have hoped it had delivered already in the past decades," he said.

Scientists identify new chemicals in air pollution that trigger asthma in kids

By HealthDay News

Researchers have newly identified chemicals in air pollution, and combinations of those chemicals, that trigger asthma in children. 

File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Dust mites and smoke are known triggers of asthma in children. Now, scientists have identified previously unknown combinations of air pollutants that appear tied to the respiratory disorder.

"Asthma is one the most prevalent diseases affecting children in the United States. In this study, we developed a list of air pollutants a young child may be exposed to that can lead to longer-term problems with asthma," said senior study co-author Dr. Supinda Bunyavanich, a professor of pediatrics and genetics and genomic sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

"Our results show how breathing individual and combinations of pollutants may lead to poor asthma outcomes. We hope that having a more comprehensive, holistic view of air pollution may one day be able to reduce the chances that children will be burdened by asthma," Bunyavanich said in a hospital news release.

The team used a machine learning algorithm to assess potential early exposure to dozens of pollutants among 151 children with mild to severe asthma.

While some of those asthma cases were associated with a single, known air pollutant, others seemed connected to mixtures of pollutants never before linked with asthma.

The researchers identified 18 individual chemicals that may be linked to poor asthma outcomes among children. This was defined as requiring daily asthma-controlling medication or having to go to an emergency room or be hospitalized due to asthma.

The investigators also discovered new associations between childhood asthma outcomes and 20 pollutant mixtures. Several of the pollutants in the mixtures had never been linked to long-term asthma risk.

The findings were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Asthma affects about 7% of U.S. children, causing them to wheeze and cough.

Previous research has shown that exposure to some specific types of air pollution increases a child's risk of asthma, but the effects of a mixture of pollutants has been unclear.

"Like many scientists, we wanted to provide a more comprehensive picture of how air toxics contribute to childhood asthma," said senior study co-author Gaurav Pandey, assistant professor of genetics and genomic sciences at Mount Sinai.

"Traditionally, for technical reasons, it has been difficult to study the health effects of more than one toxic at a time. We overcame this by tapping into the power of machine learning algorithms," Pandey said in the release.More information

The American Lung Association has more on childhood asthma.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Reports: Health problems tied to global warming on the rise

By SETH BORENSTEIN

today

In this Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020 file photo, a jogger runs along McCovey Cove outside Oracle Park in San Francisco, under darkened skies from wildfire smoke.Health problems tied to climate change are all getting worse, according to two reports published in the medical journal Lancet on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. An unprecedented Pacific Northwest and Canadian heat wave hit this summer, which a previous study showed couldn't have happened without human-caused climate change. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

Health problems tied to climate change are all getting worse, according to two reports published Wednesday.

The annual reports commissioned by the medical journal Lancet tracked 44 global health indicators connected to climate change, including heat deaths, infectious diseases and hunger. All of them are getting grimmer, said Lancet Countdown project research director Marina Romanello, a biochemist.

“Rising temperatures are having consequences,” said University of Washington environmental health professor Kristie Ebi, a report co-author.

This year’s reports — one global, one just aimed at the United State s — called “code red for a healthy future,” highlight dangerous trends:

— Vulnerable populations — older people and very young — were subject to more time with dangerous heat last year. For people over 65, the researchers calculated there were 3 billion more “person-day” exposures to extreme heat than the average from 1986 to 2005.

— More people were in places where climate-sensitive diseases can flourish. Coastline areas warm enough for the nasty Vibrio bacteria increased in the Baltics, the U.S. Northeast and the Pacific Northwest in the past decade. In some poorer nations, the season for malaria-spreading mosquitoes has expanded since the 1950s.

“Code Red is not even a hot enough color for this report, ” said Stanford University tropical medicine professor Dr. Michele Barry, who wasn’t part of the study team. Compared to the last Lancet report, “this one is the sobering realization that we’re going completely in the wrong direction.”

In the U.S., heat, fire and drought caused the biggest problems. An unprecedented Pacific Northwest and Canadian heat wave hit this summer, which a previous study showed couldn’t have happened without human-caused climate change.

Study co-author Dr. Jeremy Hess, a professor of environmental health and emergency medicine at the University of Washington, said he witnessed the impacts of climate change while working at Seattle emergency rooms during the heat.

“I saw paramedics who had burns on their knees from kneeling down to care for patients with heat stroke,” he said. “”And I saw far too many patients die” from the heat.

Another ER doctor in Boston said science is now showing what she has seen for years, citing asthma from worsening allergies as one example.

“Climate change is first and foremost a health crisis unfolding across the U.S.,” said Dr. Renee Salas, also a co-author of the report.

George Washington University School of Public Health Dean Dr. Lynn Goldman, who was not part of the project, said health problems from climate change “are continuing to worsen far more rapidly than would have been projected only a few years ago.”

The report said 65 of the 84 countries included subsidize the burning of fossil fuels, which cause climate change. Doing that “feels like caring for the desperately ill patient while somebody is handing them lit cigarettes and junk food,” said Dr. Richard Jackson, a UCLA public health professor who wasn’t part of the study.

