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At UN Climate talks, oil companies pledge to combat methane; Environmentalists call it “smokescreen”

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Fifty oil companies representing nearly half of global production have pledged to reach near-zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030, the president of this year’s United Nations climate talks said Saturday, a move that environmental groups called a “smokescreen.”The announcement by Sultan al-Jaber, president of the climate summit known as COP28 and head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., comes as he and others have insisted his background would allow him to bring oil companies to the negotiating table. Al-Jaber has maintained that having the industry’s buy-in is crucial to drastically slashing the world’s greenhouse emissions by nearly half in seven years to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times.The pledge included major national oil companies such as Saudi Aramco, Brazil’s Petrobras and Sonangol, from Angola, and multi-natio...

1 dead, 1 critical after car ends up in Lake Ontario

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

One man is dead and another is in critical condition after a vehicle ended up in the water in the Port Lands.Police say they were called to Polson Street just off Cherry Street shortly after 3:30 a.m. Saturday. When they arrived they found a car with two people in the water. One person was later pronounced dead at the scene while paramedics say a second man was taken to a nearby trauma centre with critical injuries. Both men are believed to be in their late 20s – early 30s. There is no word yet on what may have led up to the car ending up in the water.

Amid housing crisis, decrepit N.L. jail seen as preferable to living on the street

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Michael Keough has to pause in the middle of his phone call from Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest jail to cough and wipe his eyes — there’s black mould on the wall where the phones are, he explains, and it irritates him after a while.The 37-year-old is back at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s after declining a bail hearing in September and consenting to be placed on remand in the 164-year-old crumbling building, where an ongoing rodent infestation led to an inmate being bitten in his sleep.The conditions inside the penitentiary are horrific, Keough said. But outside, he said, they’re worse. Keough is homeless, and he was living in a tent and panhandling before his current stay at the penitentiary. When someone stole his tent and he had nowhere left to go, he started stealing food again, waiting to be picked up by police and sent back to jail, where he’d at least have meals and a bed.“If I was released on b...

Watch six memorable ads from Walker Art Center’s annual British Arrows Awards

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

As usual, the annual British Arrows Awards offer up a series of eye-popping commercials that either warm or break your heart, delight your senses and baffle your brain.Founded in 1976, the British Arrows selects the previous year’s most compelling advertisements and compiles an evening of the best of the best. For decades, Walker Art Center has screened that compilation throughout the month of December. It’s an annual tradition that typically draws more than 30,000 people each season.One surprise this year is the absence of a clip from U.K. retail giant John Lewis. The company’s annual holiday ad, a big-budget affair that typically uses a slowed-down cover of a pop music classic as its soundtrack, was relatively underwhelming when compared to previous efforts. The ad did win a sliver medal, but for whatever reason it did not make the cut for the annual program. (In possibly related news, John Lewis dumped its ad agency of 14 years in May.)This year’s 74-minut...

Steady temperatures through Wednesday, warm-up on the horizon

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- Clouds still remain overhead and will do so for most of the day. cooler temperatures, with highs only in the upper 40s. I'm still on track to see some light rain overnight into early Sunday morning. Temperatures on Sunday will climb into the low 50s with a gradual clearing through the day. Another weak system will bring another round of light rain and sprinkles to the area early Monday morning. Past that, seasonable temperatures continue through Wednesday, with a warm-up for the end of the work week.

Nuggets Journal: NBA in-season tournament is officially a hit. Here are the changes it should make

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

There came a miniature breaking point for Michael Malone last week after yet another question about the in-season tournament.“I think everybody’s doing the right thing and saying all the right things, like ‘This is a big in-season game tonight,'” Malone said before the Nuggets’ group stage finale in Houston. “Well for me, we’re 1-3 on the road trip. The last thing I’m thinking about is the in-season tournament. I’m just being very honest.”His answer was illuminating in two ways. First, the obvious: This new NBA endeavor is fun to play along with, but only as long as it isn’t eclipsing a team’s primary goal, which is to win games regardless of whether the court is painted funny. By this point in the group stage, the tournament as a novelty concept — and the accompanying questions from media — had clearly worn off for Malone, who was trying to get a championship-caliber team back on track. Understandab...

Broncos Journal: RT Mike McGlinchey using cleats to honor late cousin Dan McCain, “my best friend and biggest supporter”

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

Mike McGlinchey dabbed at his eyes as he tried to explain the unexplainable.At his locker this week, the Broncos right tackle was asked about his footwear choice this weekend as players across the league represent causes near and dear for My Cause, My Cleats weekend.Few will hit closer to home than McGlinchey’s.His cousin, Dan McCain, died this summer after a life spent wrestling with a series of lung and heart issues.Through those challenges, though, McCain was McGlinchey’s most ardent supporter.“Dan was my biggest fan and he was my best friend and biggest supporter,” McGlinchey said. “Since I was in high school he barely missed any of my games. He lived through me and he lived through the rest of my brothers and my cousins that played.“… Football was everything to Dan. You carry the weight with you every day in losing him, but you know he’s there watching over us, and he’s certainly maybe had a little bit of influence upstairs in how the Broncos are doing right now.”Mc...

Mathews: Come home, Kamala Harris, and run for governor

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

Come back, Kamala.Back to California, where you have a future.Away from Washington, D.C., where they’ll never give you a fair shake.You’re politically trapped. You’re the unpopular vice president of an unpopular president. As a team, the two of you are headed to a catastrophic election defeat, even though your likely opponent is an insurrectionist ex-president facing multiple criminal indictments.Two-thirds of Democrats want your boss, Joe Biden, not to run for re-election. But everyone knows Biden, 81, will run anyway.What’s more appalling is that you are getting much of the blame for much of this. Biden’s many allies in politics and media suggest he can’t drop out because the nomination would go to you.They note that you do worse in presidential polls than him. But they leave unmentioned the truth that you’re unpopular because your job as vice president is to represent him, and he’s given you peanuts to work with. He has never articulated a clear vision for the country, or a secon...

Opinion: Protect Californians, wildlife from groundwater contamination

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

More than a decade ago, UC Davis released a groundbreaking report about the growing human health threat from groundwater contamination. It revealed that hundreds of thousands of Californians rely on polluted groundwater to meet their household needs. More than a million are at risk.The problem is now well understood. Yet for over a decade, the California Water Resources Control Board has failed to take meaningful action.That’s why a coalition of Latino, farmworker, environmental and fishing organizations filed suit in October challenging the water resources board and Central Coast Regional Water Board for continuing to allow agricultural pollution to contaminate drinking water supplies and ecosystems. The case is focused on the Central Coast, but a successful outcome may help force action by regional water boards statewide.The Salinas Valley is a hot spot for agricultural contamination, although the problem is widespread in the Central Valley and elsewhere. In recent years, local gr...

Barabak: DeSantis-Newsom red vs. blue state debate was a dud

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:24:51 GMT

The prodigiously hyped debate between Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis was never going to be more than a diversion, a brief sideshow running parallel to the main attraction — the actual campaign for the White House.California’s Democratic governor is not a candidate for president, as he has oft stated and reiterated several more times Thursday night.Florida’s governor is running for the Republican nomination, but doing so poorly that he stooped to participate in a publicity stunt, dressed up as a national policy forum, that fairly reeked with the smell of DeSantis’ desperation.Even by those meager standards, “The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate,” as Fox News breathlessly promoted the cable TV throwdown, proved a dud.“You’re nothing but a bully,” Newsom taunted.“You’re a bully,” DeSantis shot back.And so it went, for more than 90 excruciating minutes — at least on those occasions when the two weren’t tal...