The "last best chance” to fight climate change

International climate conference COP26 begins in Scotland; the world passes 5 million deaths from Covid-19.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

International climate change summit kicks off in Glasgow

 Evan Vucci/AFP via Getty

• World leaders gathered in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, where they will push each other to avert the worst impacts of global warming. [Washington Post / Karla Adam, Brady Dennis, and Annie Linskey]  
• Delegates from nearly 200 countries will spend the next two weeks determining how best to limit warming as far below 2 degrees Celsius as possible, in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement.  [AP / Frank Jordans]
• “We only have a brief window before us to raise our ambitions,” President Joe Biden said as he addressed his fellow leaders at the summit on Monday; Biden also apologized for Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. [NYT / Jim Tankersly]
• Some of the world’s most powerful leaders are skipping the conference; China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro — all countries with poor climate records — won’t be attending. [NYT]
• With the world already 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times, the pressure is on for countries to commit to ending the use of fossil fuels. The consequences of 1.5 degrees of warming are dire, with entire islands consumed by sea-level rise. [Reuters / Ilze Filks]

Another grim coronavirus milestone

• Less than two years into the coronavirus pandemic, more than 5 million people worldwide have died of Covid-19, according to figures released by John Hopkins University on Monday. [BBC / Philippa Roxby]
• The European Union, United States, Brazil, and the UK have accounted for almost half of the deaths. [AP / Carla K. Johnson]
• “It’s quite possible that the number of deaths is double what we see. But five million is such a staggering number on its own. No country has been able to escape it,” Amber D’Souza, professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told National Geographic.  [NatGeo / Amy McKeever]
• The development of vaccines has helped curb the pandemic, but recent increases in deaths and hospitalizations likely caused by variants, vaccine hesitancy, and (in the northern hemisphere) more time indoors due to weather are worrying public health officials. [CNBC / Holly Ellyatt]
• According to the World Health Organization, Europe and Southeast Asia reported a roughly 20 percent increase in new cases, while the latter also saw a 13 percent increase in deaths. Russia, Poland, and Singapore are all experiencing a jump in cases. [NPR / Jaclyn Diaz]
• Officials from the G20 announced Friday that the bloc will help boost vaccinations in developing countries with the goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the world by mid-2022. [Reuters / Jan Strupczewski and Andrea Shalal]

The US Supreme Court appears ready to allow abortion providers to challenge Texas’s controversial abortion law. [Reuters / Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley]

• American Airlines canceled more than 2,200 flights between Friday and Monday, blaming inclement weather and staff shortages.  [USA Today / Dawn Gilbertson]
• A knife-wielding man dressed in a Joker costume injured 17 people on a Tokyo train on Sunday evening. [Vice / Hanako Montgomery]
• White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced she’d tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday. She is fully vaccinated and has not been in direct contact with President Biden for several days. [CBS / Caroline Linton]

“If working apart we are a force powerful enough to destabilize our planet, surely working together we are powerful enough to save it. In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery.” 

Environmentalist and host Sir David Attenborough urges COP26 delegates to take decisive action to combat the climate crisis. 

What will the future of work look like? This fall, Today, Explained, Recode Daily, The Weeds, and Vox Conversations will all examine the recent dramatic changes in the American workplace and whether these changes are permanent. [Spotify]

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