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Read more stories on climate issues by The Associated Press at https://www.apnews.com/Climate

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Couple in flooded India region float to wedding in a cooking pot

 

Oct. 20 (UPI) -- An Indian couple living in a region that experienced severe flooding took an unusual vehicle to reach their wedding venue -- a cooking pot.

Akash Kunjumon said he and his wife, Aishwarya, were legally married Oct. 6, but their wedding ceremony was planned for Oct. 18.

Kunjumon said the ceremony was originally to have been held at a temple at Thalavady, but recent floods caused the religious building to be filled with water, so the event was moved to a nearby hall with a stage that had not been submerged.

"Although we tried to arrange a small boat to reach the venue, none was available," Kunjumon told The Hindu.

He said officials at the temple provided an alternative solution.

"People from the temple arranged the pot for us," he told The Washington Post.

The couple climbed into a large cooking pot, and a video shows them being pushed through the floodwaters to reach the event hall.

"We traveled in that pot for at least 20 minutes to get to the venue," Kunjumon said.

He said the volunteers pushing the pot had to fight "a strong undercurrent" to get them to their wedding.

"My father swam to the temple and my mother, grandmother and sisters used another pot," Kunjumon said. "The photographer had to struggle. But he knew the story and was ready to take the risk."

  

Flooding in Venice worsens off-season amid climate change
By COLLEEN BARRY

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FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020 file photo, people wade their way through water in flooded St. Mark's Square following a high tide, in Venice, Italy. Lashing winds that pushed 1.87 meters (nearly 6 feet 2 inches) of water into Venice in November 2019 and ripped the lead tiles off St. Mark’s Basilica for the first time ever shocked Venetians with the city’s second-worst flood in history, but it was the additional four exceptional floods over the next six weeks that triggered fears about the impact of worsening climate change. (Anteo Marinoni/LaPresse via AP, file)

VENICE, Italy (AP) — After Venice suffered the second-worst flood in its history in November 2019, it was inundated with four more exceptional tides within six weeks, shocking Venetians and triggering fears about the worsening impact of climate change.

The repeated invasion of brackish lagoon water into St. Mark’s Basilica this summer is a quiet reminder that the threat hasn’t receded.

“I can only say that in August, a month when this never used to happen, we had tides over a meter five times. I am talking about the month of August, when we are quiet,” St. Mark’s chief caretaker, Carlo Alberto Tesserin, told The Associated Press.

Venice’s unique topography, built on log piles among canals, has made it particularly vulnerable to climate change. Rising sea levels are increasing the frequency of high tides that inundate the 1,600-year-old Italian lagoon city, which is also gradually sinking.

It is the fate of coastal cities like Venice that will be on the minds of climate scientists and global leaders meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, at a U.N. climate conference that begins Oct. 31.

Venice’s worse-case scenario for sea level rise by the end of the century is a startling 120 centimeters (3 feet, 11 inches), according to a new study published by the European Geosciences Union. That is 50% higher than the worse-case global sea-rise average of 80 centimeters (2 feet, 7 1/2 inches) forecast by the U.N. science panel.

The city’s interplay of canals and architecture, of natural habitat and human ingenuity, also has earned it recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its outstanding universal value, a designation put at risk of late because of the impact of over-tourism and cruise ship traffic. It escaped the endangered list after Italy banned cruise ships from passing through St. Mark’s Basin, but alarm bells are still ringing.

Sitting at Venice’s lowest spot, St. Mark’s Basilica offers a unique position to monitor the impact of rising seas on the city. The piazza outside floods at 80 centimeters (around 30 inches), and water passes the narthex into the church at 88 centimeters (34.5 inches), which has been reinforced up from a previous 65 centimeters (25.5 inches).

“Conditions are continuing to worsen since the flooding of November 2019. We therefore have the certainty that in these months, flooding is no longer an occasional phenomenon. It is an everyday occurrence,” said Tesserin, whose honorific, First Procurator of St. Mark’s, dates back to the ninth century.



The damage at columns in St. Mark's Basilica's in Venice, Italy, is seen in this photo taken on Oct. 7, 2021. Lashing winds that pushed 1.87 meters (nearly 6 feet 2 inches) of water into Venice in November 2019 and ripped the lead tiles off St. Mark's Basilica for the first time ever shocked Venetians with the city's second-worst flood in history, but it was the additional four exceptional floods over the next six weeks that triggered fears about the impact of worsening climate change.

(AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)



 In this Friday, Nov. 15, 2019 file photo, a view of flooded St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy. Lashing winds that pushed 1.87 meters (nearly 6 feet 2 inches) of water into Venice in November 2019 and ripped the lead tiles off St. Mark’s Basilica for the first time ever shocked Venetians with the city’s second-worst flood in history, but it was the additional four exceptional floods over the next six weeks that triggered fears about the impact of worsening climate change. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

In the last two decades, there have been nearly as many inundations in Venice over 1.1 meters — the official level for “acqua alta,” or “high water,” provoked by tides, winds and lunar cycles — as during the previous 100 years: 163 vs. 166, according to city data.

