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A federal judge on Thursday ordered a temporary halt to President Donald Trump’s deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops in the Chicago area as part of his sweeping crime and immigration crackdown.Trump’s administration has argued the troops are necessary to protect immigration agents and facilities in America’s third largest city, falsely depicting it as a “war zone.”But local Democratic officials have said police and other law enforcement are perfectly sufficient, while arguing that Trump is purposefully provoking protests with its heavy handed operations.In her ruling from the bench, District Judge April Perry said she had doubts about the Trump administration’s reliability and worried the troops’ presence would “only add fuel to the fire,” the Chicago Tribune reported.She ordered an immediate halt to the troop deployment, lasting until October 23, rejecting the government’s argument that Trump cannot be second-guessed over such matters.Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who has accused Trump of unconstitutional authoritarianism, hailed the ruling, saying on X: “Donald Trump is not a king — and his administration is not above the law.”At the same time, a three-judge appeals court panel in San Francisco was expected to rule on whether to lift another judge’s temporary block of a similar deployment in Democratic-ruled Portland, Oregon.Illinois and Oregon are not the first states to file legal challenges against the Trump administration’s extraordinary domestic use of the National Guard.Democratic-ruled California filed suit after the Republican president first sent troops to Los Angeles earlier this year to quell demonstrations sparked by a crackdown on undocumented migrants.A district court judge ruled it unlawful but an appeals court panel allowed the deployment to temporarily proceed.An AFP journalist who visited the Broadview facility on Thursday saw a few National Guard members and ICE personnel milling about on the other side of the fence.About 15 protesters hurled insults, calling the agents “human traffickers” and “Nazis.””Show your faces, you cowards!” they yelled. “Are your mommies proud of you?”The deployment in Chicago involves 200 National Guard troops from Texas and 300 from Illinois, the US Army Northern Command said. They have been mobilized for an initial period of 60 days.- Insurrection Act -Trump has said he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act — which allows the president to deploy the military within the United States to suppress rebellion — if courts or local officials continue “holding us up.”At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump repeated his claims that crime is rampant in Chicago and Portland.”We’ve launched a historic campaign to take back our nation from the gangs and the street criminals, violent repeat offenders, illegal alien law breakers, domestic extremists and savage, bloodthirsty cartels,” he said.The Republican has been accused by critics of growing authoritarianism as he tries to fulfill his campaign promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants.Raids by armed and masked federal agents have sparked allegations of rights abuses and illegal detentions.Local officials argue that city and state law enforcement are sufficient to handle protests against ICE agents and street crime.Pritzker, seen as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential election, has called Trump “unhinged.””He’s a wannabe dictator. And there’s one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: if you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me,” the governor said Wednesday.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully prosecuted Donald Trump, was indicted on Thursday, the second foe of the US president to be slapped with criminal charges in recent weeks.James, 66, a Democrat, was indicted by a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, on one count of bank fraud and a second one of making false statements to a financial institution.The charges against James were brought one day after another prominent Trump critic, former FBI director James Comey, pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.The cases against James and Comey were filed by Trump’s handpicked US attorney, Lindsey Halligan, after the previous prosecutor resigned saying there was not enough evidence against them.The case against James concerns allegedly false statements she made to obtain favorable loan terms for a property she purchased in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020.In a statement, James rejected the charges as “baseless” and said they are “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.””The president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution,” she said.Trump recently publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against James, Comey and others he sees as enemies in an escalation of his campaign against political opponents.After Trump left the White House in 2021, James brought a major civil fraud case against him, alleging he and his real estate company had unlawfully inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.A New York state judge ordered Trump to pay $464 million, but a higher court later removed the financial penalty while upholding the underlying judgment.- Vindictive prosecution -In addition to James and Comey, Trump has also publicly called for the prosecution of Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and his own former National Security Advisor, John Bolton.The indictments of James and Comey came after the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, stepped down after reportedly telling Justice Department leaders there was insufficient evidence to charge them.Comey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.The 64-year-old former FBI chief is accused of falsely stating that he had not authorized another FBI employee to be an anonymous source in news reports.The judge scheduled a trial date of January 5. Comey faces up to five years in prison if convicted.Comey’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said he intends to file a motion seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds it is a vindictive and selective prosecution.Appointed to head the FBI by then-president Barack Obama in 2013, Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 amid the probe into whether any members of the Trump presidential campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 vote.Since taking office in January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies, purging government officials he deemed to be disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.New York Governor Kathy Hochul was among a number of prominent Democratic politicians who came out in defense of James.”What we’re seeing today is nothing less than the weaponization of the Justice Department to punish those who hold the powerful accountable,” Hochul said on X.Senate Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer said “this is what tyranny looks like.””President Trump is using the Justice Department as his personal attack dog, targeting Attorney General Tish James for the ‘crime’ of prosecuting him for fraud — and winning,” the senator from New York said.In a statement, however, US Attorney Halligan defended the prosecution of James, saying she had committed “intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust.”

