AMERIKAN TALIBAN
GOP senator Josh Hawley says men watch pornography and play video games because of ‘attacks on manhood’


GOP senator Josh Hawley says men watch pornography and play video games because of ‘attacks on manhood’
Andrew Feinberg
Mon, November 1, 2021

Senator Josh Hawley on Monday suggested that men are viewing more pornography and playing more video games because of efforts to combat toxic masculinity that amount to attacks on “manhood”.

Mr Hawley, a Republican who serves as Missouri’s junior senator, made the bizarre charges in a speech to the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando Florida, in which he offered no evidence or sources for his claims, but nonetheless suggested that “the left” is trying to bring about “a world beyond men”.

“Can we be surprised that after years of being told that they are the problem, that their manhood is the problem, more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games?” he said. “While the left may celebrate this decline of men, I for one cannot join them. No one should.”

Mr Hawley also claimed, without evidence, that boys “are increasingly treated like an illness in search of a cure” by American culture, and for good measure took a shot at America’s film industry, which he said “delivers the toxic masculinity theme ad nauseum in television and film”.

In addition to video games and pornography, the first-term senator – one of seven whose push to throw out the results of the 2020 election gave rise to the mob that stormed the US Capitol on 6 January – suggested that unemployment and people waiting longer to get married are the result of attacks on traditional masculinity, which he called “vital to self-government”.

As part of his prescription for the problem, Mr Hawley and his wife are launching a podcast focused on family values. 

The senator received criticism for his tacit support of the 6 January demonstrators when the show was announced.

I THOUGHT THE RULING CLASS WAS ALWAYS RIGHT

Sen. Josh Hawley says 'the Left,' which 'controls the commanding heights of American society,' wants to 'give us a world beyond men'

Bryan Metzger
Mon, November 1, 2021

THE BANALITY OF EVIL

Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri 

Ken Cedeno/AFP/Getty Images

Sen. Hawley delivered a speech on "The Future of the American Man" at a nationalist conference in Orlando.

Hawley argued that "the Left" wants to "give us a world beyond men" by assaulting traditional masculinity.

He also criticized 'X' gender passports and said vaccine mandates were an attack on working class men.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said on Sunday that "the Left" - encompassing lawmakers, Hollywood, media organizations, universities, and even sports teams - want to usher in a "world beyond men" as part of a broader effort to "deconstruct America."

Hawley made the remarks at the National Conservatism conference in Orlando, a gathering of right-wing activists and intellectuals who promote a nationalist brand of conservatism as an alternative to the "excesses of purist libertarianism." Other speakers at the conference include Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Ohio Senate candidate and "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance, and tech billionaire Peter Thiel.

According to Hawley's prepared remarks, the Missouri senator opened his speech by arguing that "the Left" controls the "commanding heights of American society" and wants to usher in the total deconstruction on America through the power it currently wields.

WELL IT IS 
"They believe that America is a systemically racist, structurally oppressive, hopelessly patriarchal kind of place.

 It's a dystopia, if only Americans would get woke enough to see it," said Hawley. "It's a nation that needs to be taught how unjust it truly is and after that, rebuilt from top to bottom."

The focus of Hawley's speech was the "future of the American man," and the senator said that "deconstruction of America begins with and depends on the deconstruction of American men." He noted that women were also central to the history of America, but that the assault on men was "already far advanced" compared to women.

Hawley argued that an array of disparate forces, including a "gender equity" agenda touted by the White House, the addition of a new 'X' gender marker to passports, the teachings of university professors, ADHD diagnoses among young boys, a 2019 Gillette ad about toxic masculinity, and even new vaccine mandates issued by the Biden administration were part of a broad attack on men and traditional masculinity.

"Working class men have been a particular target for this Administration," said Hawley. "President Biden's illegal vaccine mandate on private citizens puts millions of working class men squarely in the cross hairs. Shut up, get the jab, or get lost."

Men, particularly those without college degrees, are a key demographic within the Republican Party, though President Joe Biden ate into some of that support base in 2020. 

Hawley, who was the first senator to announce that he would challenge states' election results on January 6, is a self-styled populist and proponent of traditional values.

The senator also claimed that much of the ideologies at the heart of the purported assault on traditional masculinity were derived from the works of Karl Marx, French philosopher Jacques Derrida, and New Left German philosopher Herbert Marcuse.

MARCUSE EMBRACED THE STUDENT YOUTH REVOLT OF 1968 AND WAS SEEN AS A CONTRIBUTOR. HE MENTORED ANGELA DAVIS. HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE FRANKFURT INSTITUTE 

"While Marx pinned his hopes on working class men, the proletariat, Marcuse saw those same men as the problem," Hawley said. "They were too culturally conservative. Too hidebound. Too traditional. Marcuse concluded the revolution would only come from the well-educated elite, who could see beyond mirages like manhood."

The Missouri senator highlighted as "particularly heartbreaking" a recent report in the Wall Street Journal about American men increasingly declining to go to college, falling into pathologies of despair and retreating into watching pornography and playing video games.

Hawley concluded his speech by calling for "explicit rewards in our tax code for marriage" and "requiring that at least half of all goods and supplies critical for our national security be made in the United States" as a way to support American men and make them into an "unrivaled force for good in the world."

"To each man, I say: You can be a tremendous force for good. Your nation needs you. The world needs you," Hawley said.

The US Navy has figured out what a nuclear-powered attack submarine ran into in the South China Sea: report

Ryan Pickrell
Mon, November 1, 2021

The Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Connecticut has been battling bed bugs. US Navy WTF DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING IN THIS STORY

The US Navy has completed its investigation into a mysterious submarine incident in the South China Sea.

USS Connecticut grounded on an uncharted seamount, USNI News first reported.

The investigation has been sent to the fleet commander, who will consider accountability actions.

The US Navy investigators have determined what a nuclear-powered attack submarine hit in the South China Sea last month, USNI News reported Monday, citing defense officials familiar with the investigation and a legislative official.

IT COULD HAVE BEEN A KRAKEN

The Seawolf-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Connecticut collided with an unidentified object on October 2, the Navy revealed five days after the incident. Investigators have reportedly determined the submarine ran aground on an undersea mountain, a seamount, the location of which was uncharted.