Exceptional floods over 140 centimeters (4 feet, 7 inches) also are accelerating. That mark has been hit 25 times since Venice starting keeping such records in 1872. Two-thirds of those have been registered in the last 20 years, with five, or one-fifth of the total, from Nov. 12-Dec. 23, 2019.

“What is happening now is on the continuum for Venetians, who have always lived with periodic flooding,” said Jane Da Mosto, executive director of We Are Here Venice. “We are living with flooding that has become increasingly frequent, so my concern is that people haven’t really realized we are in a climate crisis. We are already living it now. It is not a question of plans to deal with it in the future. We need to have solutions ready for today.”

Venice’s defense has been entrusted to the Moses system of moveable underwater barriers, a project costing around 6 billion euros (nearly $7 billion) and which, after decades of cost overruns, delays and a bribery scandal, is still officially in the testing phase.

Following the devastation of the 2019 floods, the Rome government put the project under ministry control to speed its completion, and last year start activating the barriers when floods of 1.3 meters (4 feet, 3 inches) are imminent.

The barriers have been raised 20 times since October 2020, sparing the city a season of serious flooding but not from the lower-level tides that are becoming more frequent.

The extraordinary commissioner, Elisabetta Spitz, stands by the soundness of the undersea barriers, despite concerns by scientists and experts that their usefulness may be outstripped within decades because of climate change. The project has been delayed yet again, until 2023, with another 500 million euros ($580 million) in spending, for “improvements” that Spitz said will ensure its long-term efficiency.

“We can say that the effective life of the Moses is 100 years, taking into account the necessary maintenance and interventions that will be implemented,” Spitz said.

Paolo Vielmo, an engineer who has written expert reports on the project, points out that the sea level rise was projected at 22 centimeters (8 1/2 inches) when the Moses was first proposed more than 30 years ago, far below the U.N. scientists’ current worse-case scenario of 80 centimeters.

“That puts the Moses out of contention,” he said.

According to current plans, the Moses barriers won’t be raised for floods of 1.1 meters (3 feet, 7 inches) until the project receives final approval. That leaves St. Mark’s exposed.

Tesserin is overseeing work to protect the Basilica by installing a glass wall around its base, which eventually will protect marshy lagoon water from seeping inside, where it deposits salt that eats away at marble columns, wall cladding and stone mosaics. The project, which continues to be interrupted by high tides, was supposed to be finished by Christmas. Now Tesserin says they will be lucky to have it finished by Easter.

Regular high tides elicit a blase response from Venetians, who are accustomed to lugging around rubber boots at every flood warning, and delight from tourists, fascinated by the sight of St. Mark’s golden mosaics and domes reflected in rising waters. But businesses along St. Mark’s Square increasingly see themselves at ground zero of the climate crisis.

“We need to help this city. It was a light for the world, but now it needs the whole world to understand it,” said Annapaola Lavena, speaking from behind metal barriers that kept waters reaching 1.05 meters (3 feet, 5 inches) from invading her marble-floored cafe.

“The acqua alta is getting worse, and it completely blocks business. Venice lives thanks to its artisans and tourism. If there is no more tourism, Venice dies,” she explained. “We have a great responsibility in trying to save it, but we are suffering a lot.”

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Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change.

UPDATED

Canadian Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu wins prestigious Chopin piano competition

Previous winners of the Chopin Competition include some of the greatest names in classical music 

Wojtek RADWANSKI AFP

Issued on: 21/10/2021 

Warsaw (AFP)

"Being able to play Chopin in Warsaw is one of the best things you can imagine," 24-year-old Bruce Liu said as the jury announced their decision at the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall.

Previous winners of the Chopin Competition include some of the greatest names in classical music, such as Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimerman.

Held every five years since 1927, the Chopin competition would normally have been held last year, but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic -- a first since World War II.

"It was challenging to get all the competitors into Poland," Artur Szklener, director of the National Institute of Frederic Chopin, which organises the competition, had told AFP.

But one of the 17 jury members, Argentinian concert pianist Nelson Goerner, said that pandemic-related lockdowns helped raise the standard of this year's competition.

"The level this year is remarkable," Goerner told AFP earlier in the competition.

"The pianists have had more time to prepare and I think the pandemic has awakened in all of us a desire to go further, to surpass ourselves," he said.

"You can hear it in how these young pianists are playing."

Japan's Kyohei Sorita, 27, came joint-second with 26-year-old Italian-Slovenian Alexander Gadjiev.

Spain's Martin Garcia Garcia, 24, came third.

'Sleep and party'

Born in Paris, Liu graduated from Montreal Conservatoire.

He has performed with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and has been on two tours in China.

"The pandemic actually made this kind of meeting for me more special," Liu said after his victory.

Liu said he had to be "really careful all the time" during the coronavirus crisis, so as to be able to keep up his competition and concert schedule, and as a result had "not met many people" in the past two years.

He also said he hoped the competition would be "just a start" in his musical journey.