US President Donald Trump said he expected to travel to the Middle East on Sunday to celebrate the first phase of the Gaza peace deal and be there for the release of hostages by Hamas. Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Trump said the agreement between Israel and the Palestinian armed group had “ended the war in Gaza.”The US leader added that “nobody’s going to be forced to leave” the Palestinian territory under his 20-point peace plan, which formed the basis for indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel in Egypt.He said he hoped to travel to Israel, where he may address parliament, and maybe to Egypt.”The hostages will be coming back Monday or Tuesday. I’ll probably be there, I hope to be there,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to hostages taken by Hamas during its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.But Trump said that the bodies of some of the dead hostages would be “hard to find.” Hamas took 251 people hostage into Gaza, where 47 remain, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has devastated the territory and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. – ‘Disarming, pullbacks’ -Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said earlier that he had invited his US counterpart to take part in a “celebration to be held in Egypt” for the agreement for the first phase of a ceasefire.The Republican gave few details about the second phase of the peace deal and the future of Gaza.During an earlier meeting of his cabinet, Trump said “there will be disarming, there will be pullbacks,” in apparent reference to Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm and calls by the Palestinian group for Israel to withdraw its forces, but did not elaborate.He added that Gaza would be “slowly redone” and indicated that Arab states with “tremendous wealth” would help it rebuild, as well as possibly taking part in peacekeeping efforts.- ‘High degree of intensity’ -Trump, who in February proposed that the US take over Gaza, also rejected speculation that Palestinians could be forced out of the devastated enclave.”Nobody’s going to be forced to leave. No, it’s just the opposite. This is a great plan,” Trump said.Trump, however, played down the question of whether he would achieve his long-held dream of winning the Nobel Peace Prize, whose laureate is announced on Friday.”I don’t know what they’re going to do, really. But I know this, that nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months,” he said in response to a question by an AFP reporter.His cabinet officials lined up to praise him, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had on Wednesday handed the US president a note during an event saying a deal was imminent.”Frankly, I don’t know of any American president in the modern era that could have made this possible,” Rubio said during the cabinet meeting.Rubio also hinted at the tough negotiations that led to the agreement, which saw Trump pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rally Arab and Muslim states to lean on Hamas.”One day, perhaps the entire story will be told,” Rubio said.”The president had some extraordinary phone calls and meetings that required a high degree of intensity and commitment and made this happen.”