The earlier Navy statement on the incident left a lot to the imagination, stating only that the the boat struck something while operating in international waters, there were no life-threatening injuries, the sub was in stable condition, and the nuclear propulsion systems were not damaged.

The sea service did not say where the incident occurred, though Navy officials speaking on the condition of anonymity provided that information to some reporters following the release of the statement.

As of last Wednesday, the US Navy still was not quite sure what the submarine collided with, though defense officials told USNI News that early indications suggested that Connecticut collided with a seamount, an undersea feature that rises from the ocean's depth. It can also pose a risk to ships on the surface depending on how close its summit is to the surface.

China, often at odds with the US in the South China Sea, has capitalized on the limited information provided by the Navy about the incident, with Chinese officials accusing the US of a cover-up and calling it "cagey" and "irresponsible."

The US military has denied that it is trying to cover up the incident. After a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman first made the allegations, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said: "It is an odd way of covering something up when you put a press release out about it."

But Beijing, both the foreign ministry and the defense ministry, has continued to criticize the US for a "lack of transparency" while repeatedly calling the US "the biggest force for militarization of the South China Sea," an accusation typically aimed at China.

The conclusion of the command investigation into the USS Connecticut incident takes some of the mystery out of things. The investigation, according to USNI News, has been passed up to the 7th Fleet commander, who will make decisions about potential accountability actions.

As the investigation into the incident has not yet been publicly released, information is still limited on how the submarine ran into an seamount and to what degree members of the crew and command are responsible.

The submarine, one of only three in the powerful Seawolf class, is in Guam, where it is undergoing repairs, likely initial work before more extensive repairs can be completed elsewhere.

There are concerns that if the Connecticut has to be taken back to a public shipyard for additional repairs, it could throw a wrench into a submarine maintenance backlog that has long been problematic.

Insider reached out to 7th Fleet for comment on the results of the investigation but did not immediately receive a response.

KRAKEN

The kraken is a legendary sea monster of gigantic size and cephalopod-like appearance in Scandinavian folklore. According to the Norse sagas, the kraken dwells off the coasts of Norway and Greenland and terrorizes nearby sailors. Authors over the years have postulated that the legend may have originated from sightings of giant squids that may grow to 13–15 meters (40–50 feet) in length. The sheer size and fearsome app…

Seamounts — undersea mountains formed by volcanic activity — were once thought to be little more than hazards to submarine navigation. Today, scientists recognize these structures as biological hotspots that support a dazzling array of marine life. The biological richness of seamount habitats results from the shape of these undersea mountains.

What is a seamount?

oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/seamounts.html

In one tweet, Elon Musk captures the everyday sexism faced by women in STEM

He doesn't see what's wrong.

FROM OUR OBSESSION
Modern Leadership
The people and companies that are shaping ideas about how companies should be run.

By Ananya Bhattacharya
Tech reporter
Published November 1, 2021

The world’s richest man’s poor sense of humor is exposing how much of a boys’ club tech still is.

In an Oct. 29 tweet, Musk proposed opening a school called the Texas Institute of Technology and Science. In a thread, he added, “it will have epic merch, universally admired.” When someone earnestly suggested swapping “technology” and “science” so the latter came first (on the premise that “technological breakthroughs almost always follow scientific breakthroughs”), Musk shot back, “Nope, T is def first.”

Why? Because if you swapped the letters, the acronym would no longer be TITS.

PHOTO REUTERS/MIKE BLAKE

Biden apologizes for Trump exit from climate accord


US President Joe Biden: 'Every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases' 

(AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

Mon, November 1, 2021

US President Joe Biden on Monday apologized to world leaders for his predecessor Donald Trump's withdrawal from a global climate accord and said fighting the crisis should be seen as an economic opportunity.

In a reference to Trump, who withdrew from the Paris climate deal on world action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Biden told the COP26 summit in Glasgow that he was sorry.

"I guess I shouldn't apologize but I do apologize for the fact that the United States in the last administration pulled out of the Paris Accords and put us sort of behind the eight ball a little bit," he said, noting that one of his first actions on taking office this January was to re-enter the accord.

Trump had argued that the Paris accord killed jobs.

But in his main speech to the UN COP26 summit in Glasgow, Biden said that fighting climate change will boost, not hurt economies.

"Within the growing catastrophe I believe there's an incredible opportunity — not just for the United States, but for all of us," he said in his speech to the summit.

He promised US leadership and "action, not words."

"The United States is not only back at the table but hopefully leading by the power of example. I know that hasn't been the case and that's why my administration is working overtime," he said.

Biden pushed back against criticism that reducing greenhouse gases and reliance on fossil fuels will hurt jobs, arguing that "it's about jobs".

Electrifying transport, building solar panels and wind turbine networks "create good, paying union jobs for American workers".

Continuing down the current path is already causing economic damage, Biden said.

"We're standing at an inflection point in world history," Biden said, citing the proliferation of wildfires, droughts and other climate-related disasters.

"Climate change is already ravaging the world," he said. It's not hypothetical. It's destroying people's lives and livelihoods.

"We have the ability to invest in ourselves and build an equitable, clean-energy future and in the process create millions of good paying jobs and opportunities around the world.

"We meet with the eyes of history upon us," Biden told the summit in Glasgow, Scotland. "Every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases, so let this be the moment when we answer history's call, here in Glasgow.

"God bless you all and may God save the planet," he said in closing.

sms/pvh

Cambodian court sentences autistic teenager for Telegram posts

Author: AFP|

Update: 01.11.2021 


Kak Sovann Chhay was arrested in late June after posting messages on a private Telegram group / © COURTESY OF PRUM CHANTHA/AFP/File

A Cambodian court sentenced an autistic teenager to eight months in prison on Monday, with part of the term suspended, for sending Telegram messages that were deemed insulting to the government, his mother said.

The son of an opposition figure, 16-year-old Kak Sovann Chhay was arrested in late June after posting messages on a private Telegram group, and has been detained for more than four months.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday sentenced him to eight months in prison, under incitement charges and for insulting public officials.

