As Trump and Xi near deal, few see letup in heated US-China rivalry
Gyeongju, South Korea – As US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping prepare to meet for the first time since 2019, Washington and Beijing appear poised to reach a deal to lower the temperature of their fierce rivalry. But while Trump and Xi are widely expected to de-escalate US-China tensions in South Korea on Thursday, expectations are modest for how far any agreement will go to resolve the myriad points of contention between the world’s two largest economies. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Many details of the expected deal that have been flagged in advance relate to avoiding future escalation, rather than rolling back the trade war that Trump launched during his first term and has dramatically expanded since returning to office this year. Some of the proposed measures involve issues that have only arisen within the last few weeks, including China’s plan to impose strict export controls on rare earths from December 1. Whatever Trump and Xi agree to on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, there is little doubt that Washington and Beijing will continue to butt heads as they jockey for influence in a rapidly shifting international order, according to analysts. “I have modest expectations for this meeting,” said Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore. “I think, no matter what happens this week, we haven’t seen the end of economic tensions, tariff threats, export controls and restrictions, and the use of unusual levers like digital rules,” Elms told Al Jazeera. US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019. [Susan Walsh/AP] Contours of a deal While the exact parameters of any deal are still to be determined by Trump and Xi, the contours of an agreement have emerged in recent days. Advertisement US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in media interviews this week that he expected China to defer its restrictions on rare earths and that Trump’s threatened 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods was “effectively off the table”. Bessent said he also anticipated that the Chinese side would agree to increase purchases of US-grown soya beans, enhance cooperation with the US to halt the flow of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, and sign off on a finalised TikTok deal. While heading off a further spiralling in US-China ties, a deal along these lines would leave intact a wide array of tariffs, sanctions and export controls that hinder trade and business between the sides. Since Washington and Beijing reached a partial truce in their tit-for-tat tariff salvoes in May, the average US duty on Chinese goods has stood at more than 55 percent, while China’s average levy on US products has hovered at about 32 percent. Washington has blacklisted hundreds of Chinese firms deemed to pose national security risks, and prohibited the export of advanced chips and key manufacturing equipment related to AI. China has, in turn, added dozens of US companies to its “unreliable entity” list, launched antitrust investigations into Nvidia and Qualcomm, and restricted exports of more than a dozen rare earths and metallic elements, including gallium and dysprosium. US-China trade has declined sharply since Trump re-entered the White House. China’s exports to the US fell 27 percent in September, the sixth straight month of decline, even as outbound shipments rose overall amid expanding trade with Southeast Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa. China’s imports of US goods declined 16 percent, continuing a downward trend since April. “The structural contradictions between China and the United States have not been resolved,” said Wang Wen, dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing, predicting continuing friction and “even worse” relations between the superpowers in the future. “Most importantly, China’s strength is increasing and will surpass that of the United States in the future,” Wang told Al Jazeera. ‘De-escalation unlikely’ Shan Guo, a partner with Shanghai-based Hutong Research, said he expects the “bulk” of the deal between Trump and Xi to be about avoiding escalation. “A fundamental de-escalation is unlikely given the political environment in the US,” Guo told Al Jazeera. A man films the logo of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (APEC) outside of the venue in Gyeongju, South Korea, Tuesday, October 28, 2025 [Lee Jin-man/AP] But with the US having no alternative to Chinese rare earths and minerals in the near-term, Washington and Beijing could put aside their differences for longer than past trade truces, Guo said. Advertisement “This means reduced downside risks in US-China relations for at least a year, or perhaps even longer,” he said. Dennis Wilder, a professor at Georgetown University who worked on China at the CIA and the White House’s National Security Council, said that while he is optimistic the summit will produce “positive tactical results”, it will not mark the end of the trade war. “A comprehensive trade deal is still not available,” Wilder told Al Jazeera. “Bessent and his Chinese counterpart will continue negotiating in hopes of a more lasting agreement if and when President Trump visits China next year.” Trump and Xi’s go-to language on the US-China relationship itself points to the gulf between the sides. While Trump often complains about the US being “ripped off” by China, Xi has repeatedly called for their relations to be defined by “mutual respect” and “win-win cooperation”. “The United States should treat China in a way that China considers respectful,” said Wang of Renmin University. “They have to respect China, and if they don’t, then the United States will receive an equal response until they become able to respect others,” he added. Adblock test (Why?)