Five hundred US troops deployed in the Chicago area on Thursday as courts heard challenges to the use of the National Guard as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping crime and immigration crackdown.In Chicago, a federal judge held a hearing on a bid by the Democratic-led state of Illinois and local leaders to prevent the use of soldiers in America’s third-largest city.Simultaneously, a three-judge appeals court panel in San Francisco heard a Trump administration challenge to a judge’s order temporarily blocking the planned deployment of National Guard troops in Democratic-ruled Portland, Oregon.Illinois and Oregon are not the first states to file legal challenges against the Trump administration’s extraordinary domestic use of the National Guard.Democratic-ruled California filed suit after the Republican president sent troops to Los Angeles earlier this year to quell demonstrations sparked by a crackdown on undocumented migrants.A district court judge ruled it unlawful but the deployment was upheld by an appeals court panel.The government argues that the troops are needed in Chicago to protect federal agents during immigration raids in the Democratic stronghold, which the Trump administration depicts in exaggerated and lurid terms as a “war zone.”A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview “has been the target of actual and threatened violence,” requiring “assistance from the Department of War,” the Trump administration said in a court filing.The Democratic governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, and other local elected officials opposed to the deployment are seeking to “second-guess” the judgment of the president, it said.An AFP journalist who visited the Broadview facility on Thursday saw a few National Guard members and ICE personnel milling about on other side of the fence.About 15 protesters hurled insults, calling the agents “human traffickers” and “Nazis.””Show your faces, you cowards!” they yelled. “Are your mommies proud of you?”The deployment in Chicago features 200 National Guard troops from Texas and 300 from Illinois, the US Army Northern Command said. They have been mobilized for an initial period of 60 days.- Insurrection Act -Trump has said he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act — which allows the president to deploy the military within the United States to suppress rebellion — if courts or local officials continue “holding us up.”At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump repeated his claims that crime is rampant in Chicago and Portland.”We’ve launched a historic campaign to take back our nation from the gangs and the street criminals, violent repeat offenders, illegal alien law breakers, domestic extremists and savage, bloodthirsty cartels,” he said.The Republican has been accused by critics of growing authoritarianism as he tries to fulfill his campaign promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants.Raids by armed and masked federal agents have sparked allegations of rights abuses and illegal detentions.Local officials argue that city and state law enforcement are sufficient to handle protests against ICE agents and street crime.Pritzker, seen as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential election, has called Trump “unhinged.””He’s a wannabe dictator. And there’s one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: if you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me,” the governor said Wednesday.

The price of silver hit a multi-decade high on Thursday as investors kept flocking to safe havens amid geopolitical and economic uncertainty, while gold eased off a record run.Stock markets, meanwhile, were mixed as traders weighed a slew of issues: massive AI investments, corporate results, US interest rates, the US government shutdown, political turmoil in France and a Gaza ceasefire deal.The price of silver topped $50 an ounce, attaining levels not seen since 1980, according to Bloomberg. The surge comes in the wake of sister safe-haven gold, which retreated after hitting a record above $4,000 an ounce on Wednesday.”I think it’s a catch-up effect,” John Plassard, head of investment strategy at Cite Gestion Private Bank, told AFP.He cited concerns about the US economy, prospects of more interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year and worries about France’s debt.”What’s also happening — and this is what gave silver an extra boost — is that we’ve started hearing talk of a shortage of silver,” Plassard said, noting that the metal is used as an investment asset as well as for industries such as solar panels.Gold and silver are seen as safe haven investments in times of uncertainty.The dollar firmed against main rivals as it rebounds following a deep retreat for much of 2025.The greenback’s recovery is “being propelled by a dual engine: deteriorating conditions abroad and recalibrated expectations at home,” said a note from Convera that pointed to political instability in France and “dovish pivots” in Japan.On the equities front, major US indices retreated from records the prior session amid a dearth of economic data due to a government shutdown.US stocks have been resilient despite Republicans and Democrats appearing no closer to reaching a deal to reopen the government over a week into the shutdown.”Even