"It's hard to keep the freshness, to continuously find new ideas so I hope this is not the last point," he told reporters.

He added that he was looking forward "to be finally able to sleep and party".

This year's event drew 87 pianists from across the globe, including 22 from China, 16 from Poland and 14 from Japan.

Broadcast live on YouTube and via a bespoke mobile app, the contest attracted record online interest.

Some 70,000 people watched the result streamed online.

© 2021 AFP

FILHARMONIA NARODOWA

BRUCE (XIAOYU) LIU – final round (18th Chopin Competition, Warsaw)

Oct 20, 2021

  

Canadian wins 18th Chopin international piano competition

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA


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Pianist Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu of Canada reacts after being named as the winner of the 40,000-euro ($45,000) first prize in the 18th Frederic Chopin international piano competition, a prestigious event that launches pianists’ world careers. Almost 90 pianists from around the globe took part in the 18th edition of the competition that was postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu of Canada was named early Thursday as the winner of the 40,000-euro ($45,000) first prize in the 18th Frederic Chopin international piano competition, a prestigious event that launches pianists’ world careers.

The announcement from the jury came just hours after Liu played as the last entrant among the 12 finalists, performing Chopin’s concerto in E minor, opus 11 with the orchestra at the packed National Philharmonic in Warsaw. His inspired performance was met with huge applause.

“Oh my god. I don’t know what to say, honestly,” Liu said after being name winner.

“We have been dreaming with all these people here for this prestigious stage,” the 24-year-old born in Paris said in English.

“Being able to play Chopin in Warsaw is one of the best things you can imagine, of course, so I’m truly honored for this award, of course, and for this jury’s trust and for all the warmth I have received in recent days,” Liu said.

The second prize and 30,000 euros ($35,000) went jointly to Alexander Gadjiev, representing Italy and Slovenia, and Kyohei Sorita of Japan. Gadjiev also won Krystian Zimerman’s prize of 10,000 euros ($11,800) for the best sonata performance.

The third prize of 20,000 euros ($23,000) was awarded to Martin Garcia Garcia of Spain, who also won the 5,000 euros ($5,800) prize for best concerto performance.

The fourth prize and 15,000 euros ($17,000) was shared by Aimi Kobayashi of Japan and Poland’s Jakub Kuszlik, who also won best mazurka performance prize and 5,000 euros. Italy’s Leonora Armellini was awarded the fifth prize of 10,000 euros ($11,600), while the sixth prize and 7,000 euros ($8,000) went to Canada’s J.J. Jun Li Bui.

The first prize was funded by the office of Poland’s president, and other prizes were funded by the government, state culture institutions and by private individuals.

High ranking in the renowned competition opens the world’s top concert halls to the pianists and paves the way to recordings with best known record companies.

Jury head Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron said after the announcement that the level of the pianists was very high and made the award decisions very hard for the 17 jurors. She called the participants “wonderful young people.”

During the competition, she had said that apart from being excellent pianists, the participants should also show sensitivity and bring freshness to the music.

“I try to look for a rapport between the performer and Chopin,” Popowa-Zydron said in an interview. Music is a “message from a person, and (the musicians) should know what kind of person Chopin was.”

Bowing to their artistry, the jury allowed two more finalists this year than usual. The competition, held every five years, was postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic.

Among previous winners are Maurizio Pollini of Italy, Argentina’s Martha Argerich, Garrick Ohlsson from the United States, Poland’s Krystian Zimerman and Artur Blechacz, and Seong-Jin Cho of South Korea.

Chopin, Poland’s best known and beloved classical music composer and pianist, was born in 1810 in Zelazowa Wola near Warsaw to a Polish mother and a French father. He left Poland at 19 to broaden his musical education in Vienna and then in Paris, where he settled, composing, giving concerts and teaching the piano. He died on Oct. 17, 1849, in Paris and is buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. His heart is at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw.

Coast Guard had earlier notice about California oil spill


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Officials release birds after they were treated for oiling and have now recovered from the Huntington Beach, Calif., shore on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. The spill washed blobs of oil ashore affecting wildlife and the local economy, though the environmental damage so far has been less than initially feared. But environmental advocates say the long-term impact on sensitive wetland areas and marine life is unknown and shop owners in surf-friendly Huntington Beach fear concern about oil will keep tourists away even once the tar is gone. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin)


HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The Coast Guard received multiple reports of a possible fuel spill off the Southern California coast earlier than previously disclosed and asked local authorities to investigate about 15 hours before its own personnel confirmed a large oil slick, which came from a leaking undersea pipeline, records show.

The initial reports of a possible spill north of the Huntington Beach pier came into the Coast Guard about 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 1, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s memo provided Wednesday to The Associated Press. The documents said there were multiple similar calls over a marine radio emergency channel from boats leaving the Huntington Beach air show.

The department, which runs the county’s harbor patrol, sent a fireboat to search for the spill, but the crew lost visibility as darkness fell, according to the memo obtained through the California Public Records Act. The spill wasn’t confirmed until about 9 a.m. Saturday.

