Good morning. Benjamin Netanyahu will retake power in Israel, and Imran Khan was wounded in Pakistan. But first, to take you into the weekend, a Times climate correspondent explains the stakes at COP27. |
| A coal-fired power plant in Beijing. Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times |
|
The two weeks of negotiations, in Sharm el Sheikh, come at a tense time. Since last year’s summit in Scotland, just 26 of the 193 countries that agreed to step up their climate actions have followed through with more ambitious plans. |
To understand the stakes, I spoke with my colleague Lisa Friedman. COP27 will be the 11th climate conference she has covered. |
What are the major themes? |
Countries that failed last year to put forward strengthened targets were expected to do so before COP27. And the protection of vulnerable countries is going to be really high on the agenda. |
This year, Pakistan is leading the G77, which is a group of developing nations, so Pakistani leaders are going to be out front on the issue of aid for countries in need of support. We’ll also hear a lot on the subject from the small island nations that are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change, as well as from very vulnerable countries in Asia and Africa. |
So we’re most likely going to see developing countries make a dramatic stand and call for wealthy nations to provide compensation for a problem that they didn’t cause but with which they have to deal. |
How does the war in Ukraine affect the talks? |
A lot of countries are finding it very hard to move forward this year with their climate commitments. |
But a lot of leaders make the case that one can focus on oil and gas supplies in the short term, while also aiming to phase out fossil fuels. In fact, the International Energy Agency said last month that the war could actually speed up the shift to clean energy. COP27 will be one place where we will see if leaders are as serious about climate change as they are about their near-term energy needs. |
What about China and the U.S., the world’s largest polluters? |
It was cooperation between the U.S. and China that made the Paris Agreement possible in 2015. Having the two biggest polluters commit to establishing emissions goals set the stage for an agreement in which all countries, at all levels of wealth and responsibility, were able to say: ‘Yes, we will act, too.’ |
This year, it’s hard to imagine the U.S. and China making any kind of joint anything. And in the long term, it’s impossible to see how the world can stay at safe temperatures without the world’s biggest emitters working together. |
Even though this is the 27th meeting, climate change is still barreling forward. Is anything going to change this time around? |
I have medium expectations. There are big COPs and little COPs, and every five years or so there is a big decision-making protocol: Kyoto, Paris, Glasgow. |
I do expect there to be agreements and deals that move things farther along in the right direction. But the thing we’ll be looking for is whether governments will keep the promises they make at these summits. |
| Benjamin Netanyahu’s ascension is a sign of profound disagreement among Jews about the nature of Israel’s Jewish identity.Amit Elkayam for The New York Times |
|
Right-wing Israelis were driven to more extreme parties by perceived threats to Israel’s Jewish identity and to their safety, following unrest in the West Bank and interethnic riots in 2021. Netanyahu tried to calm fears about his return, but many in Israel’s Palestinian minority remain unconvinced. |
Details: Netanyahu said he would not use his authority to upend his trial on corruption charges. But some of his coalition partners might. |
| Imran Khan moved to Lahore for treatment after being shot.Arif Ali/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
|
Imran Khan wounded by gunman |
Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, was wounded at a rally yesterday when at least one gunman fired on his convoy. His doctor said he was in stable condition. |
Khan was shot in both legs, a senior member of his party said, calling it “100 percent an assassination attempt.” He was leading a protest march to Islamabad to demand that the government hold early elections. A total of seven people were wounded, including one senior aide, and a suspect was in custody. |
Background: The attack was one of Pakistan’s most serious outbreaks of political violence targeting a prominent government official since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007. |
| North Korea’s launches triggered alarms in Japan, which initially set off its emergency alert system in three northern prefectures.Kyodo, via Reuters |
|
- North Korea launched six more missiles yesterday. Parts of Japan were on alert.
- Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, is in China today, Deutsche Welle reports. He is the first E.U. leader to visit the country since the pandemic began.
|
| Bolsonaro supporters massed outside the Brazilian Army’s national headquarters.Dado Galdieri for The New York Times |
|
| The painting “Girl With a Flute” will be displayed as an authentic Vermeer, despite recent debates about its provenance. via National Gallery of Art, Washington |
|
A hundred years ago, Dushanbe was only a village between Kabul and Samarkand. The Soviet Union transformed the city, now the capital of Tajikistan. |
Now, Dubai-style glass and steel is rising from the dust. Much of the new architecture is meant to evoke the ancient Persian Achaemenid Empire. But the new buildings conceal more recent, undesirable history, including Mongol invasions, Turkic overlords and Russian colonization. |
In a changing Tajikistan, where history is constantly being erased and rewritten, artisans are left holding on to tradition. “The smells and feelings of the 19th century are here,” said Karim Saidov, who specializes in carving combs. “You’d never know that the internet had been invented.” |
| Romulo Yanes for The New York Times |
|
Play the Mini Crossword, and here’s a clue: Wheat type (five letters). |
That’s it for today’s briefing. Enjoy your weekend! — Amelia |
P.S. “Long Line of Ladies,” the winner of the grand jury prize for best documentary short at SXSW Film 2022, made its debut on The Times this week. |
|