Trees are often cut down to create grazing land to feed the world's hunger for meat
“More than 100 world leaders have promised to end and reverse deforestation by 2030, in the COP26 climate summit's first major deal.
Brazil - where stretches of the Amazon rainforest have been cut down - was among the signatories on Tuesday.
The pledge includes almost £14bn ($19.2bn) of public and private funds.
Experts welcomed the move, but warned a previous deal in 2014 had ‘failed to slow deforestation at all’ and commitments needed to be delivered on.
Felling trees contributes to climate change because it depletes forests that absorb vast amounts of the warming gas CO2.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the global meeting in Glasgow, said ‘more leaders than ever before’ - a total of 110 - had made the ‘landmark’ commitment.” Read more at BBC News
Glenn Youngkin, the Republican elected to be Virginia's next governor, takes the stage last night in Chantilly.
“Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor’s race, CNN projects, becoming the first Republican to win statewide office there since 2009. The race was the centerpiece of a slew of local and state elections yesterday, and Youngkin’s victory could portend serious problems for Democrats heading into next year’s midterms. Republicans, meanwhile, are looking to Youngkin’s winning strategy -- especially how he mobilized supporters of former President Trump without alienating suburban voters who are less enamored of him -- as a way to possibly approach other contests. Across the country, other results are rolling in. The New Jersey governor’s race is still too close to call, marking another sobering result for Dems who thought they had the race in the bag. Voters in Minneapolis also rejected the possibility of widespread police reform spurred by the 2020 death of George Floyd.” Read more at CNN
“HOUSTON — So, this is the Braves team that found a way to match the great Atlanta teams of the 1990s. This team, with no trio of Hall of Fame aces, no legendary manager and no backlog of World Series experience to build on, somehow found a way.
The current edition of Atlanta’s storied ball club could never equal the star power of its forebears, but it has already drawn even with them in championship trophies, achieving in one trip to baseball’s mountaintop what its predecessors could do only once in five tries.
On a cool Tuesday night with the roof open at Minute Maid Park, Atlanta beat the Houston Astros, 7-0, in Game 6 to win the World Series in its first appearance in the Fall Classic since 1999, and capture Atlanta’s first title in 26 years.” Read more at New York Times
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., speaks during the virtual Facebook Connect event, where the company announced its rebranding as Meta, in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“Facebook on Tuesday announced it will be putting an end to its facial recognition system amid growing concern from users and regulators.
The social network, whose parent company is now named Meta, said it will delete more than 1 billion people’s individual facial recognition templates as a result of this change. The company said in a blog post that more than a third of Facebook’s daily active users, or over 600 million accounts, had opted into the use of the face recognition technology.
Facebook will no longer automatically recognize people’s faces in photos or videos, the post said. The change, however, will also impact the automatic alt text technology that the company uses to describe images for people who are blind or visually impaired. Facebook services that rely on the face recognition systems will be removed over the coming weeks.
‘There are many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society, and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use,’ the company said. ‘Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate.’
Ending the use of the face recognition system is part of ‘a company-wide move away from this kind of broad identification,’ the post said.” Read more at CNBC
“The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse continued with opening statements.
The Illinois teenager who killed two people and injured a third during unrest in Kenosha, Wis., last year following the police shooting of Jacob Blake has pleaded not guilty to homicide charges. The teen faces charges of intentional, reckless and attempted homicide as well as reckless endangerment, a curfew violation and possession of a firearm as a minor. His attorneys have argued self-defense, and he has been free on $2 million in bail, mostly raised by supporters online. Rittenhouse shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, now 27. Under Wisconsin law, the defense must only cite some evidence for self-defense, putting the burden of proof on prosecutors to negate that claim beyond a reasonable doubt.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump was threatening Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger when he asked him to help ‘find’ enough votes to overturn his loss in Georgia to Democratic President Joe Biden, Raffensperger writes in a new book.
The book, ‘Integrity Counts,’ was released Tuesday. In it, Raffensperger depicts a man who defied pressure from Trump to alter election results, but also reveals a public official settling political scores as he seeks to survive a hostile Republican primary environment and win reelection in 2022.
An engineer who grew wealthy before running for office, Raffensperger recounts in his book the struggle in Georgia that followed Biden’s narrow victory, including death threats texted to his wife, an encounter with men who he says may have been staking out his suburban Atlanta home, and being escorted out of the Georgia capitol on Jan. 6 as a handful of right-wing protesters entered the building on the same day many more protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
The book climaxes with the phone call, which was recorded and then given to multiple news organizations. Raffensperger — known as a conservative Republican before Trump targeted him — writes that he perceived Trump as threatening him multiple times during the phone call.
I’ felt then — and still believe today — that this was a threat,’ Raffensperger writes. ‘Others obviously thought so, too, because some of Trump’s more radical followers have responded as if it was their duty to carry out this threat.’