North Korea test-fires cruise missiles as Trump visits South Korea
Pyongyang says the tests in the Yellow Sea were aimed at impressing its abilities upon its ‘enemies’. Published On 29 Oct 202529 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share North Korea has test-fired several sea-to-surface cruise missiles into its western waters, according to state media, hours before United States President Donald Trump begins a visit to South Korea. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Wednesday that the missiles, carried out in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday, flew for more than two hours before accurately striking targets. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Top military official Pak Jong Chon oversaw the test and said “important successes” were being achieved in developing North Korea’s “nuclear forces” as a war deterrent, according to KCNA. The test was aimed at assessing “the reliability of different strategic offensive means and impress their abilities upon the enemies”, Pak said. “It is our responsible mission and duty to ceaselessly toughen the nuclear combat posture,” he added. South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said on Wednesday that the military had detected the North Korean launch preparations and that the cruise missiles were fired in the country’s northwestern waters at about 3pm (06:00 GMT) on Tuesday. The joint chiefs said South Korea and the US were analysing the weapons and maintaining a combined defence readiness capable of a “dominant response” against any North Korean provocation. North Korea’s latest launches followed short-range ballistic missile tests last week that it said involved a new hypersonic system designed to strengthen its nuclear war deterrent. The latest test came hours before an expected summit between Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the city of Gyeongju, where South Korea is hosting this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings. Advertisement Trump has expressed interest in meeting with Kim during his stay in South Korea, where he is also scheduled to hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, South Korean officials have said that a Trump-Kim meeting is unlikely. Kim has said he still personally holds “fond memories” of Trump, but has also said he would only be open to talks if Washington stops insisting his country give up its nuclear weapons programme. North Korea has shunned any form of talks with Washington and Seoul since Kim’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump fell apart in 2019, during the US president’s first term. Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meet with relatives of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea, at the Akasaka Palace state guest house in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday [Kiyoshi Ota/Pool via Reuters] Before flying to South Korea, Trump was in Tokyo, where he met with families of Japanese abducted by North Korea on Tuesday, telling them that “the US is with them all the way” as they asked for help to find their loved ones. After years of denial, North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had sent agents to kidnap 13 Japanese people decades ago, who were used to train spies in Japanese language and customs. Japan says that 17 of its citizens were abducted, five of whom were repatriated. North Korea has said that eight are dead as of 2019, and another four never entered the country. Adblock test (Why?)
Is the Insurrection Act the ‘most dangerous law’ in the United States?
Published On 28 Oct 202528 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share History Illustrated is a series of perspectives that puts news events and current affairs into historical context, using graphics generated with artificial intelligence. Adblock test (Why?)
