The New York Times: Οι Αμερικανοί νομοθέτες προχώρησαν σε κίνηση για τον τερματισμό του lockdown της κυβέρνησης – Παραιτήθηκαν κορυφαία στελέχη του BBC – Διαμαρτυρία για τα καπέλα στη Μαδαγασκάρη – Μπορεί ο κόσμος να καταπολεμήσει την κλιματική αλλαγή χωρίς την Αμερική; – Οι Δημοκρατικοί αυτομόλησαν κατά του lockdown της κυβέρνησης – Το διαμάντι της Φλωρεντίας, μια πέτρα 137 καρατίων σε σχήμα αχλαδιού που ανήκε στην οικογένεια των Μεδίκων και στη συνέχεια στους Αψβούργους, εξαφανίστηκε το 1919. Το μυστικό για το πού βρισκόταν όλα αυτά τα χρόνια αποκαλύφθηκε επιτέλους – Πώς ακμάζει η επιχείρηση καπέλων… στη Μαδαγασκάρη

The U.N. climate conference is being held in Belém, Brazil. Fernando Llano/Associated Press

Can the world fight climate change without America?

This week, leaders from around the world are meeting at the edge of the Amazon in Belém, Brazil, for their annual climate talks. The guest list is a little thin.

The leaders of China, Russia and Japan won’t be there. Neither will the leaders of Australia, Indonesia or Turkey. But the most notable absence is that of the United States. For the first time since countries began gathering 30 years ago to take action against global warming, the U.S. is not sending any top officials.

The premise of these gatherings is that climate change knows no borders and can be stopped only if countries come together. Can the world do it without the U.S.?

Good-ish news

Ten years ago in Paris, almost every country in the world agreed to a common goal: to hold the average global temperature rise to “well below” two degrees Celsius, and preferably closer to 1.5 degrees, compared with preindustrial levels.

The good-ish news: Slower emissions growth means the arc of temperature increase has curved downward over the past 10 years. If countries stick to current policies, the global average temperature is projected to rise by 2.5 to 2.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century — still bad, but a significant improvement from where we were 10 years ago. These charts show 10 big things that have happened on the climate front in the last decade.

The Paris Agreement came into force in November 2016, just days before Donald Trump was elected president for the first time. Trump has called climate change a hoax and is in the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the agreement for the second time.

In Trump’s second term, the U.S. has abandoned America’s promises to the rest of the world to curb the burning of fossil fuels at home. What’s more, it has taken a battering ram to other countries’ efforts to reduce emissions, killing an international limit on the production of plastics made from petroleum and thwarting the world’s first-ever tax on shipping emissions.

Some officials have suggested that climate action might actually be easier to agree on without the U.S., my colleague Lisa Friedman reports.

But the U.S. is the largest producer of oil and the largest exporter of natural gas. It’s also the world’s richest country, which matters: Poor countries, which have contributed very little to climate change, depend on richer nations to help them adapt to a hotter world and transition to cleaner forms of energy.

An emerging climate superpower

The hope now lies with China and emerging economies to pick up the slack, my colleague Somini Sengupta told me.

China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. But it also leads the world on renewable energy. China installed more wind turbines and solar panels last year than the rest of the world combined. It now dominates clean energy industries, from patented technologies to essential raw materials, and is selling a lot of it to the world. Chinese companies are building electric vehicle and battery factories in Brazil, Thailand, Morocco and Hungary.

The stat that really struck me is that China is now making more money from exporting green technology than the U.S. makes from exporting fossil fuels, according to a recent analysis by The Economist.

Affordable clean technology is key to reducing dependence on fossil fuels and bringing down global emissions. Solar panels now hang from apartment balconies in Germany and cover vast areas of Saudi desert and Tibetan plains.

Cheap Chinese-made solar panels, batteries and E.V.s have made it possible for countries like Brazil, South Africa and India to pivot to cleaner technologies. In India’s electricity sector, for example, more than half of the generation capacity now comes from solar, wind and hydropower.

The hottest years on record

Despite these developments, the temperature is still rising. The last 10 years were the hottest on record, and 2024 was the hottest of all, with extreme heat killing election workers in India and pilgrims on the hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Many are already having to adapt to conditions on a changed planet. In India, a women’s union has created a tiny insurance plan to help people cope when heat makes it too dangerous to work. In Malawi and Uganda, people are experimenting with growing different crops. But as Somini points out, there’s not enough money to help the most vulnerable — not even close.

