Flagship

Developing countries dismayed by COP deal

COP29 delegates agreed some rich countries will pay $300 billion a year to help power their green transition, a far lower sum than many had hoped. The deal also does not oblige China nor Gulf nations’ to chip in, despite Western diplomats’ push for China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, and the oil-rich Gulf to contribute. The commitments “were never going to be enough,” Vanuatu’s climate envoy told Semafor, yet changes to carbon credits, whereby governments and firms can pay for carbon removal and reduction programs elsewhere to count toward their own reduction targets, could offer some “fresh hope,” The Guardian wrote. While experts remain cautiously optimistic, the scheme could prove the “low-hanging fruit of climate mitigation.”

US SEC summons India’s Adani

The US Securities and Exchange Commission summoned Indian billionaire Gautam Adani to appear in court over allegations of bribery and corruption. Adani has 21 days to respond or risk a judgment by default. Unless the tycoon, one of India’s richest men, appears voluntarily, US officials could begin a lengthy extradition process. Ultimately, New Delhi has “the final call” on whether Adani, who has strong business ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will ever have to face the legal challenges, Bloomberg wrote. The case broadly hinges on Indo-US relations: US President-elect Donald Trump could see the case as a chance to make a deal with India, which his advisers increasingly see as strategically important to the push against China, the outlet noted.

Islamabad under lock down amid protests

Islamabad was under lockdown Sunday amid nationwide protests in favor of releasing former Prime Minister Imran Khan from prison. Despite being behind bars for more than a year, Khan remains the dominant political force driving Pakistan’s opposition, and the country’s powerful military establishment and current government sees him and his party as a public threat, an analyst told the BBC. Certainly, the protests have taken a toll on Pakistan’s struggling economy: One analysis estimated the demonstrations have cost more than $9 million over the last 1.5 years, and the International Monetary Fund recently issued a $7 billion loan that includes conditions aimed at boosting public trust in the country’s febrile government.

Bessent tops Trump’s diverse cabinet picks

US President-elect Donald Trump could have “the most ideologically diverse cabinet of modern times,” Axios wrote. With the nomination of former George Soros adviser Scott Bessent as treasury secretary, Trump’s cabinet “increasingly resembles a European-style coalition government,” the outlet noted, with figures like labor secretary nominee Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, known for her pro-union stance, and health and human services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a strong supporter of abortion access. On the other hand, some choices, like Marco Rubio to head the State Department, are decidedly on the conservative right. Taken together, Trump’s picks signal that “traditional conservatism is dead,” Axios wrote, and should instead indicate that the president-elect has the ability to “mandate for reform and change,” a transition insider said.

The rise of conservative leftism

Leftist political parties that espouse some socially conservative values are increasingly gaining traction in a highly polarized world. In Germany, a new left-leaning party critical of the broader left-wing’s pro-immigration, pro-climate agenda is making significant inroads among voters, particularly in eastern Germany, where the far right has also risen in popularity. Similarly, the most-recent presidents of Peru and Mexico were both avowed fiscal leftists yet embraced more social conservative policies like boosting traditional family roles to broaden their support. Globally, voters seem to see so-called “woke” social politics “as products of academics and elites,” Semafor’s Brad Glasser wrote, and instead embrace leftists with “anti-establishment appeal” similar to that offered by the far right.

Western conservatives flock to Russia

Conservatives are apparently moving to Russia to escape what they see as a progressive chokehold in the West. Some 3,500 westerners have moved to Russia since 2021, a Russian politician told The Spectator, with many driven by COVID restrictions in their home countries, while others have been lured by so-called Russian values, like opposing LGBTQ rights and supporting traditional gender roles. The “American dream is broken…[but] Russia is the hope. And we are ready to welcome them,” the politician said. The immigration influx may also be economically beneficial, the magazine noted: As many as a million Russian executives and IT specialists have left the country since the 2022 Ukraine invasion, and Western immigrants could help fill the skilled labor shortage.