LIVE: Israeli attack kills 2 in Gaza as Hamas returns body of captive
blinking-dotLive updatesLive updates, Israeli drone attack close to the southern city of Khan Younis kills at least 2 people despite ceasefire. Published On 28 Oct 202528 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Jamaica braces for Hurricane Melissa, island’s strongest storm on record
Officials in Jamaica have urged people to stay inside their shelters as Hurricane Melissa churns towards the Caribbean island as the most destructive storm on record to hit the area. The Category 5 hurricane is expected to make landfall early on Tuesday near St Elizabeth Parish in the south and leave the island around St Ann Parish in the north. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Andrew Holness, the Jamaican prime minister, appealed to the public to stay indoors. “I urge all Jamaicans to stay inside and remain within the safety of your homes. Avoid unnecessary travel. Strong winds, heavy rains and flash floods can occur at any moment,” he said late on Monday. “Staying indoors is the safest option and reduces the burden on our security and emergency personnel,” he added. I am satisfied that our security forces are properly deployed to maintain law and order during this disaster. In times like these, there are always individuals who may act against the common good, and we must protect both our communities and those individuals. Our security… pic.twitter.com/He0yyB24hZ — Andrew Holness (@AndrewHolnessJM) October 28, 2025 Holness went on to warn of enormous destruction. “There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” he said, referring to the strongest storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. “The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge.” ‘Catastrophic’ winds, flooding The storm already has been blamed for seven deaths in the Caribbean – three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing. Advertisement The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported late on Monday that Melissa was still 240km (150 miles) southwest of Kingston with maximum wind speeds of 282km/h (175mph). It said the storm was expected to bring “catastrophic winds, flooding and storm surge” to Jamaica on Tuesday. Landslides, fallen trees and numerous power outages were reported ahead of landfall as officials also warned of a life-threatening storm surge of up to 4 metres (13ft) across southern Jamaica. Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica’s local government and community development minister, told Al Jazeera the government had done all it could to prepare. “We have put everything in place in regards to what are required in terms of evacuation, getting people to our shelters, providing the requisite resources, … and we have been cleaning our drains. We have been cleaning our gulleys,” he said from Kingston. “We have done all the mitigation exercises. We have done public education, and now it is a matter of seeing what the outcome of Melissa will be,” he said. McKenzie said 881 shelters have been set up across the country. “I must admit that not all the shelters have persons in the shelters. We have seen an uptick in the number of persons turning up to the shelters. The demand in certain parishes are much greater than in some,” he said. ‘I am not moving’ Despite the pleas to evacuate, many residents said they were staying put. “I am not moving. I don’t believe I can run from death,” Roy Brown told the AFP news agency in Kingston’s seaside area of Port Royal. The plumber and tiler said he was reluctant to flee because of his past experiences with the poor conditions of government hurricane shelters. In the Flagaman farming community of St Elizabeth, some residents were hunkering down in a store. Owner Enrico Coke said he opened his place for fear that his neighbours had nowhere to go. “I’m concerned about farmers. The fishermen will be suffering after this,” he told AFP. “We’ll need help as soon as possible, especially water for the people.” Colin Bogle, a Mercy Corps adviser based near Kingston, said most families are sheltering in place despite the government ordering evacuations in flood-prone communities. “Many have never experienced anything like this before, and the uncertainty is frightening,” he told The Associated Press news agency. “There is profound fear of losing homes and livelihoods, of injury and of displacement.” Meteorologists said part of Melissa’s punch stems from its slow pace: It is lumbering along slower than most people walk, at just 5km/h (3mph) or less. Advertisement That means areas in its path could endure punishing conditions for far longer than during most hurricanes. People take shelter in a school before Hurricane Melissa’s forecast landfall in Old Harbour, Jamaica, on October 27, 2025 [Matias Delacroix/AP Photo] Climate change After pummelling Jamaica, Melissa is forecast to cross over eastern Cuba on Tuesday night. A hurricane warning was in effect for Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin provinces while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Las Tunas. Up to 510mm (20 inches) of rain were forecast for parts of Cuba along with a significant storm surge along the coast. Cuban officials said on Monday that they were evacuating more than 600,000 people from the region, including Santiago, the island’s second largest city. A hurricane warning was also in effect for the southeastern and central Bahamas, and a tropical storm warning was issued for the Turks and Caicos Islands. Meteorologist Kerry Emanuel said global warming was causing more storms to rapidly intensify as Melissa did, raising the potential for enormous rains. “Water kills a lot more people than wind,” he told AFP. The last major hurricane to impact Jamaica was Beryl in July 2024 – an abnormally strong storm for that time of year. “Human-caused climate change is making all of the worst aspects of Hurricane Melissa even worse,” climate scientist Daniel Gilford said. Adblock test (Why?)