The Coast Guard did not immediately comment on the documents, which raise more questions about the agency’s response to a spill that forced the closure of some of the region’s signature beaches and harmed animal and plant life.

Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, who chairs a state legislative committee looking into the spill, said she was told the spill was reported much later Friday evening when it was too late to detect because of darkness.

“It seems too crazy in a world where we’re trying to send a man to Mars that we can’t inspect a potential oil slick in the dark,” she said.

Miyoko Sakashita, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said the Coast Guard should have responded more aggressively after getting the initial reports.

“An investigation should have immediately taken place, and it could have significantly reduced the size of the spill,” said Sakashita, whose organization has called on the federal government to stop offshore oil drilling. “Among all those reports, you should be able to triangulate that there’s something that needs investigation immediately.”

Prior to release of the sheriff’s department documents it was thought that the first word of a possible spill came to the Coast Guard at 6:13 p.m. on Oct. 1 from a foreign ship anchored off Huntington Beach that reported a sheen on the water that was more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) long.

Rear Adm. Brian Penoyer previously told the AP that the Coast Guard put out a radio broadcast to vessels in the area and oil platforms looking for reports confirming a possible spill. But Capt Rebecca Ore, the unified response commander, said no such broadcasts were made.

Coast Guard officials said they needed to look into what — if anything — was done at the time, but have repeatedly declined to answer questions about the purported broadcast.

In this Oct. 7, 2021, file photo, workers in protective suits clean the contaminated beach in Corona Del Mar after an oil spill in Newport Beach, Calif. A group of environmental organizations is demanding the Biden administration suspend and cancel oil and gas leases in federal waters off the California coast after a recent crude oil spill. The Center for Biological Diversity and about three dozen organizations sent a petition Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, to the Department of the Interior, arguing it has the authority to end these leases. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)

Penoyer said the Coast Guard did not send a boat out to look for the spill because it was limited by darkness and didn’t have the technology to detect it. The report by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, however, says the Coast Guard did request that the Harbor Patrol dispatch a boat.

The next morning, the Coast Guard reached out again to the Harbor Patrol, and its hazardous materials investigators went out on a county fireboat. Authorities on that boat located a miles-long black plume several miles offshore, the memo said.

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said it’s not clear that earlier notice would have made a difference.

“Hindsight is 20-20,” she said. But Carr added that had she known about the 5:30 p.m. report, it would have elevated the first notice she got of a possible spill at around 9 a.m. the next morning.

Federal investigators are examining whether the Panama-registered MSC DANIT, a 1,200-foot (366-meter) container ship, was dragging anchor during a Jan. 25 storm and snagged the pipeline and dragged it on the seabed. It’s not known why the leak occurred eight months later. Authorities are looking into whether other anchors hit and weakened the pipeline or if a preexisting condition with the line was to blame.

Houston-based Amplify Energy owns and operates the pipeline that ferries oil from the company’s three offshore platforms. It is being scrutinized for its maintenance of the pipe and whether it reacted fast enough to the spill.

The Coast Guard says about 25,000 gallons (94,635 liters) of oil spilled off Orange County. Blobs of oil and tar balls washed ashore, forcing a weeklong closure of beaches that greatly disrupted the local economy and killing dozens of birds. Environmental advocates say the damage was less than initially feared but the long-term impact on wetlands and marine life is unknown.

Pete Stauffer, environmental director for Surfrider Foundation, which is working as a liaison between non-governmental agencies and the unified command for the spill response, said a swift response to a spill is key to limiting damage.

“When there’s a report of a significant-sized oil slick on the ocean, it’s important to investigate,” Stauffer said. “What happens in the first hours and days during an oil spill is absolutely critical.”

Nearly three weeks since the spill, officials are starting to wind down some of the clean-up efforts as conditions along the coastline have improved. While tar balls continue to wash up farther south in San Diego County, beach clean up in some areas of Orange County could soon be deemed complete, California Fish and Wildlife Lt. Christian Corbo said Wednesday.

Workers are also scaling back efforts to scour the coastline for oiled wildlife, but they will continue to respond to reports from the public of oiled birds, said Dr. Michael Ziccardi, director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. Six birds that were treated for oiling were released Wednesday along the shoreline and another six are still being cared for, he said, adding they will hopefully be released next week.

A group of environmental organizations Wednesday demanded that the Biden administration suspend and cancel oil and gas leases in federal waters off the California coast. The Center for Biological Diversity and about three dozen organizations sent a petition to the Department of the Interior, arguing it has the authority to end these leases and that the decades-old platforms off the coast of California are especially susceptible to problems because of their age.

The Department of the Interior declined to comment on the petition.

____

Melley reported from Los Angeles.

California lawmaker accepted donations from oil firm linked to spill in her district

By Hannah Schoenbaum, Medill News Service

CA LIF (R) Rep. Michelle Steel has accepted thousands of campaign dollars from oil and gas companies, records show. Photo courtesy of the Michelle Steel for Congress campaign

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) has carefully monitored efforts to salvage Southern California's wetlands after a major offshore oil spill, but the lawmaker's record shows she accepted thousands of campaign dollars from oil and gas companies and voted against disaster relief funding for other cities.

