UN to world leaders: To curtail warming, you must do more
Pressure keeps building on increasingly anxious world leaders to ratchet up efforts to fight climate change, and officials report slight-but-vague signs of encouragement from ongoing talks at the United Nations.
For the second time in four days, this time out of U.N. headquarters in New York, leaders heard pleas Monday to make deeper cuts of emissions of heat-trapping gases and give poorer countries more money to develop cleaner energy and adapt to the worsening impacts of climate change.
In a private session of more than two hours, about 40 of the world’s leaders provided “encouraging declarations” on the money end, but “there is still a long way to go” on emission cuts, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters afterward. He gave no specifics.
“We need decisive action now to avert climate catastrophe and for that we need solidarity,” Guterres, speaking at a news conference after the session Monday, said he told world leaders. “There is a high risk of failure” at huge climate negotiations in six weeks.
‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero sentenced to 25 years on terror charges
The man who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda” for saving hundreds of his countrymen from genocide was convicted of terrorism offenses Monday and sentenced to 25 years at a trial that human rights watchdogs and other critics of Rwanda’s repressive government have described as an act of retaliation.
Paul Rusesabagina, credited with sheltering ethnic Tutsis during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, boycotted the announcement of the verdict after calling the trial a “sham.”
The U.S. resident and Belgian citizen was convicted on eight charges including membership in a terrorist group, murder and abduction. He was charged along with 20 other people.
The circumstances surrounding Rusesabagina’s arrest last year, his limited access to an independent legal team and his reported worsening health have drawn international concern for the 67-year-old who left Rwanda in 1996.
Pro-Kremlin party keeps large majority in Russian parliament
Russia’s ruling party retained its supermajority in parliament, further cementing President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power following elections that excluded most opposition politicians and were marred by multiple reports of violations.
The vote was watched closely for signs that Putin’s control might slip, however slightly, ahead of the 2024 presidential election. It’s not yet clear whether he will run again, choose a successor or outline a different path — but he is expected to keep his hand on the tiller whatever he decides, and an obedient State Duma, or parliament, will be crucial to those plans.
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