the most bullish markets take a break sometimes,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.Investors are turning their attention towards company results.Shares in soft drink and snacks giant PepsiCo jumped 4.2 percent after reporting a third-quarter sales increase that beat expectations.Shares in Delta also climbed more than four percent after the airline posted strong profits and offered a bullish outlook on travel demand.But Boeing slid 4.1 percent following a Reuters report that Turkish Airlines could switch to Airbus for a recent plane order because of concerns about economic terms with engine supplier CFM International.The Paris stock market dipped as French President Emmanuel Macron races to find a new prime minister after the resignation of Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis.The Frankfurt DAX set a new record high.Ferrari had its worst slump since entering the Milan stock market in 2016, falling almost 15 percent at one point as an update to its 2030 financial guidance disappointed investors.In Asia, the Tokyo stock market closed up 1.8 percent after business-friendly Sanae Takaichi recently became leader of Japan’s ruling party.- Key figures at around 2010 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.5 percent at 46,358.42 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.3 percent at 6,735.11 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 23,024.63 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 9,509.40 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.2 percent at 8,041.36 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.1 percent at 24,611.25 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.8 percent at 48,580.44 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.3 percent at 26,752.59 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.3 percent at 3,933.97 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1558 from $1.1628 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3294 from $1.3404Dollar/yen: UP at 153.14 yen from 152.69 yenEuro/pound: UP at 86.94 pence from 86.77 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.6 percent at $65.22 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.7 percent at $61.51 per barrel

US President Donald Trump said he would try to go to Egypt for the signing of a Gaza ceasefire deal, adding that he expected Hamas to free hostages on Monday or Tuesday under the long-sought agreement.Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump said the agreement between Israel and Palestinian militant group had “ended the war in Gaza” and would lead to broader Middle East peace.”We secured the release of all of the remaining hostages, and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday,” Trump told his assembled cabinet secretaries at the White House.But Trump said that the bodies of some of the dead hostages would be “hard to find.” Trump announced plans to travel to the Middle East even before he unveiled the first phase of the peace deal on Wednesday, but said arrangements were still being made for a possible stop in Egypt.”I’m going to try and make a trip over. We’re going to try and get over there, and we’re working on the timing, the exact timing,” Trump said Thursday.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said earlier that he had invited his US counterpart to take part in a “celebration to be held in Egypt” for the agreement for the first phase of a ceasefire.Trump said he also expected to visit Israel, adding that he had been invited to address the Israeli parliament.”They asked me to speak at the Knesset and… I’ve agreed to, if they would like me to, I will do it,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter.Trump falsely claimed that he would be the first president to do so. The Knesset website lists US presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter among foreign leaders who have addressed the parliament in the past.- ‘Extraordinary phone calls’ -The Republican gave few details about the second phase of the peace deal and the future of Gaza.Trump said “there will be disarming, there will be pullbacks,” in apparent reference to Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm and calls by the Palestinian militant group for Israel to withdraw its forces, but did not elaborate.He added that Gaza would be “slowly redone” and indicated that Arab states with “tremendous wealth” would help it rebuild, as well as possibly taking part in peacekeeping efforts.Trump did not comment on whether he now expected to achieve his long-held dream of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.But his cabinet officials lined up to praise him, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had on Wednesday handed the US president a note during an event saying a deal was imminent.”Frankly, I don’t know of any American president in the modern era that could have made this possible,” Rubio said.Rubio also hinted at the tough negotiations that led to the agreement, which saw Trump pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rally Arab and Muslim states to lean on Hamas.”One day, perhaps the entire story will be told,” Rubio said.”The president had some extraordinary phone calls and meetings that required a high degree of intensity and commitment and made this happen.”