Most of the remainder of his term -- taking into account time served -- has been suspended for two years.

"My son will be released on November 9," his mother Prum Chantha said.

"It is unjust for my son because he did not commit any crime like the court had charged."

She added that she had not decided whether to appeal the guilty verdict.

The municipal court's spokesperson declined to comment on the case.

The teenager's arrest and detention drew outcry from the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, Vitit Muntarbhorn.

He urged the government in September to release the teenager, adding that children with disabilities should "be treated in line with the best interests of the child".

The boy's father, Kak Komphea, is a former member of the now-dissolved opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party and has been in jail since June last year.

Kak Komphea is among more than 150 opposition figures facing a closed-door trial for allegedly agitating for the toppling of the ruling party, which is led by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Herself an activist, Prum Chantha had said that her son was only defending himself and his relatives in Telegram messages after he was bullied by people who called him the "son of a traitor".

Strongman Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, has been in power for 36 years, during which his critics say he has wound back democratic freedoms by jailing political opponents and dissidents.

US judge dismisses most money-laundering charges against Maduro ally Saab

Author: AFP

|Update: 01.11.2021 


Colombian businessman Alex Saab is still facing one accusation of money laundering in a Florida court / © AFP/File

A US judge on Monday dismissed seven of eight money-laundering charges against Alex Saab, a businessman close to the regime of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, a court filing showed.

On trial in Miami, Florida following his extradition from Cape Verde earlier this month, the Colombian businessman still faces one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which could carry a 20-year jail term.

Judge Robert Scola of the Southern District of Florida signed the order at the request of the prosecution.

On September 7, 2020, during the extradition process, the United States "sent an assurance" to Cape Verde that it would not "prosecute or punish defendant Alex Nain Saab for more than a single count of the indictment," the prosecution said in its request to Scola.

The decision was made "in order to comply with Cabo Verdean law regarding the maximum term of imprisonment," the request said.

Saab, a Colombian national, and his business partner Alvaro Pulido are charged in the United States with running a network that exploited food aid destined for Venezuela, an oil-rich nation mired in an acute economic crisis.

They are alleged to have moved $350 million out of Venezuela into accounts they controlled in the United States and other countries.

Saab, who also has Venezuelan nationality and a Venezuelan diplomatic passport, was indicted in July 2019 in Miami for money laundering, and was arrested during a plane stopover in Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa in June 2020.

He was extradited to the United States on October 17.

Venezuela's opposition has described Saab as a frontman doing shady dealings for the populist socialist regime of Maduro.

The prosecution said that the dismissal of charges only affects Saab, not Pulido.

The accused was due to appear before Scola on Monday to attend the arraignment and plead guilty or not guilty.

But the hearing was postponed until November 15 to allow Saab to meet for the first time in person with his lawyer, Henry Bell.

That meeting has not yet taken place because Saab was quarantined upon his arrival in Miami as a precautionary measure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Venezuela reacted furiously to Saab's extradition, suspending talks with the US-backed opposition on ending the country's political and economic crisis.

Maduro's government, which gave the Colombian Venezuelan nationality and an ambassadorial title, fought unsuccessfully to prevent his transfer to the United States.

Caracas also accused Washington of abducting the businessman, and Maduro ordered the suspension of the government's negotiations with the opposition in Mexico.

MUTUAL AID/SELF ORGANIZATION

New York food delivery workers mobilize against attacks, theft

Author: AFP|

Update: 01.11.2021 

Vicente Carrasco, originally from Mexico, formed a group to help protect fellow New York delivery workers from assault and bike theft / © AFP/File

"A colleague needs help to recover his bicycle!" says a message in the WhatsApp group of the Delivery Boys United, a team of food delivery workers in New York who are organizing to defend themselves following attacks and thefts.

Vicente Carrasco, a 39-year-old from Mexico, formed the group in March after he was assaulted. They aim to protect themselves and their electric bikes, which cost around $3,000 and, along with their phones, are their livelihoods.

Every night after a long day riding around the Big Apple, Carrasco and other "deliveristas," mostly men, meet under the Queensboro Bridge on the Manhattan side of the East River where they wait to come to the aid of any colleague in trouble.

"If there is a bicycle stolen with GPS we follow it," he tells AFP, stressing they never go alone.

"When there are many of us, we will always try to get it back. We don't want to risk our lives too much. You don't know if people are armed. We do what we can do."

There have been several reports of attacks on delivery personnel in New York this year. In October a 51-year-old rider was stabbed to death and had his e-bike stolen in Chinatown.

In April, a deliverista was shot dead in a Harlem. That same month, another on his scooter was hit by a vehicle in Queens.

Eric Adams, expected to be elected New York's next mayor Tuesday, has pledged to make the city's streets safer should he take office in January.

For now, Carrasco's group is working alongside three other organizations that bring together more than 1,000 delivery riders across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

"This is my way of life," says another organizer Jose Rodrigo Nevares, whose friend was killed during a theft of his bicycle.

"With my bike, I feed my family, I pay my rent. I can't just leave it so someone takes it away," he adds.

Every night, groups of "deliveristas" meet under a Manhattan bridge where they stand ready to come to the aid of any colleague in trouble / © AFP/File

There are roughly 65,000 deliveristas in New York, according to official figures.

With their frustration building over how police have handled cases, Carrasco and the other groups decided to take safety into their own hands.

"We did this because when you call the police when you've been robbed, they never arrive," he says. "We organize ourselves to be able to defend ourselves, to be faster."

For its part the New York Police Department says its "Operation Identification" helps recover registered stolen bicycles, and that NYPD duly investigates such crimes.

"The NYPD takes these crimes very seriously and will exhaust all leads available in order to catch those responsible," spokesman Sergeant Edward Riley tells AFP.

Some 80 percent of the deliveristas are undocumented immigrants, according to rights groups, meaning they are often reluctant to contact police.

Nevares, who became a deliveryman after losing his waiter job during the Covid-19 pandemic, says that reluctance is "out of fear, because you know that you are going to get into trouble."

- 'Not violent' -

While Carrasco's group sometimes recovers stolen bikes on their own, the operations have raised safety concerns.