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating potential attempts to improperly influence Georgia’s 2020 election. Raffensperger said in an interview with The Associated Press that Willis’ investigators have talked to some employees in his office, but that he hasn’t been interviewed.” Read more at AP News
“Elon Musk contradicted Hertz on a deal for Teslas. The chief of the electric-vehicle maker said his company hasn’t signed a deal with the car-rental provider yet. After saying last month that it was ordering 100,000 Teslas for its fleet, Hertz stood that announcement and said Tuesday that deliveries have already started.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Democrats have reached a deal on prescription drug pricing. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the agreement, which is part of Democrats’ social-spending and climate bill, would empower Medicare to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs. Drug pricing provisions were initially left out of the $1.85 trillion framework released by the White House last week.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Four manufacturers of prescription opioids won the pharmaceutical industry’s first major legal victory in the opioid crisis, turning aside claims by local California governments that they contributed substantially to the epidemic.
In a bench trial decision late Monday, a state judge flatly rejected a legal argument being employed in thousands of cases against the industry over its role in an epidemic of abuse that, according to federal data, has contributed to the deaths of some 500,000 people in the United States since the late 1990s and grown worse during the pandemic.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The Justice Department moved to block Penguin Random House from buying Simon & Schuster. The suit claims the deal would allow Penguin Random House to exert outsized influence over which books are published in the U.S. and how much authors are paid, harming authors and consumers. The publishers have vowed to fight the antitrust lawsuit.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“23 — The number of people killed after a military hospital in Kabul was hit by two explosions. The hospital housed injured Taliban fighters and veterans of the former Afghan military. The attack, which bore hallmarks of Islamic State, is the latest eruption of violence since the country’s U.S.-backed government collapsed in mid-August.
$2.1 million — The approximate price per room key in the sale of the luxury Four Seasons hotel in California’s Napa Valley. According to people familiar with the matter, a real-estate investment trust has agreed to pay about $175 million for the 85-room hotel, which opened Oct. 1 with some of the highest room prices in the U.S.
6 — The number of marathons in as many weeks that Shalane Flanagan, a former New York City Marathon winner, aims to finish in under 3 hours each. If successful in this weekend’s NYC marathon, the race will mark the culmination of her goal, which she has been on track to reach despite two reconstructed knees.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Lives Lived: In 1980, Pat Martino’s career as a jazz guitarist seemed to be at an end after brain surgery left him with no memory. He painstakingly relearned how to play, and went on to do so for another three decades. He died at 77.” Read more at New York Times
“The off-year elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey tend to receive outsize attention, and the results are mined for deeper meaning about what they portend for the midterm elections the following year that determine which party controls Congress.
Here are some key takeaways from Tuesday’s elections:
DEMOCRATS SEE WORST FEARS IN VIRGINIA
Democrats’ worst fears are that they’re on course for a 2010-like drubbing in next year’s midterm elections and that they can’t use the specter of former President Donald Trump to stop it.
Those fears got a lot stronger after Republican Glenn Youngkin won the governor’s race in Virginia.
President Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 percentage points just a year ago, and if Democrats cannot generate more enthusiasm than their gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe did, they’ll likely be swept out of power in Congress.
In Virginia, governors are limited to a single term and elections are held in odd-numbered years, making it the go-to gauge of voter sentiment before midterms. It usually is a warning for the party in power in Washington and this year was no different.
McAuliffe, elected Virginia governor in 2013, was unable to excite voters amid significant headwinds facing Democrats, including Biden’s drooping poll numbers, the congressional stalemate over the president’s economic agenda and the persistence of the pandemic.
Democrats have only a five-vote margin in the House and a single-vote margin in the Senate. Historically, the party in power almost always loses seats in Congress. But if 2022 nationally is anything like Virginia 2021, Democrats will lose a lot more than normal.
YOUNGKIN SHOWS THE GOP THE WAY
Diversifying states with a large share of college graduates like Virginia have been an unsolvable puzzle for the GOP during the political era dominated by former President Donald Trump. But Youngkin seems to have cracked the code.
A former private equity executive, Youngkin presented himself as a nonthreatening suburban dad in a fleece vest. He embraced Trump just enough to win the GOP primary and rev up the party base, but was also able to target more moderate voters by talking about fiscal management and investing in schools and campaigning without the former president at his side.
According to AP VoteCast, a survey of voters, it paid off. While a majority of voters held an unfavorable view of Trump, about half had a favorable view of Youngkin.
Youngkin’s arm’s-length approach to Trump didn’t seem to hurt him with GOP voters. Most Youngkin voters — about 8 in 10 — said the candidate supports Trump the right amount. About 1 in 10 said he supports the former president too much, and about that many said Youngkin supports Trump too little.
Look for more Republicans next year try to model themselves after Youngkin in swing areas — refusing to disavow Trump but not hugging him too closely, and tailoring their messages to both the former president’s most hardcore voters and persuadable suburbanites.
TARGETING EDUCATION ON RACE
Youngkin’s signature issue was an unexpected one — education. He prevailed on the issue by both pledging to boost education funding and hammering public schools on hot-button social issues like race and transgender rights.
He said he would ban the teaching of critical race theory in Virginia classrooms even though it is not a part of the secondary school curriculum.
Critical race theory is an academic framework that centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people. In recent months, it has become a catch-all political buzzword for any teaching in schools about race and American history.