Sudan army withdraws from Darfur’s el-Fasher, UN warns of RSF atrocities
Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has announced the withdrawal of his soldiers from their last stronghold in Darfur, as the United Nations issued a stark warning over reports of “atrocities” by the paramilitary group now in control of the city of el-Fasher. Al-Burhan’s announcement came late on Monday, a day after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the main Sudanese army base in el-Fasher and claimed victory there. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list The army’s withdrawal from el-Fasher leaves more than a quarter-million people – half of them children – under the control of the RSF. Aid groups reported chaotic scenes there, including killings, arrests, attacks on hospitals and battles between RSF and the departing troops. In his statement, al-Burhan said that military officers decided to withdraw from the city entirely in the hopes of sparing the civilian population from further violence. The army retreated because of “the systemic destruction, and the systemic killing of civilians” by the RSF, he said, adding that the army hoped to “spare the citizens and the rest of the city from destruction”. “We are determined to avenge what happened to our people in el-Fasher,” he said. “We, as the Sudanese people, will hold these criminals accountable.” The fall of el-Fasher to the RSF could herald another split of Sudan, more than a decade after South Sudan’s creation. The latest war started in April 2023, when tension between the military and RSF exploded into fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere, killing tens of thousands and displacing nearly 12 million people. Advertisement Footage posted on social media since Sunday showed RSF fighters celebrating in and around the former army base in el-Fasher. Other footage shows RSF fighters shooting and beating people as they attempt to flee. Many were shown detained. Atrocities in el-Fasher UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the developments represent a “terrible escalation in the conflict” and that “the level of suffering that we are witnessing in Sudan is unbearable”. The UN Human Rights Office, meanwhile, said that RSF fighters reportedly carried out atrocities in el-Fasher, including “summary executions” of civilians trying to flee their attacks, “with indications of ethnic motivations for killings”. Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said the “risk of further large-scale, ethnically motivated violations and atrocities in el-Fasher is mounting by the day”. The Sudan Doctor Network, a medical group tracking the war, described the RSF attack as a “heinous massacre” and said that dozens of people were killed. RSF fighters rampaged through parts of el-Fasher, looting hospitals and other medical facilities and “destroying what remained of essential life-supporting and health care infrastructure”, the network said in a statement. The Darfur Network for Human Rights said the RSF detained more than 1,000 civilians, describing it as “systematic targeting of civilians, arbitrary detentions and potential acts amounting to war crimes”. Among the detained was a local journalist, one of the few left in the city, according to the Sudanese Journalists’ Union. The group warned about potential “mass violations” in el-Fasher, similar to what happened in another Darfur city, Geneina, in 2023, when RSF fighters killed hundreds. The Sudan Doctors Union, the professional umbrella of Sudanese physicians, said that the RSF had turned el-Fasher into a “brutal killing field,” calling its practices in Sudan a “barbaric policy that aims at terrorizing and annihilating civilians”. The group urged the international community to classify the RSF as a terrorist organisation. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher also expressed “deep alarm” at the reports of civilian casualties and forced displacement in el-Fasher. “Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified – shelled, starving and without access to food, health care or safety,” he said in a statement. He called for “safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access” to the population that remained. Alleged war crimes Before Sunday’s attack, there were 260,000 civilians, half of them children, trapped in el-Fasher, according to the UN children’s agency. Advertisement The UN’s International Organization for Migration said that more than 26,000 people had fled their homes as of Monday, retreating to rural areas and the overwhelmed nearby town of Tawila. Elsewhere, RSF fighters ran riot in the town of Bara in the central Kordofan region over the weekend, killing at least 47 people, including nine women, the Sudan Doctors Network said. The RSF grew out of the notorious government-linked militia known as the Janjaweed, which brutalised the Sudanese during the Darfur conflict in the 2000s. The latest war has killed more than 40,000 people and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with part of the country, including the el-Fasher area, plunged into famine. The conflict has been marked by gross atrocities, including ethnically motivated killings and rape, according to the UN and rights groups. The International Criminal Court has said it is investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump rules out VP run in 2028, but says he ‘would love’ a third term