There are an estimated 65,000 food delivery riders in New York / © AFP/File

"Our fear is that someone will end up injured," says Ligia Guallpa, from the Labor Justice project, who has been fighting for years to improve conditions for undocumented workers.

Many who support the workers distance themselves from the self-defense groups.

But Carrasco dismisses suggestions that the men are vigilantes.

"We are not violent," he states.

Food delivery workers -- many of whom are of Latino, African or Asian origin -- average $2,345 a month, below the hourly $15 minimum wage in New York's service sector.

They receive no social security, no health insurance and no overtime. Nor do they have a right to unionize.

Guallpa calls the working conditions "inhumane."

Only from next year will they be allowed to use the restrooms of restaurants where they collect food, after a campaign by Guallpa's organization.

A sticker of the New York delivery workers self-defense group -- most deliveristas are undocumented immigrants, meaning they are often reluctant to contact police 

/ © AFP/File

Revenue from food delivery apps has surged more than 200 percent over the past five years, with profits skyrocketing during the lockdown.

It's been a win-win for the apps, which earn fees from customers and restaurants while having no commitments to the freelance deliveristas, according to a 2020 survey conducted by the Labor Justice Project and Cornell University.

Activists say it's time to give the riders the same protections as other workers.

Almost half of the survey's 500 respondents said they had had an accident, including being run over, while working -- and three quarters of those paid their medical expenses themselves.

Fifty-four percent of respondents had their bicycles stolen -- and one third of them had been victims of assault during the robbery.

"We have to change the system, otherwise we are not changing the root problem," says Guallpa.

Extreme Greenland ice melt raised global flood risk: study

Author: AFP

|Update: 01.11.2021 


The ice sheet atop the world's largest island contains enough frozen water to lift oceans some six metres (20 feet) globally, and extreme melting events there have been increasing in frequency for at least 40 years / © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File


The 3.5 trillion tonnes of Greenland's ice sheet that has melted over the past decade has raised global sea levels by one centimetre and is heightening worldwide flood risks, new research showed on Monday.

The ice sheet atop the world's largest island contains enough frozen water to lift oceans some six metres (20 feet) globally, and extreme melting events there have been increasing in frequency for at least 40 years.

Although it is one of the most studied places on Earth by climatologists, Monday's research is the first to use satellite data to detect Greenland ice sheet runoff.


Writing in the journal Nature Communications, researchers said that Greenland's meltwater runoff had risen by 21 percent over the past four decades.

More strikingly, the data provided by the European Space Agency showed that the ice sheet had lost 3.5 trillion tonnes of ice since 2011, producing enough water to raise oceans globally and put coastal communities at higher risk of flood events.

One-third of the ice lost in the past decade came in just two hot summers -- 2012 and 2019 -- the research showed.

The images showed significant annual variation in ice melt and, combined with temperature data, showed that heatwaves were increasingly a major cause of ice loss -- above and beyond global temperature rises.

In 2012, for example, when changes in atmospheric patterns caused unusually warm air to hover over the ice sheet for weeks, 527 billion tonnes of ice was lost.

"As we've seen with other parts of the world, Greenland is also vulnerable to an increase in extreme weather events," said Thomas Slater, from the University of Leeds Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling and lead author.

"As our climate warms, it's reasonable to expect that the instances of extreme melting in Greenland will happen more often."

Predicting how much Greenland's melt will contribute to rising sea levels is notoriously tricky for scientists who also need to factor in the potential rise caused by other land-based glacier melt.

And, as oceans warm, water expands, and also contributes to higher seas.

Monday's authors said that the satellite data had allowed them to quickly and accurately estimate how much ice Greenland had lost in a given year, and convert that into sea-level rise equivalent.

"Model estimates suggest that the Greenland ice sheet will contribute between 3-23 cm to global sea-level rise by 2100," said co-author Amber Leeson, senior lecturer in Environmental Data Science at Britain's Lancaster University.

"These new spaceborne estimates of runoff will help us to understand complex ice melt processes better... and just enable us to refine our estimates of future sea-level rise."

RIP 

ADO CAMPEOL
'Father PROMOTER of WIFE'S tiramisu' dies in Italy aged 93

Author: AFP

Update: 01.11.2021 


Tiramisu is today considered one of the staples of Italian cuisine and comes in many varieties / © AFP/File

Ado Campeol, dubbed "the father" of the world-famous tiramisu dessert, died over the weekend, the governor of the Veneto region has announced. He was 93.

Campeol was the owner of Le Beccherie restaurant in the city of Treviso that began first offering the concoction of coffee-soaked biscuits and mascarpone in the 1970s.

The dessert, which first came about because of a mistake by Campeol's wife and his chef at the time according to local media reports, quickly took off and is today considered a staple of Italian cuisine beloved by those with a sweet tooth the world over.

"With Ado Campeol, gone today at age 93, Treviso loses another one of its gastronomical stars," Luco Zaia, the governor of the Veneto region, wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.

"It is at his restaurant, thanks to intuition and the imagination of his wife, that was born the tiramisu, one of the most celebrated desserts in the world."

Classic tiramisu is made by layering espresso-soaked biscuits with mascarpone and topped off with powdered cocoa.

Today the dessert comes in a myriad of varieties, from fruit to peanut butter.

WATER IS LIFE
Oregon city sues to keep Google’s water use secret

THE DALLES, Ore. (AP) — The city of The Dalles, Oregon, has filed suit in an effort to keep Google’s water use a secret.

The move comes ahead of a key City Council vote on a $28.5 million water pact between the city and the tech giant.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the city is seeking to overturn a ruling earlier from Wasco County’s district attorney, who found Google’s water use is a public record and ordered The Dalles to provide that information to the news organization.

The city sued Friday, asking a judge to intervene.

Google is contemplating two new server farms on the site of a former aluminum smelter in The Dalles, where it already has an enormous campus of data centers on its property along the Columbia River.

Google says it needs more water to cool its data centers, but neither the company nor the city will say how much more – only that The Dalles can’t meet Google’s needs without expanding its water system. The deal calls for Google to pay for the upgrade.