China renews algorithm crackdown

Beijing is cracking down on Chinese tech companies’ use of algorithms to recommend content or products to users based on their personal interests. The Cyberspace Administration of China said Sunday it would work with technology platforms to curb “information cocoons” and promote “healthy content,” an echo of a 2022 mandate, which required platforms like TikTok-owner ByteDance and Alibaba to let users opt out of targeted recommendations and instead prioritize content deemed as promoting “positive energy”; many tech companies also shared their algorithms’ details with Beijing as part of that effort. The move to tighten the government’s grip on its technology sector comes amid a surge in algorithm-driven e-commerce and online services in China, the South China Morning Post reported.

Tired of financial news from outlets that use disingenuous headlines and fear-based tactics? Enter The Daily Upside – a newsletter created by Wall Street insiders, delivering clear, actionable insights to keep you ahead of the market. Join over 1 million readers who trust The Daily Upside – subscribe for free today.

Elephant forays spark cull call

African forest elephants are trampling crops in Gabon, leading to calls for the critically endangered animal to be culled. Smaller than their savannah cousins, African forest elephants are extremely well-protected in Gabon, and the heavily wooded country is known as “the refuge of forest elephants,” home to an estimated 95,000 animals. But many Gabonese view them as a problem rather than a source of pride, AFP reported: Elephants are increasingly leaving the forests and wandering into villages, crushing crops and unnerving residents. Officials are experimenting with nonlethal electric fences, but some Gabonese don’t think that is enough: “What are the men in government protecting?” one village resident asked. “Human being or beast?”

Ancient label may reveal oldest alphabet

Archeologists have discovered what may be the world’s oldest example of writing using an alphabet in northern Syria. Alphabets break words into vowels and consonants, and typically have fewer than 40 characters, while other more ancient writing systems like hieroglyphs had hundreds of symbols that could mean entire phrases. Previously, researchers thought the first alphabet emerged in what is now Egypt around 1900 BCE, but this discovery may push the timeline back at least 500 years. The four-centimeter piece of clay appears to have functioned as a gift tag for goods and is inscribed with the word “silanu,” — which could be the sender or the recipient’s name, Scientific American reported.

Fake foie for sale

An Australian startup has launched a lab-grown foie gras that will soon be on sale in Singapore and Hong Kong. The company, called Vow, makes its product by cultivating quail cells in a bioreactor. It wants to position its foie as much a luxury as the real stuff, turning the struggling cultivated meat industry’s main weakness — high costs — into an asset. The price of a pound of lab-grown flesh is difficult to gauge, but a 2021 research paper estimated it was at least $68, Wired reported; prohibitively expensive to scale up to challenge the traditional meat industry. Instead, Vow’s CEO told Wired, the company’s success may lie in the ability to “be in the most influential places with the relatively limited volume we have available.”

Nov. 25:

• The UN Security Council meets to discuss issues in the Middle East.
• Spain’s prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addresses the nation in a speech.
• US First Lady Jill Biden receives the White House Christmas Tree from North Carolina.

A 24-hour film that interrogates our relationship with time is returning to New York after more than a decade. Showing at the Museum of Modern Art, Christian Marclay’s The Clock is composed of thousands of television and movie clips, each of which are synchronized to the local time wherever it is being watched — from Meryl Streep turning off a morning alarm, to a glimpse of a pocket watch showing 11:53 am as the Titanic sets sail. “Some people are frustrated and they feel they have to see all 24 hours,” Marclay previously told The Guardian in a 2018 interview. “I say, ‘No no no!’ Just enjoy it for the moment… When it’s time to eat or go to the bathroom, you leave.”

A surge in illegal mining in Ghana, which has cut cocoa production, polluted water supplies, and fueled food inflation, will pose a major challenge for the country’s new president after next month’s election, Semafor’s Alexis Akwagyiram scooped. While illegal mining threatens to prolong Ghana’s economic crisis, “there’s little incentive for the next government to crack down on galamsey because it funds political machines and enriches traditional rulers,” Akwagyiram wrote.