It began with a hastily written note and a whisper. It ended with a Gaza deal long sought by Donald Trump.Something was obviously going on when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made an unexpected appearance during a roundtable at the White House on the left-wing Antifa movement on Wednesday.”By the way, we have Marco Rubio. Marco, come on up here please,” Trump said, beckoning him over to his side of the White House’s State Dining Room. “Anything we should know about the Middle East?”There was. But the scrupulously low-key Rubio was not about to do it in public. “That’s what we’re hoping to talk to you about Mr President, once they leave,” said Rubio, pointing to journalists and eliciting a laugh from the 79-year-old Trump.What followed next was history playing out in real time — an extraordinary moment even for a reality TV star-turned-president with a flair for showmanship.With reporters watching carefully for signs about the progress of the Israel-Hamas peace talks in Egypt, Rubio took a seat vacated by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and briefly gave Trump the thumbs up.The top US diplomat then reached over and took a pen and a White House notepad from Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to his right.While Trump answered a question about “cutting the head off the snake” of Antifa, Rubio scribbled for nearly a minute as Miller leaned over to look.- ‘Very close’ -Rubio then showed the note to Miller, and leaned over to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, seated on Miller’s right. The three of them consulted briefly together before Rubio tore off a sheet of paper.Seconds later, Rubio reached behind the back of US Attorney General Pam Bondi as she answered another reporter’s question, and handed Trump the piece of paper.As the cameras rolled, Trump sat back in his chair and read the note for 10 seconds, with an approving nod.Rubio then got up and went over to Trump and whispered in his ear, with his hand covering his mouth.It was perhaps the most notable presidential whisper since George W. Bush’s chief of staff Andy Card interrupted him during an event at a Florida school to tell him that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.”Ok,” said Trump as Rubio went back to his seat, motioning for reporters to be quiet as they shouted questions. “I was just given a note by the secretary of state saying that we’re very close to a deal in the Middle East and they’re going to need me pretty quickly, so we’ll take a couple more questions.” Reporters could not immediately see what the note said. But photographs, including an AFP picture, later revealed the contents of Rubio’s history-making note to the president.”Very close. We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first,” it said, referring to Trump’s social network.The words “very close” were underlined twice.- ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ -At the end, Rubio stood waiting for Trump, who shook hands with the roundtable attendees on his way out as the clock ticked.Images later shared by the White House showed the urgency of the moment.Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Rubio and Wiles strode purposefully through the Rose Garden colonnade towards the Oval Office as they made the final preparations to announce the deal, in a video posted on social media by Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino.Almost exactly two hours after Rubio’s intervention, Trump’s Truth Social finally went out. “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!” it proclaimed.

A Texas appeals court on Thursday halted the scheduled execution of an autistic man convicted in a problematic “shaken baby” case.Robert Roberson, 58, had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection next week for the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki.The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution to Roberson so a lower court can consider a challenge to his conviction and the evidence of shaken baby syndrome.Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, welcomed the decision, which comes after another Texas man convicted in a shaken baby case was exonerated.”We are confident that an objective review of the science and medical evidence will show there was no crime,” Sween said in a statement.A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers has urged clemency for Roberson, citing “voluminous new scientific evidence” that casts doubt on his guilt.Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States based on a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, according to his lawyers.His case has drawn the attention of not only Texas lawmakers but also best-selling American novelist John Grisham, medical experts and the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions.Also among his supporters is the man who put him behind bars — Brian Wharton, the former chief detective in the town of Palestine — who has said “knowing everything that I know now, I am firmly convinced that Robert is an innocent man.”Roberson has always maintained his innocence and his lawyers maintain his chronically ill daughter died of natural and accidental causes, not abuse.The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, made at the hospital where Roberson’s daughter died, was erroneous, they say, and the cause of death was pneumonia, aggravated by doctors prescribing improper medication.Roberson’s autism spectrum disorder, which was not diagnosed until 2018, also contributed to his arrest and conviction, according to his lawyers.There have been 34 executions in the United States this year.