The proposed water pact has attracted scrutiny and skepticism in The Dalles, a riverfront city of about 15,000 approximately 80 miles east of Portland.

Residents and nearby farmers are concerned about the city’s water long-term water supply amid an ongoing drought. They complain they don’t know enough about Google’s actual water use.

The city is now going to court to keep that information under wraps, arguing it’s a Google “trade secret” exempt from disclosure under Oregon law.

At Least Three Dead After Luxury High-Rise Collapses In Nigeria

Carlie Porterfield
Forbes Staff
Updated Nov 1, 2021, 04:43pm EDT

TOPLINE

Three people have died in the sudden collapse of a 21-story luxury building under construction in Lagos, Nigeria, while first responders continue to work to rescue people trapped inside

.

People stand to look at the rubble of a building under construction that collapsed in the Ikoyi 

 [+] AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS

Police confirmed that at least three people have died in the collapse and many more are still trapped, according to the BBC.

Employees at the site said as many as 100 construction workers were working on the building at the time of its collapse, according to Reuters.

The building, one of many high-rises being built in Lagos’ well-heeled Ikoyi neighborhood, suddenly fell in on itself Monday afternoon amid construction, according to local media.

The exact number of deaths, people trapped and the cause of the collapse is still unclear.

Photos and videos posted to social media show people passing by jumping in to help rescue survivors from the rubble.

KEY BACKGROUND

Building collapses are relatively common in Nigeria. A whopping 43 buildings in Nigeria fell in 2019 alone, according to a study from the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, a Nigerian group. In 2016, at least 160 people died after a church collapsed in Uyo, a city located near Nigeria’s southeast border. In 2014, the collapse of a guesthouse located on the grounds of a Christian megachurch in Lagos State killed at least 115 people.

Several workers trapped under collapsed highrise in Nigeria: Witnesses

Reuters
Nneka Chile
Publishing date:Nov 01, 2021 • 

People walk to rescue workers from the rubble of a 21-storey building under construction that collapsed at Ikoyi district of Lagos, on Nov. 1, 2021. 

PHOTO BY PIUS UTOMI EKPEI /AFP via Getty Images

LAGOS — A luxury residential highrise under construction in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos collapsed on Monday, trapping several workers under a pile of concrete rubble, witnesses said.

Two workers at the site in the affluent neighbourhood of Ikoyi, where many blocks of flats are under construction, told Reuters that possibly 100 people were at work when the building came crashing down.

Building collapses are frequent in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, where regulations are poorly enforced and construction materials often substandard.

There were heaps of rubble and twisted metal where the 20-story building once stood, as several workers looked on. One man wailed, saying his relative was among those trapped.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse.

The building was part of three towers being built by private developer Fourscore Homes. In a brochure for potential clients, the company promises to offer “a stress-free lifestyle, complete with a hotel flair.” The cheapest unit was selling for $1.2 million.

Calls to the numbers listed for Fourscore Homes and the main building contractor did not ring through.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency said it had activated its emergency response plan. “All first responders are at the scene while heavy duty equipment and life detection equipment have been dispatched,” the agency said in a statement.

RIP

Dr. Aaron Beck, father of cognitive therapy, dies at 100

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Dr. Aaron T. Beck, a groundbreaking psychotherapist regarded as the father of cognitive therapy, died Monday at his Philadelphia home. He had turned 100 in July.

Beck’s work revolutionized the diagnosis and treatment of depression and other psychological disorders. He died peacefully in his sleep, according to the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, which he co-founded with his daughter, Dr. Judith Beck.

“My father was an amazing person who dedicated his life to helping others,” the daughter said in a statement, nothing that her father continued to work until his death. “He has inspired students, clinicians, and researchers for several generations with his passion and his groundbreaking work.”

Beck developed the field of cognitive therapy, a clinical form of psychotherapy, at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1960s. It trains patients to identify and dismiss irrational negative thoughts about themselves, the world and the future.

He developed the treatment after finding that his depressed patients frequently experienced distorted negative ideas — he dubbed them “automatic thoughts.”

Unlike Freudian psychoanalysis, which delves into a patient’s childhood and searches for hidden internal conflicts, cognitive therapy says turning around a self-disparaging inner monologue is key to alleviating many psychological problems, often in a dozen sessions or fewer.

He touted the idea with an anti-Freudian maxim: “There’s more to the surface than meets the eye.”

Beck discovered that patients who learn to recognize the faulty logic of their negative automatic thoughts — such as, “I’ll always be a failure” or “No one likes me” — could learn to overcome their fears and think more rationally, which diminished their anxiety and improved their mood. He found that results endured long after therapy was finished, as patients learned to confront those thoughts on their own.

Cognitive therapy sessions follow a strict format, which always include setting goals for the session and homework assignments. Besides depression, it has been used to treat conditions including bulimia, panic attacks, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and drug abuse.

Beck’s pragmatic view of psychotherapy had its skeptics. Some psychologists called cognitive therapy superficial and little more than a morale booster, but it became required training for psychiatry residents.

Beck always responded to critics with data from his research. He published much of his work in his own journal, Cognitive Therapy and Research, partly because other mental health professionals disregarded his findings.

He wrote or co-wrote 17 books, published more than 500 articles and received honors for his work including the Lesker Award, Heinz Award and the Sarnat Award from the Institute of Medicine.

American Psychologist magazine in 1982 named Beck one of the 10 most influential psychotherapists ever.

A native of Providence, R.I., and the third son of middle-class Russian Jewish immigrants, Beck’s first exercises in cognitive therapy were on himself, after a childhood hospitalization at age 8. The athletic child and Boy Scout became fearful of hospitals and blood, and the smell of ether could make him faint.

He said he overcame those fears by learning to disregard his wooziness and keep busy with other activities.

Beck graduated from Brown University in 1942 and Yale Medical School in 1946. After stints at hospitals in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, he joined the psychiatry department at Penn in 1954.

As a young psychologist, he conducted experiments disproving the Freudian theory that people were depressed because they somehow needed to suffer. He concluded that depression didn’t come from masochism, as Freud believed, but from low self-worth.