The focus comes after lengthy school closures during the pandemic infuriated some traditionally Democratic voting groups and conservatives targeted school board races nationwide over masking rules and teaching racial justice issues. In Virginia, 14% of voters listed education as a top issue, and about 7 of 10 of those voted for Youngkin.
McAuliffe didn’t help himself when, during a debate, he said, ‘I don’t believe parents should be telling schools what they should teach,’ providing Youngkin a pivotal opening to hammer his opponent.
Youngkin also highlighted a controversial high school bathroom rape case in affluent Loudoun County, in Northern Virginia, to argue against allowing transgender students into their chosen restrooms.
LIBERAL VOTING LAWS AREN’T BAD FOR GOP
Democrats took control of all parts of Virginia’s government in 2019 and steadily started liberalizing the state’s voting laws. They made mail voting accessible to all and required a 45-day window for early voting, among the longest in the country. This year they passed a voting rights act that made it easier to sue for blocking ballot access.
Trump in 2020 attacked efforts to expand ballot access during the pandemic, spreading baseless claims of fraud.
Republican-controlled states have rushed to tighten voting laws, cutting early voting hours, restricting mail balloting and arguing that liberalizing elections invites fraud and helps Democrats. The latter claim contradicts repeated studies that have found that mail voting does not favor either political party.
Now Virginia’s election is another example of how liberal voting laws don’t hurt conservatives.
NEW JERSEY ALSO SCARES DEMOCRATS
The other big governor’s race Tuesday was in New Jersey. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy was favored in his race against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, but the race was too early to call Wednesday morning.
Democrats were looking to the Garden State for hopeful signs, but were quickly disappointed as what should have been a relatively easy race turned into a nail-biter.
Murphy has been able to deliver on many liberal priorities, like expanding government funding for widespread prekindergarten and community college, and has the advantage of incumbency that McAuliffe lacks. As such, he may offer more of a model of the position Democrats could be in next year should they manage to pass Biden’s agenda. He also avoided McAuliffe’s errors on education.
Still, the race remained tight well after midnight in a state Biden won by 16 percentage points, another sign of the grim national environment for the Democrats.
DON’T OVERINTERPRET
It’s still 12 months before Election Day 2022. While Tuesday’s results hold some clues as to what might happen, they are merely clues.
The two biggest drags on Democrats currently are the persistence of the coronavirus pandemic and supply chain problems that have pushed up prices. Both could improve over the next 12 months, potentially bolstering the incumbent party -- or they could worsen.
There are signs Democrats could pass Biden’s infrastructure and social safety net legislation soon. Most Wall Street forecasts call for robust growth next year.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to issue an opinion on an abortion case next June that will determine whether the conservative majority upholds or overturns Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that affirmed abortion rights.
That could make debates over masking and racial justice lessons in schools seem like quaint relics of Election Day 2021.
So dig into the results of tonight, but they are in no way definitive. A lot can happen in the next year, and probably will.” Read more at AP News
“Islamic State attacks Kabul. At least 25 people were killed and 50 more were injured in a suspected Islamic State attack on a military hospital in Kabul on Tuesday, one of the deadliest attacks since the Taliban regained control of the country. Islamic State attacks have increased in Afghanistan in recent weeks and come amid reports that former members of the ousted Afghan government’s military and intelligence services have begun enlisting with the terrorist group.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Yahoo Inc. said it was pulling out of China, citing an increasingly challenging business and legal environment, the latest foreign company to be caught up in Beijing’s toughening rules for businesses.
Yahoo said it had ceased to offer its services from Nov. 1, becoming the second well-known U.S. technology firm to downsize China operations in less than a month following the closure of Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn social-networking site.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Ethiopia is under a state of emergency after forces from the northern Tigray region claimed to have gained territory. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister has even called on citizens to take up arms against Tigrayan forces as they advance toward the nation’s capital. Fighting first broke out in Ethiopia’s Tigray region last year when the region's former ruling party clashed with the Ethiopian government. Since then, the international community has been concerned about human rights violations resulting from the conflict. The United Nations launched a joint investigation, and the results recently led the group to condemn all parties to the conflict, saying they have, to varying degrees, ‘committed violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.’” Read more at CNN
“U.S. election funding. Foreign nationals are allowed to finance U.S. ballot initiatives, according to a Federal Election Commission ruling first reported by Axios. Foreign donations are banned under U.S. electoral law, but the ruling applies that law only to elections, not state-level referendums. Although the decision was made at the federal level, U.S. states can enact their own bans on foreign funding; so far, only seven states have done so.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“ENCINITAS, Calif. (AP) — The bloom of a giant and stinky Sumatran flower nicknamed the ‘corpse plant’ because it smells like a dead body is drawing huge crowds to a Southern California botanical garden.
The bloom of the Amorphophallus titanum plant began Sunday afternoon at the San Diego Botanic Gardens in Encinitas. By Monday morning, timed-entry tickets had sold out, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
More than 5,000 people were expected to visit the garden by Tuesday evening.
The bloom of the ‘corpse plant’ lasts just 48 hours and during its peak it emits a putrid odor of rotting flesh to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies that help its pollination process.” Read more at AP News