- Germany arrests eight members of far-right paramilitary group
- French women 'stunned' as partners accused in mass rape trial
- US September trade deficit widest in over two years
- Krejcikova ends Pegula's last-four hopes at WTA Finals
- Reform row puts Mexico at risk of 'constitutional crisis'
- 'Black day': French workers protest Michelin plans to close two plants
- Manchester United fans in favour of leaving Old Trafford
- Saudi Aramco's quarterly profit drops 15% on low oil prices
- Kenya court jails Olympian Kiplagat's killers for 35 years
- Dutch, French authorities raid Netflix offices in tax probe
- Barcelona to replace flood-hit Valencia for MotoGP finale
- Spain unveils aid plan a week after catastrophic floods
- Neymar to miss two weeks' training in fresh setback: coach
- Injured Djokovic gives up on ATP Finals title defence
- Indonesia volcano erupts again after killing nine day earlier
- Injured Djokovic to miss ATP Finals
- South Korea fines Meta for illegal collection of user data
- UK parliament to debate world's first 'smoke-free generation' bill
- Stock markets rise, dollar pressured as US votes
- 'Incalculable' bill awaits Spain after historic floods
- Europe auto struggles lead to cuts at Michelin, Germany's Schaeffler
- Award-winning Cambodian reporter quits journalism after arrest
- Kenyan athletes' deaths expose mental health struggles
- Start without a shot: PTSD sufferers welcome marathon effort
- Norway speeds ahead of EU in race for fossil-free roads
- Harris or Trump: America decides in knife-edge election
- Smog sickness: India's capital struggles as pollution surges
- Most Asian markets rise as US heads to polls in toss-up vote
- World's first wooden satellite launched into space
- Myanmar junta chief visits key ally China
- Nintendo lowers sales forecast as first-half profits plunge
- Most Asian markets rise ahead of toss-up US election
- Greenland seeks to capitalise on 'last-chance tourism'
- Saudi Aramco says quarterly profit drops 15% on low oil prices
- Greenland eyes tourism takeoff with new airport runway
- Boeing union says approves contract, ending over 7-week strike
- Harris, Trump end historic campaigns with final pitch to voters
- Cavs down Bucks to improve to 8-0, Thunder unbeaten in West
- New Hampshire hamlet tied in first US Election day votes
- Outsider Knight's Choice wins Melbourne Cup photo-finish thriller
- Chiefs stay perfect with overtime win over Bucs
- Uncertain Inter with questions to answer before Arsenal clash
- With Mbappe gone, misfiring PSG are under pressure in Champions League
- China's premier 'fully confident' of hitting growth targets
- North Korea fires short-range ballistic missile salvo ahead of US election
- Taiwan couple charged with trying to influence elections for China
- Indonesian President Prabowo to visit China this week
- Critically endangered Sumatran elephant calf born in Indonesia
- The marble 'living Buddhas' trapped by Myanmar's civil war
- How East Germany's 'traffic light man' became a beloved icon
Nations gather for crunch climate talks in shadow of US vote
World leaders kick off UN climate talks next week, days after a knife edge US election that could send shockwaves through global efforts to limit dangerous warming.
The stakes are high for the COP29 conference in Azerbaijan where nations must agree a new target to fund climate action across huge swathes of the world.
It comes in a year likely to be the hottest in human history that has already witnessed a barrage of devastating floods, heatwaves and storms in all corners of the globe.
Nations are falling far short of what is needed to keep warming from hitting even more dangerous highs in the future.
But leaders arriving in Baku are wrestling with a host of challenges, including trade spats, economic uncertainty and conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Adding to the uncertainty, the US vote and potential return of Donald Trump, who pulled out of the Paris Agreement and has called climate change a "hoax", could ripple through the negotiations and beyond.
"You can imagine that if Trump is elected, and if the election outcome is clear by the time that we get to Baku, then there will be sort of a crisis moment," said Li Shuo, a Washington-based expert on climate diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
He said that countries, likely including China, are preparing to send a "clear message" in support of global climate cooperation if Trump beats his rival Kamala Harris to the White House.
The UN talks are seen as critical to laying the groundwork for a major new round of climate commitments due early next year.
Current pledges would see the world blast past the internationally agreed limit of a 1.5 degrees Celsius rise in temperatures since the pre-industrial era.
"Decisions in Baku could profoundly shape the climate trajectory and whether 1.5 degrees remains within reach," said Cosima Cassel, of think tank E3G.
- Clash over cash -
Azerbaijan hosting the 11-22 November talks has drawn concerns over its heavy reliance on fossil fuels and its human rights record.
Countries last year committed to transition away from fossil fuels and triple renewables usage by 2030.
This year, negotiators must increase a $100 billion-a-year target to help poorer nations prepare for worsening climate impacts and wean off coal, oil and gas.
The overall amount of this new goal, where it comes from, and who has access are major points of contention.
Experts commissioned by the UN estimate that developing countries, excluding China, will need to spend $2.4 trillion per year by 2030 on climate priorities.
From that, $1 trillion must come from international public and private finance.
Wealthy existing donors, including the EU and US, have said new sources of money will have to be found, including from China and oil-rich Gulf states.
China –- today the world's largest polluter and second-largest economy –- does pay climate finance but on its own terms.
Between 2013 and 2022, China paid on average $4.5 billion a year to other developing countries, the World Resources Institute said in a September paper.
Money could also be raised by pollution tariffs, a wealth tax or ending fossil fuel subsidies, among other ideas.
Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the Climate and Energy programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said negotiators in Azerbaijan should aim for a $1 trillion deal.
This money "is not charity", Cleetus told AFP, adding that it should mostly come as aid or very low interest loans to avoid adding to developing nations' debt.
"Finance might sound like a technical issue, but we all know money talks," she told AFP.
"Nations either make those investments up front, or we'll be paying dearly for it after the fact, in disaster costs, in pollution costs. So this is a fork in the road. We have a choice."
- Green power -
Current climate pledges, even if implemented in full, would see the world lurch towards 2.6C warming by the end of the century -- threatening catastrophe for human societies and ecosystems, the UN Environment Programme has said.
A deal in Baku is seen as crucial to underpinning a set of more ambitious national pledges in the coming months.
Li said those future pledges could be impacted by the US vote, with countries, including China, waiting to see the outcome before finalising longer-term targets.
Beyond Baku, there is also an "increasing interconnection between climate and the economic agenda", he said, including trade tussles between clean energy powerhouse China and the US and Europe.
He said progress is more visible in "the green economy, who is winning the race when it comes to solar, wind, electric vehicles and energy storage".
M.Furrer--BTB