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The world may have already missed its chance to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to two new studies in Nature Climate Change. The Paris Agreement was inked in 2015, with 196 countries agreeing to rein in greenhouse gas emissions to keep the global average temperature increase to “well below” 2 C and ideally cap it at 1.5 C compared to preindustrial times. The new analyses show the world will surpass the latter, underscoring the urgent need to cut carbon emissions. “Every increment of warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius means worse extremes,” said Alex Cannon, a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, and author of one of the studies. “If we continue warming the atmosphere, consequences will be greater.” In 2024, global temperatures reached 1.5 C for the entire year, the first time it’s happened in recorded history. It was a stark departure from previous projections: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published just a year earlier suggested that temperatures would reach 1.5 C in the early 2030s if emissions weren’t cut. The breach left scientists wondering, “is this a sign? Are these short-term exceedances above that level indicative of us actually reaching that target sooner than we expected?” said Cannon. The reason for those questions is because the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 C threshold isn’t focused on daily or even yearly temperatures. Instead, it’s based on a 20-year retrospective average, which means the world won’t know it’s hit 1.5 C until after the fact. The two new studies attempt to get around that by using climate models to look ahead based on current data to see if we’ve already entered a 20-year period above 1.5 C. Cannon’s study, and a separate study led by Emanuele Bevacqua, a climate scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany, both suggest that’s exactly what’s happened. “I pronounce the 1.5 C target mostly dead,” Kate Marvel, a research physicist with NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies who was not part of either study, said in an email. “Yes, a single year over 1.5 C doesn’t necessarily mean the average temperature over the next 20-year period is going to be 1.5 C,” she said, “but these papers make a pretty compelling case that in models, the first single year above 1.5 C is likely to fall within that 20-year period.” The findings are part of a growing body of research warning the world that its climate targets are increasingly out of reach and that heating is accelerating. In fact, this January was the hottest on record despite the cooling influence of an emerging La Nina. The new studies put the odds of being in the midst of a 20-year period where the Earth breaches 1.5 C to be somewhere between “likely” and “virtually certain.” Despite that, both Cannon and Bevacqua agree that heating can be arrested by drastically reducing fossil fuel use. But the chance of that happening is shrinking given the Trump administration’s assault on climate action. Since taking office, his administration has taken steps to increase fossil fuel production and withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. Other world leaders are reportedly considering following suit, creating headwinds for the deep emissions cuts needed. The 1.5 C threshold was included in the Paris Agreement largely at the behest of small island developing states, many of which would be wiped off the map by sea level rise should the planet heat beyond it. More recent research has found that even at 1.5 C, small island developing states risk flooding from sea level rise. “Even if we reach the 1.5-degree global warming level threshold in the future, we should still aim to not exceed this too much or even make sure that this is our temporary exceedance so that we can stabilize the temperature and at some point cool the temperature,” said Bevacqua. That’s been a rallying cry for years. The world, though, has failed to heed it as carbon pollution has continued to climb to record highs. “Rapid near-term emissions cuts can limit peak warming and reduce climate risks,” said Marvel. “Whether or not that merits action is not (just) for scientists to decide.” Source link

Riyadh – Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo has reached an agreement with Al Nassr to extend his contract by another year until June 2026, an official with the Saudi club said on Monday. The official said the sides have agreed on the renewable extension of Ronaldo’s contract, “but it has not been signed yet. An announcement will be made over the coming days.” Ronaldo turned 40 last week, with his current contract due to end in June 2025. Source link

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON – Hamas on Monday announced it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what the Palestinian militant group called Israeli violations of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, raising the risk of reigniting the conflict. Hamas was to release more Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and other Palestinians held in Israeli detention as had In happened over the past three weeks. Following the unexpected announcement, U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that if all the hostages are not returned by Saturday at noon, he would propose canceling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and letting “all hell break loose.” Source link

President Donald Trump ordered a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, escalating his efforts to protect politically important U.S. industries with levies hitting some of the country’s closest allies. The tariffs will apply widely to all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum, including from Canada and Mexico, the country’s top two foreign suppliers of the metals. The tariffs will include finished metal products and no exemptions will be made for trading partners. The measures are meant to crack down on what administration officials said were efforts by countries like Russia and China to circumvent existing duties. Trump’s move comes on top of new 10% tariffs on goods from China; 25% levies on Canada and Mexico that are currently paused; and the president’s plan to slap reciprocal duties on other nations. It is also the broadest-reaching action yet by Trump to confront U.S. trade deficits and harness international commerce as a source of revenue. Source link

In Sendai, driving a taxi is becoming an increasingly popular job. In the nine months between April last year — the start of fiscal 2024 — and December, a total of 350 people became cab drivers in the city, a figure that is 3.5 times the number of new starters in the whole of fiscal 2021, when the number plunged amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Several factors have contributed to the renewed interest in driving cabs. Source link