Beck’s later work researched cognitive therapy’s effectiveness as part of a treatment regimen for schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder and for patients with repeat suicide attempts.

Beck is survived by his wife of more than 70 years, former state Judge Phyllis Beck, who was also a former Penn law school vice dean, along with three other children, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

___ Former AP reporter JoAnn Loviglio contributed to this report.

Mexican villages try to preserve authentic Day of the Dead

By FERNANDA PESCE

Family members keep vigil beside graves during Day of the Dead festivities at the Tzintzuntzan cemetery in Michocan, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. In a tradition that coincides with All Saints Day and All Souls Day on Nov. 1 and 2, families decorate the graves of departed relatives with marigolds and candles, and spend the night in the cemetery, eating and drinking as they keep company with their deceased loved ones. 

(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)


AROCUTIN, Mexico (AP) — The famed Day of the Dead ceremonies around Mexico’s Lake Patzcuaro were once again thronged with visitors on Monday, economic relief for a tourist-dependent region that suffered from last year’s pandemic shutdown of the observance.

In the lakeside city of Patzcuaro itself, tourists were treated to a parade, theater and music performances.

“Come and visit us, Patzcuaro welcomes you with open arms,” said Julio Arreola, mayor of the city in the western state of Michoacan that is famed for its colonial-era plazas and architecture.

But in some smaller villages around the lakeshore, residents tried to preserve the authentic, non-tourist flavor of traditions passed down for hundreds of years.

While kids in Mexico City donned Halloween-style costumes based on the Netflix series “Squid Game,” people in the village of Arocutín were more concerned with the flower arrangements and candles meant to guide the spirits of the dead home.




Locals carry flowers outside of Arocutin municipal cemetery as people arrive to pay their respects to their dead in Arocutin, Michoacan, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Residents of Arocutín started hanging up traditional garlands of marigold flowers early morning Sunday to adorn the entrance of the small local cemetery.

Arocutín remains a holdout: It is the only town in the region where the cemetery lies in the churchyard, and where all the tombs are dug directly into the earth, surrounded by a simple ring of stones, rather than the more elaborate cement and brick vaults used elsewhere.

“It’s all about preserving tradition as much as we can”, said Alma Ascencio, the representative for local artisans. “Tourism has distorted everything. This is a celebration, sure, but a religious one, so there is no music or much alcohol. It is very private, a completely different thing.”

While the island of Janitzio in Lake Patzcuaro is the site best known for colorful Day of the Dead celebrations, the tiny island remains remains closed to visitors to avoid crowding.

That raised concerns that tourists might flock to smaller villages nearby.

Those concerns may be overstated. The only American in Arocutín Monday was Georgia Conti. A retired healthcare manager, she decided to move to Arocutín precisely because of its beauty and traditions, and she now lives here with her dog.

When she was building her house with her late husband, they found bones that were believed to be those of a soldier killed in 1915 during the Mexican Revolution.

“Some tourists do come around here, but here is a different world. I really respect their traditions”, said Conti. “Villagers are really welcoming and told me I could lay my mother’s ashes here, next to the unknown soldier. I will probably be buried here when I die”.

The Day of the Dead originated in Indigenous cultures and has been celebrated for thousands of years, but tourists started arriving in Arocutín only in 2002. Residents are open to sharing their costumes, but resistant to changing them in any way.

“We don’t celebrate Halloween here. We are not American, we celebrate our dead. Our culture is rich enough here in Michoacán and Mexico,” Ascencio said while preparing marigold garlands.

Preparations for the Day of the Dead start on the 31st with residents adorning the tombs with marigold arches and candles.

That is the night Mexicans celebrate their deceased children, while the night from the 1st to the 2nd is dedicated to the adult dead.

Arocutín is one of the few communities where a church bell rings to call the souls and guide them back to the land of the living, to prevent them from getting lost. Each community has a different sound. This is also one of the few communities where people stay up all night, offering food and presents to the deceased.

“We coexist with our dead. We bring them all the things they liked when they were alive. Sometimes it is a beer, or a tequila with a cigarette,” said Alma Ascencio.

Elizabeth Ascencio lost her newborn 20 years ago and every year comes to adorn the small stone tomb with marigold petals to guarantee his return for the night.

“This is a special day, a beautiful day”, said Elizabeth Ascencio. “We try very hard to welcome our dead”.

Every year,the town erects a big decorated arch at the entrance to the cemetery. To many, this is the door through which the dead enter.

According to tradition, the only force that allows residents to lift the tree trunks that form the arch are the souls of the children who respond to the sound of the bells and come to help.

Bunches of Mexican marigolds adorn another monumental wooden arch that lies on the floor of another small cemetery not far from Arocutín. A group of residents patiently tie the flowers to the tree trunks, while others rest or enjoy a taco under the sun. The villagers decorate the arches, then lift them into place.

Cecilio Sánchez, a construction worker and a resident of the neighboring town of San Francisco Uricho, learned how to make the flower arch from his elders.

“But for all of us, our arch is much more beautiful than the one in Arocutín,” Sánchez said.

Maria Ermenegildo, 69, is a traditional embroidery artisan who has lived in Arocutín her entire life.

“We’ve always done it this way,” said Ermenegildo, while finishing the last marigold garlands ahead of the big night. “No other village can decorate and celebrate the way we do. We feel very proud every time tourists tell us how beautiful everything is.”

Pandemic-hit Mexican town awaits reunion with dead

Pandemic-hit Mexican town awaits reunion with dead

Mexico's Day of the Dead festival centers around the belief that souls of the deceased return for a brief reunion (AFP/Claudio CRUZ)

Alexander Martinez
Mon, November 1, 2021

Sandra Jimenez lost two sisters to the coronavirus, which devastated her small Mexican town. On Monday she awaited the return of their souls for the Day of the Dead.

Many events linked to what is considered Mexico's most important festival were canceled last year as the Latin American country battled to contain the virus.

But with a third wave of infections now subsiding, this year has seen the return of cemetery visits and other public celebrations, including a parade through the capital.


In Santa Cruz Atizapan, in the central State of Mexico, church bells rang out for months at the height of the pandemic in a show of respect for the many victims.