And so, in some ways, the question of whether the world can tackle climate change without the U.S. is not quite the right question. America is a big, important country, and how it opts to act will affect everyone’s future. But climate change is happening, and the world will have to adapt. As one climate expert put it, “We have to act with or without the U.S.”

Ask a correspondent

Do you have questions about climate change and how we cover global warming? Somini Sengupta, our international climate reporter, is here to help.

If you have questions for Somini, you can submit them by filling out this form. We’ll pick a few questions for her to answer in this newsletter.

Democrats defected on the government shutdown

A group of Democratic senators voted to break their own party’s blockade on Sunday night in Washington, clearing the path to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The compromise spending package, which moved forward in the Senate on a 60-40 vote, would fund most federal agencies through January, without extending the health care subsidies that Democrats made a centerpiece of the shutdown fight.

The Democrats who joined with Republicans on the vote believed that the effects of the 40-day shutdown — including millions of Americans at risk of losing food assistance and the threat of widespread air travel disruptions — were becoming untenable. But the deal prompted a fierce backlash among some of their colleagues, who were livid that they backed down.

Reopening the government could still take some time. The measure would need to be debated and passed by the Senate, then approved by the House and signed by President Trump.

Two top BBC executives resigned

Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, and Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, resigned abruptly on Sunday following accusations that a BBC documentary had misleadingly edited a speech by President Trump.

According to a leaked memo obtained by the Daily Telegraph, the BBC Panorama documentary “Trump: A Second Chance?” edited together comments by the president in a way that made it appear that he had explicitly encouraged the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The memo was by a former external adviser to the broadcaster, who also claimed that the BBC did not cover stories that raised difficult questions about transgender rights, and that BBC Arabic gave a platform to a journalist who had posted antisemitic comments. Some of the BBC’s senior staff have said they believe that the broadcaster is under attack from partisan opponents.

Football: Manchester City thrashed their title rival Liverpool 3-0. Here are the highlights.

Formula 1: Lando Norris extended his lead in the drivers’ championship after winning the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Tennis: Elena Rybakina won the biggest prize in the history of women’s sports, beating Aryna Sabalenka to win the 2025 WTA Tour Finals in Saudi Arabia.

— The Florentine diamond, a pear-shaped 137-carat stone owned by the Medici family and then by the Hapsburgs, disappeared in 1919. The secret of where it’s been all these years has finally been revealed.

For the first time since Tutankhamen’s tomb was excavated in 1922, all its artifacts — more than 5,500 of them — are on display at the Grand Egyptian Museum, which opened this month. One of the most impressive is Tutankhamen’s body armor, made from small pieces of fastened leather that give the appearance of fish scales.

For many Egyptians, the museum is a way to renew demands that the country’s most important antiquities be returned from European museums. Read more.

Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

How the hat business is thriving … in Madagascar

In the recent Gen Z protests that ousted Madagascar’s president, a particular kind of woven hat was seemingly everywhere.

The snugly fitted hats, worn by the Betsileo ethnic group, became an unofficial emblem of the protests, often combined with the “One Piece” character that has become a symbol of Gen Z protests worldwide.

The popularity has meant a boom in sales for Razafimaria, a local hat dealer who has been selling them for 50 years from the capital, Antananarivo, in a business inherited from her parents. She buys her stock from artisans in her hometown, Fandriana, where the style originates, and sells them for about 70 cents each.

The hats are perhaps poised for greater fame in the world of fashion: On a recent morning, an exporter named Stefane Judichael stopped by Razafimaria’s stand. During the protests, he said he shipped two bulk orders to Paris. — John Eligon, Johannesburg bureau chief

Read: The Booker Prize winner will be announced today. Tell us which novel you think should win.

Watch: Jennifer Lawrence gives a career-defining performance in “Die My Love,” our critic writes.

Travel: The Portuguese island of Madeira offers scenic mountain trails and inviting villages.

Move: Knee arthritis is common. Exercise can help.

Ackee and saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish, is typically eaten at breakfast or brunch. The protein-rich meal marries the buttery ackee fruit and funky salted cod with traditional Caribbean aromatics like scallions and thyme. Pair with a side of boiled green bananas, yams and dumplings.