Five hundred US troops deployed in the Chicago area on Thursday as part of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown, despite strenuous objections of local leaders seeking a judge’s order to block the mobilization.District Judge April Perry was set to hold a hearing on the issue, a day after Trump called for jailing the Democratic governor of Illinois and mayor of Chicago for resisting his military-backed mass deportation and anti-crime campaign.The government argues the troops are needed to protect federal agents during immigration raids in the Democratic stronghold, the third-largest city in the United States, which the Trump administration depicts in exaggerated and lurid terms as “a war zone.”A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview “has been the target of actual and threatened violence,” requiring “assistance from the Department of War,” the Trump administration said in a court filing late Wednesday.Local elected officials were seeking to “second-guess” Trump’s judgement, the filing said.”But responsibility, and accountability, for those decisions should rest with the political branches of the federal government, not this Court,” the filing argued.National Guard troops were seen entering the Broadview facility overnight, local media reported Thursday.The deployment includes 200 National Guard troops from Texas and 300 from Illinois, the US Army Northern Command said in a statement Wednesday evening. They have been mobilized for an initial period of 60 days.- ‘Come and get me’ -Perry’s decision will be closely followed, as Trump has said he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act — which allows the president to deploy the military within the United States to suppress rebellion — if courts or local officials are “holding us up.”The Republican has been accused by critics of growing authoritarianism as he fulfills his campaign promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants.Raids by armed and masked federal agents have sparked allegations of rights abuses and illegal detentions.Local officials argue that city and state law enforcement are sufficient to handle protests against ICE officials and street crime.Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, seen as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential election, called Trump “unhinged.””He’s a wannabe dictator. And there’s one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: if you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me,” Pritzker said Wednesday.In recent days, protesters have gathered outside the ICE facility in Broadview, leading to scattered clashes.On Wednesday, a viral video showed agents on the roof of the facility taking aim at a church minister among a small group of protesters. The clergyman was struck in the head with a pepper ball and fell to the ground.Protester Aiden Price, a Marine veteran and Chicago Public Schools civics teacher, told the Sun-Times newspaper he felt like a “hypocrite” lately in the classroom.”I’m teaching things that aren’t being practiced by our government,” the 34-year-old said. “These rights are supposed to be given to anyone in the confines of the country.”He noted a recent Border Patrol raid at an Chicago apartment building that saw residents zip-tied for hours.”The things I’m seeing are too similar to what you’d see if a member of the military was detaining a member of the Taliban or Al Qaeda, but these are kids and grandmas on the South Side of Chicago,” Price said.

The world’s top conservation body kicked off its world congress Thursday in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, where it will unveil its updated “red list” of threatened species a day later.Hundreds of participants were meeting at the venue where the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), whose decisions help set the global agenda on environmental protection, will on Friday publish its list ranking plant and animal species from “least concern” to “extinct”.The congress, held every four years, sheds light on the dire state of the world’s biodiversity. An increasing number of animals suffer from the destruction of their natural habitat, climate change, and water, air and soil pollution.According to the United Nations’s expert scientific panel on biodiversity (IPBES), biodiversity has declined every decade in the past 30 to 50 years.In an update to its “red list” last year, the IUCN said that out of the 169,420 species studied, a total of 47,187 were classified as threatened — more than a quarter.The most impacted species were corals and amphibians, with more than 40 percent of each group under threat.- UAE climate diplomacy -The United Arab Emirates, a major oil exporter that also hosted the UN’s annual climate talks in 2023 (known as COP28), is seeking a bigger role in setting the environmental agenda by hosting these events.”The UAE has become a global convening power to bring countries together, bring all stakeholders on discussions that are very vital for our environment,” UAE climate change and environment minister Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak told AFP at the meeting.”This is a platform where conversations can converge,” Al Dahak said of the congress.She called for translating “those conversations into pledges, into actions and into implementation plans”, urging “more implementation plans and actions on the ground”.The IUCN congress last convened in the French city of Marseille in 2021.The meeting revolves around votes on adopting resolutions.Though not legally binding, the resolutions can “shape the international agenda” and “accelerate” work on treaties under discussion, an IUCN source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss the event freely.”The Congress programme reflects the urgency and ambition of our time,” said Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, Secretary General of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi and IUCN councillor from the West Asia region.IUCN Director General Grethel Aguilar of Costa Rica said the upcoming announcements “reflect the scale of ambition and the real possibility of delivering the solutions we need to build a planet where people and nature thrive together”.- Synthetic biology debate -The most closely watched vote revolves around two competing motions on synthetic biology — a controversial technique widely used in the pharmaceutical industry and agribusiness.It enables scientists to redesign organisms by engineering them to have new abilities.One motion calls for a moratorium on the technology because “genetic engineering of wild species in natural ecosystems, including in protected areas, is not compatible with the practices, values and principles of nature conservation”.A competing motion argues that synthetic biology could complement conservation efforts, and says IUCN policy “should not be interpreted as supporting or opposing synthetic biology, per se”.Organisers expect 10,000 delegates and 5,000 civil society attendees.The IUCN congress describes itself as the “world’s largest and most inclusive nature conservation forum”.Its voting members include government agencies, national and international NGOs, and Indigenous groups.