NEW YORK – Walk around any Russian city, from Moscow and St. Petersburg to Yekaterinburg and Kazan, and you will come across people wearing dark blue or red sweatshirts emblazoned with that unmistakable Soviet emblem — hammer, sickle and star. You will also see plenty of traditional fur hats — often topped with a red star — even though recent winters have been the warmest on record. Step into a gift shop and you will find mugs featuring portraits of Lenin, Stalin or other sources of Soviet pride, such as the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Even the raspy-voiced singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky, whose biting lyrics got him censored by Soviet authorities in the 1960s and 1970s, makes an appearance on this tour of Russian nostalgia. His inclusion could not be more fitting: Promoting an idealized version of the past legitimizes a repressive present and future. As a newspaper vendor in central Moscow recently told me, many Russians recall World War II as a moment when Russians showed great courage, view the immediate postwar period as a time of relative calm and remember the 1970s as an era of stability. These “memories,” he concluded, fuel their longing for a strong “Soviet-type” leader. Source link

Wakayama – Public prosecutors demanded Monday that a 25-year-old man accused of attempted murder and other charges for throwing an explosive at then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during an election campaign speech in Wakayama Prefecture in 2023 be sentenced to 15 years in prison. The attack was “a malicious act of terrorism” that indiscriminately injured many people, the prosecutors said during a hearing in the trial of Ryuji Kimura at the Wakayama District Court. The defense said that Kimura had no murderous intent and that he was guilty only of inflicting bodily injury. Kimura is accused of injuring two people by throwing an explosive with murderous intent at Kishida and others who were visiting a fishing port in the city of Wakayama on April 15, 2023. The court will issue its ruling on Feb. 19. The prosecution argued that the explosive device had lethal potential, and that since the defendant made it himself, he understood the danger it posed. Kimura’s defense team said that there was a time lapse of about a minute between when the explosive device was thrown and its explosion, and pointed out that the pipe packed with gunpowder had shot upward. Kimura did not recognize that the lethality of the device, the defense argued, adding that injuries occurred because a crowd had formed after he was apprehended. It said that three years’ imprisonment was an appropriate punishment for his actions. “I am very sorry for the trouble I have caused everyone,” Kimura told the court in his final statement. Source link

In theology, being condemned to perdition may sound a lot like going to hell, but it’s much worse than spending eternity amid fire and brimstone. Those who believe in the survival of the soul after death shudder at the gravity of perdition: the total dissolution of one’s existence even in spiritual form. In our increasingly soulless secular age, there’s an attempt at a similar punishment: We call it cancellation. The concept derives from television — that which befalls series and shows with bad ratings, yanked by broadcast networks, never to be seen again. Its first use in popular culture in that sense may have been in the lyrics of “Your Love Is Canceled,” by the disco-funk group Chic (“Well I saw it on TV ‘bout someone like me”). The song’s from 1981, but cancellation as we know it really got going this century. Today, it’s a pile-on of blaming and shaming in our social media public squares that often leads to the target’s commercial or career oblivion. The courts can also get involved to mete out justice. The vitriol makes it much more hellish than old-fashioned consumer boycotts. Some of the most spectacular examples involve fans turning against their idols. The most recent is graphic novel icon Neil Gaiman, who has received massive condemnation after lurid stories emerged alleging sexual assault and harassment on his part. He has denied the allegations and there are no criminal charges filed against him. Nevertheless, the furor has convinced publishers to avoid or drop Gaiman, who has become a multimillionaire from his oeuvre of close to 50 novels and comic books. HarperCollins and W.W. Norton, which have successfully published his books before, said they have no plans with the British author. In late January, Dark Horse Comics announced it wouldn’t release the last volume of its illustrated version of his 2005 fantasy novel “Anansi Boys.” A test of how many fans remain will come later this year when Netflix debuts its second season of “The Sandman,” which is based on Gaiman’s bestselling comic books. Source link

Steve Holland, Gareth Southgate’s former England assistant, is preparing for his first match in charge of Yokohama F. Marinos this week, with a chance to guide last season’s finalist into the AFC Champions League Elite knockout stage. The East Zone will play a penultimate round of fixtures on Tuesday and Wednesday in the new-look continental championship’s league stage, with 11 of the 12 clubs still in contention for the eight berths available in the last 16. Yokohama tops the table with 13 points from six games with a better goal difference than South Korea’s Gwangju and J. League champion Vissel Kobe. Source link

Shares of Fuji Media rose as much as 7.5% to the highest level since 2007 after Japan’s Rheos Capital Works reported it had a 5% stake on Friday. Rheos, which manages a popular fund called Hifumi, holds 5.12% of Fuji Media shares after building its stake from Jan. 20 to Thursday, according to a filing to the Finance Ministry. Rheos doesn’t intend to make important proposals to management, it stated in the filing. Rising Sun Management, an activist shareholder firm, urged Fuji Media to set up a third-party committee to investigate a sexual harassment scandal involving the former pop idol-turned-TV host Masahiro Nakai. Since Rising Sun’s first attempt in January, shares have surged on speculations that new management will be more accommodating to shareholders. A well-known asset manager holding Fuji Media shares is positive news for the stock, says Nobuhiko Kuramochi, vice president of Parasol. Still, the investment appeal may fade as the 12-month forward price-earnings ratio gets close to the upper limit of the past 10 years, and the expected return on equity remains low, he said. Source link