US president muses about a third term in office despite the constitution barring him from doing so. By News Agencies Published On 28 Oct 202528 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share United States President Donald Trump has ruled out running for vice president in the 2028 election but said he “would love” to serve a third term in office. The comments on Monday came despite the US Constitution barring anyone from being elected to the country’s presidency for a third time. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Trump, who first served as president from 2017 to 2021, began his second term in January. The 79-year-old has repeatedly flirted with the idea of serving beyond the constitutionally mandated two terms, joking about it at rallies and teasing supporters with “Trump 2028” hats. Some allies have taken those signals seriously, suggesting that they are exploring legal or political pathways to make it happen. Some have said that one way around the prohibition would be for Trump to run as vice president, while another candidate stood for election as president and resigned, letting Trump again assume the presidency. Asked whether he would run for vice president in November 2028, Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Monday that he “would be allowed to do that”. But, he added, he would not go down that route. “I wouldn’t do that. I think it’s too cute. Yeah, I would rule that out because it’s too cute. I think the people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute. It’s not – it wouldn’t be right.” An attendee at a Diwali celebration in the Oval Office wears a ‘Trump 2028’ hat, in Washington, DC, on October 21 [Allison Robbert/EPA/Pool] Scholars, however, say Trump is barred from running for vice president, too, because he is not eligible to be president. The 12th Amendment to the US Constitution reads, “No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” Advertisement Referring to the possibility of a third term as president on Monday, Trump said: “I would love to do it. I have my best numbers ever.” When pressed by a reporter whether he was not ruling out a third term, he said, “Am I not ruling it out? I mean, you’ll have to tell me.” Asked about whether he would be willing to fight in court over the legality of another presidential bid, Trump responded, “I haven’t really thought about it.” The US president also said that Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were “great people” who could seek the presidency in 2028. “I think if they ever formed a group, it’d be unstoppable,” he said. “I really do. I believe that.” Trump made the comments on board the Air Force One as he flew from Malaysia to Japan. He attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend and, following a stopover in Tokyo, will fly to South Korea to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. He will be meeting with several world leaders in South Korea, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,342
Here are the key events from day 1,342 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 28 Oct 202528 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is how things stand on Tuesday, October 28, 2025: Fighting Russian attacks on Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhia killed a 44-year-old man and wounded several others, Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Monday, as the death toll from other assaults on Sunday continued to rise. Ukrainian officials said the attacks on Sunday killed two people in the eastern Donetsk region and a 69-year-old man in the northern Sumy region. Fifteen others, including two children, were wounded in Sumy, police there said. Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) claimed the killing of Lieutenant Vasily Marzoev, the son of a Russian general, using a guided aerial bomb. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the report. A Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian minibus in the village of Pogar in the Bryansk region killed the driver and injured five passengers, Russia’s state TASS news agency reported, citing Governor Alexander Bogomaz. The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces seized the Ukrainian village of Yehorivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region. However, the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reported that Ukrainian forces had cleared Russian troops out of the village. Neither claim could be independently verified by Al Jazeera. Russia’s Defence Ministry also said its forces captured the villages of Novomykolaivka and Privolnoye in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, according to TASS. TASS also reported the ministry as saying that Russian forces shot down 350 Ukrainian drones, two guided missiles and seven rocket launchers in the past 24 hours. A report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found that Russian drone attacks were used as “part of a coordinated policy to drive out civilians from [Ukrainian] territories”, amounting “to the crime against humanity of forcible transfer of population”. The report described civilians who were chased over long distances by drones with mounted cameras, and sometimes attacked with fire bombs or explosives while seeking shelter. Advertisement Politics and diplomacy United States President Donald Trump said that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, should end the war in Ukraine instead of testing nuclear-powered missiles, adding that Washington had a nuclear submarine positioned off Russia’s coast. The comments came a day after Putin said that Russia had successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was nothing in the test of the missile that should strain relations with Washington, and that Russia was guided by its own national interests. Norway’s military intelligence service said that Russia’s test of the Burevestnik missile was launched from the Barents Sea archipelago of Novaya Zemlya. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the US-based Axios news outlet that Kyiv and its allies have agreed to work on a ceasefire plan in the coming 10 days, following Trump’s recent proposal to stop the war at the current lines. Putin signed a law on Monday terminating an already defunct plutonium disposal agreement with the US that aimed to prevent both sides from building more nuclear weapons. North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui met Putin at the Kremlin on Monday to discuss strengthening cooperation with Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Tuesday. “Many future projects to constantly strengthen and develop” the bilateral relationship were discussed during the meeting, KCNA said, with Choe also conveying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s “brotherly regard” to Putin. The Russian leader, in turn, asked Choe to tell Kim that “everything was going to plan” during the meeting. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will discuss US sanctions on Russian oil companies, among other issues, when he meets Trump in Washington next week, Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said on Monday. Regional security Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene said on Monday that her country will begin to shoot down smuggler balloons crossing the border from Belarus, a close Russian ally, after the balloons repeatedly interrupted the Baltic nation’s air traffic. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that helium balloons over Lithuania were a “provocation” and “a hybrid threat”, adding in a post on X that the balloons are another reason to accelerate the European Union’s Eastern Flank Watch and European drone defence initiatives. Weapons Ukraine’s military intelligence published a list detailing the origins of 68 foreign components used in Russian missiles and other weapons, which it says came from China, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the US. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
NGOs note 28 new ‘carbon bomb’ projects since 2021
Potential CO2 emissions from new projects 11 times global “carbon budget” remaining to hit Paris Agreement targets. Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Twenty-eight new “carbon bomb” projects have launched across the globe over the past five years, according to a report issued by NGOs. Despite global efforts to phase out the use of fossil fuels, known to have catastrophic climate effects, the report, published on Monday by a quartet of environmental nonprofits, details that dozens of new fossil fuel extraction projects that will pump out enormous emissions have been started since 2021. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Carbon bombs were defined in a 2022 research article as oil, gas or coal facilities capable of generating more than a billion tonnes of CO2 over their lifetime. At that time, the NGOs Lingo, Data for Good, Reclaim Finance, and Eclaircies counted 425 such projects worldwide. The report said some 365 projects are still producing more than one billion tonnes each, with the fall from the 2021 total due to operations that have either cut their output or been re-evaluated. That is despite the International Energy Agency having said in 2021 that launching new oil and gas projects was incompatible with reaching climate targets set out in the Paris Agreement. The landmark agreement reached in 2015 included the aim of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with the pre-industrial era. Two years later, at COP28, countries around the world agreed to begin a phase-out of fossil fuels. Despite that, between 2021 and 2024, the world’s 65 largest banks financed more than $1.6 trillion to the companies involved in the projects pinpointed in the report. Advertisement Barclays Bank is the most involved in supporting companies behind carbon bombs, providing $33.7bn to 62 companies, including Eni, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies. “Major global banks are exacerbating climate change and future emissions by continuing to give carte blanche to these fossil fuel companies that are destroying the planet,” said Louis-Maxence Delaporte, energy research manager at Reclaim Finance, one of the NGOs involved in the study. China accounts for 43 percent of “carbon bombs”. Russia accounts for 9 percent, the United States for 5 percent. Western oil majors have the most such projects, although Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and China’s CHN Energy produce the most total emissions. The report also identified more than 2,300 smaller extraction projects, approved or launched since 2021, whose potential emissions exceed five million tonnes of CO2 each, equivalent to the annual emissions of a city like Paris. Combined, the potential CO2 emissions from all these projects are 11 times greater than the global “carbon budget” remaining to keep global warming below 1.5C (2.7F) compared with the pre-industrial era, according to the authors’ calculations. Adblock test (Why?)
Fact check: Do quarter of US’s ‘drug boat’ searches find nothing?