The residents found it so traumatizing that they asked for the tolling to stop, Jimenez said as she tidied the graves of relatives in the town's cemetery.

"It was horrible, distressing!" the 64-year-old said.

The Day of the Dead, which is rooted in indigenous culture, centers around the belief that the souls of the dead return on the night of November 1-2.

Families put out altars with pictures of relatives and their favorite foods, along with candles and decorative skulls.

- 'Calmer now' -

Atizapan is the Mexican municipality with the highest mortality rate due to Covid-19 relative to its population size, according to data from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The town of 12,894 people has registered 303 deaths from coronavirus, with a peak seen at the beginning of this year.

"Two or three people died every day. We were burying them up until the night," said Freddy Gonzalez, who manages the town's cemetery.

Before the crisis, annual deaths were around 60, so the graveyard had to expand its capacity and schedule to keep up, he said.

"But it's calmer now. There are two or three deaths every month," the 29-year-old said.

With the pandemic easing, relatives were allowed to enter the cemetery to tidy and decorate the graves before the Day of the Dead.

The country of 126 million has an official Covid-19 death toll of more than 288,000 -- one of the highest in the world.

Jimenez's sister Estela died in June 2020. In December, the coronavirus claimed the life of another sister.

Maria Luisa, who was 74, had continued to travel by public transport to her job as a domestic worker in Mexico City, putting her at risk of infection.

Estela, 76, died when the oxygen in her tank ran out on the way to a clinic.

"I gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," but it was not enough, Jimenez said.

A woman takes part in a Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City, where an easing of the pandemic led to the return of public celebrations (AFP/CLAUDIO CRUZ)

- 'Crying not enough' -

Atizapan only has one hospital providing basic care and many patients faced a one-hour journey for treatment, according to a paramedic working in the area.

At critical moments in the pandemic the hospitals were overwhelmed, said the man, who attended hundreds of emergencies in the town.

"Crying was not enough to release the emotion. We wanted to throw in the towel, but we had to continue," said the 27-year-old, who did not want to be named.

To honor those who died and try to ease the pain, the residents of Atizapan prepared colorful altars for the visiting souls.

"Not even the pandemic dampened our enthusiasm," said Antonio Briseno, 35, who lost his mother-in-law during the pandemic.

"We wait for our loved ones with much affection and respect," said Briseno, who put out photos of his mother, grandmother and mother-in-law along with fruit, beans, rice, chicken, chocolate, brandy and cigars.

Like his neighbors, he scattered marigold petals on the floor to guide the spirits to the altar.

Gonzalez, the cemetery manager, placed an offering in the chapel for the people whose bodies lie unidentified.

The paramedic dedicated his altar to those he saw pass away during the pandemic.

"Many died with empty stomachs," he said.

axm-dr/st

Mexicans return to Day of the Dead celebration with a vengeance


Sun, October 31, 2021

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Thousands of Mexicans crowded into the main avenue of Mexico City for a lively Day of the Dead parade on Sunday, relishing the chance to mark the festive tradition after the coronavirus pandemic cast a thick pall over it last year.

Most of the mass of spectators lining Paseo de la Reforma boulevard wore protective face masks as they watched colorful floats, bands and performers trundle down the street.

Others proudly sported bright depictions of calavera skulls on their faces to celebrate.

"I love coming to see this tradition we Mexicans can't lose sight of," said Leticia Galvan, a 67-year-old civil servant decked out in a skeleton suit and trilby, and with half of her face painted in the colors of a La Catrina skull.

"It's us making light of death, celebrating death."

Children sat atop their parents' shoulders to catch sight of the procession of floats bearing dancers in indigenous attire and feathered headdresses, scaled-down reproductions of Mexico City landmarks and spectral figures.

Mexico has endured one of the highest death tolls worldwide from the COVID-19 pandemic, and last year the city authorities urged the public to stay at home, ordering cemeteries to close during festivities traditionally held on Nov. 1-2.

But with nearly half the population now fully vaccinated against the virus, Mexico has in recent weeks significantly reduced daily infections, enabling the capital and most other regions of the country to lift restrictions on the public.

Many Mexicans still mask up when they go outdoors and some spectators kept their distance from the parade.

"I didn't expect to see so many people," said Rebeca Brito, a 22-year-old nurse, hanging back to avoid the crowds. "After all the time spent cooped up, they want to get out now."

Mexico Day of the Dead

A woman made up as a "Catrina" and wearing a face shield posed for a photo during Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico City, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. Altars and artwork from around the country were on display in a parade, as Mexicans honor the Day of the Dead. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Mexico celebrates Day of the Dead after pandemic closures

MARCO UGARTE and LISSETTE ROMERO
Sun, October 31, 2021,

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico returned Sunday to mass commemorations of the Day of the Dead, after traditional visits to graveyards were prohibited last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the one-year hiatus showed how the tradition itself refuses to die: Most families still celebrated with home altars to deceased loved ones, and some snuck into cemeteries anyway.

Gerardo Tapia Guadarrama on Sunday joined many others at the cemetery as he visited the grave of his father Juan Ignacio Tapia, who died in May 2020 of a thrombosis.

Even though cemeteries in Mexico were closed to visitors last year to avoid spreading the virus, so strong is the tradition that his son still slipped into the cemetery in the eastern Mexico City suburb of Valle de Chalco to visit him.

’Lat year it was prohibited, but we found a way," Tapia Guadarrama said slyly. Much of graveyard has low walls that can be jumped.

“To live is to remember,” he said. “What they (the dead) most want want is a visit from those they were close to in life."

A musician walks in the Valle de Chalco municipal cemetery as people begin to arrive to pay their respects to their dead, on the outskirts of Mexico

The holiday begins Oct. 31, remembering those who died in accidents; it continues Nov. 1 to mark those died in childhood, and then those who died as adults on Nov. 2.

Observances include entire families cleaning and decorating graves, which are covered with orange marigolds. At both cemeteries and at home altars, relatives light candles, put out offerings of the favorite foods and beverages of their deceased relatives.