A breached undersea pipe, apparently connected to the Elly oil rig, spilled an estimated 25,000 gallons of crude oil off the coast of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach on Oct. 2, covering 13 square miles of the Pacific Ocean.

Steel represents many of the communities impacted by the spill, and has been pushing for federal, state and local assistance to clean up the mess.

But less than a week before the spill, Steel voted against a government funding bill that provided $28.6 billion in disaster relief funds for communities devastated by Hurricane Ida.

RELATED Southern California beaches to reopen after no toxins found from oil spill

She also accepted $37,041 from oil and gas companies during her 2020 campaign, according to Federal Election Commission data. Among those donors was Phillips 66, the largest customer of the Houston-based oil company Amplify Energy, which owns the Elly oil rig.

Neither Steel's District 48 congressional office nor her campaign office in Surfside responded to multiple interview requests.

A sign warns swimmers not to go into the water at Newport Beach after a major spill dumped oil from an offshore platform off Huntington Beach, Calif., on October 4. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Cleanup workers attempt to contain oil that seeped into Talbert Marsh, home to some 90 bird species, after an oil spill from an offshore oil platform near Huntington Beach, Calif., on October 4. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Drilling ban sought

The oil spill drew lawmakers' attention to a provision of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act, which would ban future offshore drilling projects in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Many of Steel's Republican colleagues have remained united in opposing the bill, unwilling to hand Biden a substantial first-term victory.

Facing pressure from her constituents and colleagues, Steel has not stated her position on the bill. In Washington last Tuesday, she did not respond to reporters' questions about whether she would support an offshore drilling ban. Instead, she shifted attention to her efforts to clean up the coastline.

RELATED Damage from 126K-gallon oil spill in Southern California likely unknown for weeks

"Cleaning our beaches -- that's the priority," Steel said.

As she gears up to run for re-election in 2022, the freshman lawmaker has continued to accept money from donors in the energy industry, bringing her career total from 2019 through July 31 to $49,712 from oil and gas companies.

Steel, who represents communities affected by the spill, asked Biden to issue a major disaster declaration to free up federal funds for the district. And since members of Congress cannot formally request a disaster declaration, she also wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom, encouraging him to join her in asking Biden for federal funding.

Newsom declared a state of emergency in Orange County last week, but has not requested a federal disaster declaration.

Reimbursement sought

Steel did send a letter to Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher on Oct. 8, demanding that his company cover the response costs of the federal government and cooperate with the U.S. Coast Guard on continuing cleanup efforts.

"Trust has been broken and accountability is required," she wrote.

And after federal investigators said Oct. 8 they were "convinced" that a ship anchor snagged the pipeline, the Republican lawmaker introduced legislation that would ban cargo ships from anchoring off the coast of Southern California for 180 days.

Investigators now believe the anchor of a 1,200-foot cargo ship dragged the 16-inch steel pipe an unknown distance across the ocean floor, several months before the leak was detected.

Steel has faced widespread criticism on social media since the spill, particularly after screen captures of the Energy and Environment page of her website, which featured an image of an oil rig, began to make the rounds. The image since has been replaced.

Connor Chung, an intern on Steel's 2020 campaign, and others in the community have shown up to pitch in with cleanup efforts. The Corona del Mar High School senior said he has been disappointed by what he views as the lawmaker's lack of concrete action on environmental issues.

"Steel has done little to nothing yet to affect the spill," Chung said. "I don't have a solidified answer on if I will support her reelection, but I'm definitely watching how she will take action on the oil spill."

Opponent attacks

Democrat Harley Rouda, who Steel narrowly defeated in 2020, is capitalizing on his rival's hesitancy to take a stance on offshore drilling. Rouda held a press conference last Tuesday with environmental advocates outside Steel's Huntington Beach office, demanding that his opponent cut ties with the oil industry.

The Southern California district flipped in the last two election cycles, with Steel beating Rouda by fewer than 9,000 votes in 2020.

Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy at the non-partisan government watchdog organization Common Cause, said lawmakers in such competitive districts face heightened scrutiny from party members and donors to hold on to their seat.

"When the balance of power hangs on a handful of seats, you will see resources shifted and prioritized for those particular members in swing districts," Spaulding said.

"A candidate can face a number of pressures, but ultimately, it is up to the candidate to run the campaign pursuant to their vision and their values."

NFL, players agree to end ‘race-norming’ in $1B settlement


 In this May 14, 2021, file photo, former NFL players Ken Jenkins, right, and Clarence Vaughn III, center right, along with their wives, Amy Lewis, center, and Brooke Vaughn, left, carry petitions demanding equal treatment for everyone involved in the settlement of concussion claims against the NFL, to the federal courthouse in Philadelphia, in this Friday, May 14, 2021, file photo. Lawyers for the NFL and retired players filed proposed changes to the $1 billion concussion settlement on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, to remove race-norming in dementia testing, which made it more difficult for Black players to qualify for payments. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)


PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The NFL and lawyers for thousands of retired NFL players have reached an agreement to end race-based adjustments in dementia testing in the $1 billion settlement of concussion claims, according to a proposed deal filed Wednesday in federal court.