President Donald Trump says US military strikes on eight vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, mostly targeting boats from Venezuela, were legal because they carried drugs being delivered to the United States. But Republican Senator Rand Paul, Kentucky, who is also chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said maritime law enforcement statistics show that not all boats suspected of carrying drugs actually have drugs onboard. He said the military’s strikes were not in line with usual US policy. “When you stop people at sea in international waters, or in your own waters, you announce that you’re going to board the ship and you’re looking for contraband, smuggling or drugs. This happens every day off of Miami,” Paul said on October 19 on NBC’s “Meet the Press” programme. “We know from Coast Guard statistics that about 25 percent of the time the Coast Guard boards a ship, there are no drugs. So if our policy now is to blow up every ship we suspect or accuse of drug running, that would be a bizarre world in which 25 percent of the people might be innocent.” Paul made a similar statement in an October 12 interview. More than 30 people have been killed so far in the strikes, and the Trump administration has provided no evidence that the vessels contained drugs. We rated Trump’s recent statement that each strike saved “25,000 American lives” false. Paul’s office pointed PolitiFact to the US Coast Guard’s 2024 fiscal year report, which said that year the agency intercepted drugs in about 73 percent of cases when they boarded boats, with about 27 percent of vessel interceptions yielding no drugs. Advertisement Experts said the data supports Paul’s point, but noted that it’s unclear how the Coast Guard defines the term it uses to describe intercepting drugs – “a drug disruption”. “If the (Coast Guard) boards a vessel and finds a known drug trafficker but no drugs, and that individual gets arrested and convicted, does that count as a ‘drug disruption’?” said Jonathan Caulkins, a Carnegie Mellon University drug policy researcher. “Or suppose they approach the vessel, it jettisons the drugs overboard, and so the Coast Guard seizes the vessel but the drugs have disappeared into the water. Is that a successful disruption?” Paul’s figure might not translate directly to the recent boat strikes, experts said, since the US could have had intelligence about those specific vessels. PolitiFact contacted the Coast Guard about its data collection process but did not hear back. Coast Guard report details the agency’s drug interceptions The Coast Guard reports data about how often it intercepts drugs to the Department of Homeland Security. Its 2024 fiscal year report, which covers October 2023 to September 2024, summarises the agency’s performance in various programmes. During that period of time, the Coast Guard disrupted drug runs in 91 out of 125 boat interdictions, the report says, which was a rate of about 73 percent. “The quality of searches performed by Coast Guard boarding teams is high,” the report said, adding that its metrics depend on the quality and timeliness of the intelligence the agency receives. The rate has varied in recent years. The agency started reporting this drug interception data in fiscal year 2021, according to the report, which shows a drug disruption rate that year of 59 percent – meaning 41 percent of boats searched yielded no drugs. The interception rate rose to 64 percent in 2022 and 69 percent in 2023. The 2024 drug interception rate of 73 percent represents the Coast Guard’s highest since it started tracking the data. It lists an 80 percent interception rate as its annual goal. The Coast Guard didn’t answer our questions about its data collection process or what amounts to a drug disruption. A 2025 Coast Guard report evaluating agency data from fiscal years 2021 through 2023 found it didn’t accurately reflect all drug interdictions as some reports didn’t contain drug seizure results or the required documentation. Experts said we don’t know whether the 2024 Coast Guard statistic directly translates to the recent strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. “The people with fingers on the trigger may demand a much higher certainty rate before shooting,” Caulkins said. “So, even if the senator’s figure were correct when looking across all the many, very diverse operations over the course of a year, that doesn’t mean it applies to the special case of boats of Venezuela. Perhaps it does, but perhaps not.” Advertisement The Trump administration’s lack of information about the type or quantity of drugs it says were on the boats makes it impossible to know if every or any of the boats carried lethal drugs, and if they were en route to the US. Drug experts previously told us that Venezuela plays a minor role in trafficking drugs that reach the US. Most illicit fentanyl in the US comes from Mexico, not Venezuela. It enters the country mainly through the southern border at official ports of entry, and is smuggled in mostly by US citizens. Our ruling Paul said, “About 25 percent of the time the Coast Guard boards a ship, there are no drugs.” A 2024 Coast Guard report said the agency boarded and intercepted boats with drugs on them about 73 percent of the time, which means 27 percent of the interceptions yielded no drugs. This drug disruption statistic, however, might not translate directly to the recent boat strikes, experts said, since we don’t know what kind of intelligence the US had about those vessels. Paul’s statement is accurate but needs clarification. We rate it Mostly True. Adblock test (Why?)