There was a special altar in downtown Mexico City dedicated to those who died of COVID-19. Relatives were allowed into a fenced-off plaza and offered equipment to print out photos of their loved ones, which they could then pin, along with handwritten, messages on a black wall.

It was a quiet, solemn remembrance in a country where coronavirus deaths touched almost all extended families.

Mexico has over 288,000 test-confirmed deaths, but probable coronavirus mortalities as listed on death certificates suggest a toll closer to 440,000, by some counts the fourth-highest in the world.

For a country where people usually die surrounded by relatives, COVID-19 was particularly cruel, as loved ones were taken off alone in plastic tents, to die alone in isolation.

“The only thing I could say to him was, ‘Do everything the doctors tell you,’” Gina Olvera said of her father, who died of coronavirus. “That was the last thing I was able to say to him.” Olvera said she told her father, as she taped his photo to the memorial, “Well, you didn't make it, but you are here with us.”

One woman wept as she pinned up a photo of a female relative. Another, Dulce Moreno, was calm but sad as she pinned up a photo of her uncle and her grandfather, Pedro Acosta Nuñez, both of whom died of complications of COVID-19.

“The house feels empty now without him (the grandfather), we feel lost,” Moreno said.

For most, it was a joyful return, above all, to public activities like public altars and the Hollywood-style Day of the Dead parade that Mexico City adopted to mimic a fictitious march in the 2015 James Bond movie “Spectre.”

“These days are not sad here; they are a way to remember our dead with great happiness,” said Otilia Ochoa, a homemaker who came along with dozens of others to take pictures of the flower-decked offerings near the coronavirus memorial. “What is good is to recover this liberty, this contact we had lost” during the pandemic, Ochoa said.

Tens of thousands of Mexico City — almost all wearing masks, despite the city's relatively high vaccination rate — gathered along the city's main boulevard Sunday to watch the parade of dancing skeletons, dancers and floats.

There were few references to coronavirus in the parade, but there was a whole section of skeleton-dressed actors representing Mexico City's street traders and vendors.

“We are here to celebrate life!” Mexico City Tourism Secretary Paola Felix Diaz said in kicking off the parade.

More risky group activities like Halloween-style costume parties and trick-or-treating have still not recovered from the pandemic. But children took the opportunity to dress up in Mexico-style Day of the Dead costumes as skull-like Catrinas, or as red-clad guards from the Netflix series “Squid Game.”

But Mexico has long had a different attitude toward death, more social, more accepting than in many parts of the world. Wakes and funerals here are often elaborate, days-long events gathering entire neighborhoods and extended families for eating, praying and remembering.

CLIMATE CHANGE IS WW3.0

Prince Charles: World should be on 'warlike' footing to fight climate change

Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Britain's Prince Charles was among the first key speakers on Monday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and said one strategy to control global warming would be for the world to take a "warlike" approach.

Prince Charles spoke during the opening ceremony at the conference, also known as COP26, and said that kind of an effort would make up a lot of ground in meeting key climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

"We need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector," he said. "With trillions [of dollars] at its disposal."

Prince Charles followed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the stage. In his remarks, Johnson said the world is quickly running out of tim

"Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change," he said. "It's one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock and we need to act now."

Charles addressed dozens of world leaders in the room and said he's met with many in the international community over the past 18 months

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us just how devastating global cross-border threat can be," he said

"The scale and scope of the threat we face call for a global systems-level solution based on radically transforming our current fossil fuel-based economy to one that's genuinely renewable and sustainable.

"We have to put ourselves on what might be called a warlike footing."

Charles urged nations to unite and provide accelerated nature-based solutions and a circular bio-economy. To fund such a campaign, he called for orchestrated support from the global private sector.

"It offers the only real prospect of fundamental economic transition."

'Digging our own graves': COP26 leaders told take climate action

World leaders were told to help "save humanity" on Monday at the COP26 climate summit and warned that failure was "immoral" and would sow bitterness for generations.

 

What is the role of developing countries in COP26 

summit ?

The COP26 climate summit in Glasgow has been described as the “last best chance” to bring climate change under control. FRANCE 24 Valerie Dekimpe is in Glascow and she talks about the role of developing countries in the COP26 summit with Yasmine Fouad, Egypt's Minister of Environmental Affairs.

Barbados PM says failure to fund climate adaptation 'immoral'

Author: AFP|Update: 01.11.2021 


Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said decades of delay had contributed to climate disaster / © AFP

Rich countries' failure to cough up a promised $100 billion a year to help vulnerable nations cope with climate change has deadly consequences, the prime minister of Barbados said Monday at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

Impacts from climate-enhanced droughts, heatwaves, floods and wildfires are "measured in lives and livelihoods in our communities and that, my friends, is immoral and unjust," Mia Mottley told more than 120 world leaders kicking off the critical 13-day negotiations.

Dozens of small island states and major low-lying cities worldwide are also exposed to the existential threat of superstorms, made more destructive by rising seas.


Wealthy nations first made the $100 billion pledge in 2009, but fell $20 billion short ahead of their 2020 deadline.

Last week, in a revised schedule, they laid out a plan for hitting the target only in 2023.

Such delays, a paucity of funds devoted to adaptation needs, and the large share in the form of loans rather than grants have deepened an old rift between developing and rich nations struggling to find common ground.

"Are we really going to leave Scotland without the results and ambitions needed to save lives and our planet?," Mottley asked, her voice laced with anger.

"How many more pictures of people must we see on these screens without being able to move? Are we so blinded and hardened that we can no longer appreciate the cries of humanity?"

Capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius -- the aspirational goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement -- is an absolute necessity, she continued.

"For those who have eyes to see, for those who have ears to listen, and those who have a heart to feel, 1.5C is what we need to survive," she said.

"2C is a death sentence for the people of Antigua and Barbuda, for the people of the Maldives, of Dominica and Fiji, of Kenya and Mozambique, and yes, for the people of Barbados."

Even if newly revised carbon-cutting pledges submitted in the run-up to COP26 are fulfilled, it would still lead to "catastrophic" warming of 2.7C, according to a UN report last week.

"We've come here to say: 'Try harder'," she added. "Our people, the world, the planet need our action now -- not next year, not in the next decade."