The revised testing plan follows public outrage over the use of “race-norming,” a practice that came to light only after two former NFL players filed a civil rights lawsuit over it last year. The adjustments, critics say, may have prevented hundreds of Black players suffering from dementia to win awards that average $500,000 or more.

The Black retirees will now have the chance to have their tests rescored or, in some cases, seek a new round of cognitive testing, according to the settlement, details of which were first reported in The New York Times on Wednesday.

“We look forward to the court’s prompt approval of the agreement, which provides for a race-neutral evaluation process that will ensure diagnostic accuracy and fairness in the concussion settlement,” NFL lawyer Brad Karp said in a statement.

The proposal, which must still be approved by a judge, follows months of closed-door negotiations between the NFL, class counsel for the retired players, and lawyers for the Black players who filed suit, Najeh Davenport and Kevin Henry.

The vast majority of the league’s players — 70% of active players and more than 60% of living retirees — are Black. So the changes are expected to be significant, and potentially costly for the NFL.

“No race norms or race demographic estimates — whether Black or white — shall be used in the settlement program going forward,” the proposal said.

To date, the concussion fund has paid out $821 million for five types of brain injuries, including early and advanced dementia, Parkinson’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS.

Lawyers for the Black players suspect that white men were qualifying for awards at two or three times the rate of Blacks since the payouts began in 2017. It’s unclear whether a racial breakdown of payouts will ever be done or made public.

Black NFL retiree Ken Jenkins and others have asked the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to investigate.

The binary scoring system used in dementia testing — one for Black people, one for everyone else — was developed by neurologists in the 1990s as a crude way to factor in a patient’s socioeconomic background. Experts say it was never meant to be used to determine payouts in a court settlement.

However, it was adopted by both sides in the court-approved, $765 million settlement in 2013 that resolved lawsuits accusing the NFL of hiding what it knew about the risk of repeated concussions. The fund was later uncapped amid concerns the money would run out.

This year, amid the national reckoning on race in America, both sides agreed to work to halt the use of race-norming, which assumes Black players start with lower cognitive function. That makes it harder to show they suffer from a mental deficit linked to their playing days.

The NFL would admit no wrongdoing under terms of the agreement. The league said it hoped the new testing formula, developed with input from a panel of experts, would be widely adopted in medicine.

To date, about 2,000 men have applied for dementia awards, but only 30% have been approved. In some cases, the NFL appealed payouts awarded to Black men if doctors did not apply the racial adjustment. The new plan would forbid any challenges based on race.

The awards average $715,000 for those with advanced dementia and $523,000 for those with early dementia. The settlement is intended to run for 65 years, to cover anyone retired at the time it was first approved.

“The NFL should be really enraged about the race norming. …. That should be unacceptable to them and all of their sponsors,” Roxanne “Roxy” Gordon of San Diego, the wife of an impaired former player, said earlier this week.

Amon Gordon, a Stanford University graduate, finds himself at 40 unable to work. He has twice qualified for an advanced dementia award only to have the decision overturned for reasons that aren’t yet clear to them. His case remains on review before the federal appeals court in Philadelphia.

Nearly 20,000 NFL retirees have registered for the settlement program, which offers monitoring, testing and, for some, compensation.

“If the new process eliminates race-norming and more people qualify, that’s great,” said Jenkins, who does not have an impairment but advocates for those who do.

“(But) we’re not going to get everything we wanted,” Jenkins, an insurance executive, said Tuesday. “We want full transparency of all the demographic information from the NFL — who’s applied, who’s been paid.”

Senior U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody, who has overseen the settlement for a decade, dismissed the suit filed by Davenport and Henry this year on procedural grounds. But she later ordered the lawyers who negotiated the 2013 settlement — New York plaintiffs lawyer Christopher Seeger for the players and Karp for the NFL — to work with a mediator to address it.

In the meantime, the Gordons and other NFL families wait.

“His life is ruined,” Roxy Gordon said of her husband, who spent nearly a decade in the league as a defensive tackle or defensive end. “He’s a 40-year-old educated male who can’t even use his skills. It’s been horrible.”

___

Follow Maryclaire Dale on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Maryclairedale.

___ This story has been corrected to say Najeh Davenport and Kevin Henry filed their civil rights complaint last year, not in 2019.

Big changes in White House ideas to pay for $2 trillion plan 

WAIT, WHAT? 

I THOUGHT IT WAS $3.5 TRILLION

By LISA MASCARO, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and ALAN FRAM

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President Joe Biden greets people after speaking about his infrastructure plan and his domestic agenda during a visit to the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — In an abrupt change, the White House is floating new plans to pay for parts of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion social services and climate change package, shelving a proposed big increase in corporate tax rates though also adding a new billionaires’ tax on the investment gains of the very richest Americans.

The reversal Wednesday came as Biden returned to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to highlight the middle class values he says are at the heart of the package that Democrats are racing to finish. Biden faces resistance from key holdouts, including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who has not been on board with her party’s plan to undo Trump-era tax breaks to help pay for it.

“This has been declared dead on arrival from the moment I introduced it, but I think we’re going to surprise them, because I think people are beginning to figure out what’s at stake,” Biden said in a speech at Scranton’s Electric City Trolley Museum, his first visit home since becoming president.

Negotiations between the White House and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are underway on what’s now a scaled-back package but would still be an unprecedented federal effort to expand social services for millions and confront the rising threat of climate change. It’s coupled with a separate $1 trillion bill to update roads and bridges.



Biden and his Democratic Party have given themselves a deadline to seal agreement after laboring to bridge his once-sweeping $3.5 trillion vision preferred by progressives with a more limited focus that can win over party centrists. He has no Democratic votes to spare for passage in the closely divided Congress, and leaders want agreement by week’s end.

The newly proposed tax provisions, though, are likely to sour progressives and even some moderate Democrats who have long campaigned on undoing the 2017 GOP tax cuts that many believe unduly reward the wealthy, costing the federal government untold sums in lost revenue at a time of gaping income inequality.

Administration officials spoke with congressional leaders on the tax alternatives, according to a person familiar with the private talks and granted anonymity to discuss them. The changes may be needed to win over Sinema, who had objected to plans to raise the rates on corporations and wealthy individuals earning more than $400,000 a year, said the person and several others.

As it stands, the corporate tax rate is 21%, and Democrats want to lift it to 26.5% for companies earning more than $5 million a year. The top individual income tax rate would rise from 37% to 39.6% for those earning more than $400,000, or $450,000 for married couples.

Under the changes being floated that 21% corporate rate would stay the same.

However, the revisions wouldn’t be all positive for big companies and the wealthy. The White House is reviving the idea of a minimum corporate tax rate, similar to the 15% rate Biden had proposed earlier this year. That’s even for companies that say they had no taxable income — a frequent target of Biden who complains that they pay “zero” in taxes.

And there could be a new billionaires’ tax, modeled on legislation from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the chairman of the Finance Committee, who has proposed taxing stock gains of those with more than $1 billion in assets — fewer than 1,000 Americans.

Sinema has not publicly stated her position, and her office did not respond to a request for comment.

Another key Democrat, conservative Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has said he prefers a 25% corporate rate. He has been withholding his support for the bill with additional objections to its provisions on climate change and social services.

On the call with the administration and the White House, Wyden said he “stressed the importance of putting an end to America’s two tax codes, and finally showing working people in this country that the wealthiest Americans are going to pay taxes just like they do.”

The possible shift comes as Democrats appear to have made progress uniting themselves, ready to abandon what had been a loftier package in favor of a smaller, more workable proposal the party can unite around.

In the mix: At least $500 billion to battle climate change, $350 billion for child care subsidies and free pre-kindergarten, a new federal program for at least four weeks of paid family leave, a one-year extension of the $300 monthly child tax credit put in place during the COVID-19 crisis, and funding for health care provided through the Affordable Care Act and Medicare.

Likely to be eliminated or shaved back: plans for tuition-free community college, a path to permanent legal status for certain immigrants in the U.S. and a clean energy plan that was the centerpiece of Biden’s strategy for fighting climate change.

“Nothing is decided until everything is decided,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus after a morning meeting of House Democrats. “We’re just trying to get it done.”

Democrats are growing anxious they have little to show voters despite their campaign promises and have had trouble explaining what they’re trying to do with the massive package, made up of so many different proposals.

It’s a tall order that was leading to an all-out push Wednesday to answer the question — “What’s in the damn bill?” — as a press release from Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, put it.

The president especially wants to advance his signature domestic package to bolster federal social services and address climate change by the time he departs for a global climate summit next week.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive caucus member, said, “He really believes American leadership, American prestige is on the line.”

Manchin has made clear he opposes the president’s initial energy plan, which was to have the government impose penalties on electric utilities that fail to meet clean energy benchmarks and provide financial rewards to those that do.

Instead, Biden is focused on providing at least $500 billion in tax credits, grants and loans for energy producers that reach emission-reduction goals.

On other fronts, to preserve Biden’s initial sweep, Democrats are moving to retain many of the programs but trim their duration to shave costs.

Biden wants to extend the $300 monthly child tax credit that was put in place during the COVID-19 crisis for another year, rather than allow it to expire in December, but not as long as Democrats wanted.

What had been envisioned as a months-long federal paid family leave program could be shrunk to as few as four weeks — an effort to at least start the program rather than eliminate it.

Biden also wants to ensure funding for health care programs, including for home- and community-based health care services, supporting a move away from widespread nursing home care.

And a new program to provide dental, vision and hearing aid benefits to people on Medicare proposed by Sanders, is likely to remain in some fashion.

Biden has told lawmakers that after his top priorities there would be $300 billion remaining.

That could lower the overall price tag or be used for other programs.

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Josh Boak contributed to this report.