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Starbucks reported lower profits Tuesday in results that still topped expectations as the company’s new CEO described various pilot program tests to reinvigorate the chain.Profits came in at $780.8 million, down 23.8 percent from the year-ago level. Revenues declined 0.3 percent to $9.4 billion, as comparable store sales fell in both North America and international markets.The chain, which has hit a rough patch of sagging sales, installed Brian Niccol as CEO last year, recruiting him from Chipotle after the short-lived tenure of Laxman Narasimhan.Niccol has reinstated self-service condiment bars for customers in US stores and shifted policies to permit bathroom use only to patrons.On Tuesday, prior to the earnings announcement, Starbucks announced the departure of two longtime executives, Sara Trilling and Arthur Valdez, whose roles will be reconfigured under a new operating model.Niccol’s goal is that Starbucks “gets back” to its identity as “a welcoming coffee house where people gather and where we serve the finest coffee handcrafted by our skilled baristas.”The chain is working to ensure that customers are moved through and served within four minutes with a “touch of humanity,” Niccol said on a conference call with analysts.To that end, the company has reintroduced ceramic mugs and handwritten notes to customers on coffee cups. Starbucks is also experimenting with algorithms that can improve efficiency in the production of drinks ordered through the company’s smartphone app, Niccol said. Customers have complained of lengthy wait times for online orders where they stand near rows of prepared drinks waiting for other customers.”Right now mobile ordering is just a first in, first out proposition and we’ve got to fix it,” he said, adding that fixing the issue will take “the brand right back where it needs to be, which is a premium experience.”Shares rose 0.6 percent in after-hours trading.

Stunned American federal workers feel “under siege” after President Donald Trump issued a flurry of orders aimed at reforming the US government, some have told AFP, as they grapple with the Republican’s right-wing agenda.In the eight days since his return to the White House, Trump has launched a series of head-snapping moves dismantling programs to combat inequality and environmental injustice, firing workers carrying them out, and further slashing government spending at home and abroad.The ripple effects on the wider American population are yet to be seen — but for many of the three million federal workers tasked with carrying out US government policies, the effect has been swift and destabilizing.”People are crying in their supervisors’ offices, wondering what might happen to their jobs,” one employee at the Department of the Interior — a remote worker whose own future is now in question after Trump ordered all federal employees back to the office — told AFP. Employees were already anxious and fearful, she said, after Trump made repeated promises to target spending on the campaign trail last year.”And when the executive orders just kept coming, people go, ‘Wow, this is way worse than we envisioned.'”She, like others who spoke to AFP, agreed to do so only under the condition of anonymity. “Everyone is kind of somber, everyone’s kind of bracing for impact. There’s a lot of uncertainty,” said one remote worker from outside the capital, Washington, who has been employed by the federal government since 2014. “You kind of feel like you’re under siege,” he said.Another, a woman at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, said employees were grasping for information.”A lot of rumors are circulating in the corridors, everyone gets together to talk about what we’ve heard from our supervisors,” she said — though it was hard to tell what was true.”We’re worried about budget cuts,” she said.- ‘Rat out our colleagues’ -It’s not just the cuts.Several of the civil servants who spoke to AFP described an email which ordered employees to report if any federal workers were concealing efforts to continue with so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.The programs are meant to combat inequality, but Trump has complained that they discriminate against white people — white men in particular — and vowed to end them. “I’ve never seen like an email that just seems so kind of unprofessional and aggressive,” said the remote worker, who has been with the government since 2014.”It feels like the gloves are off … and he’s kind of just going more for his worst kind of initiatives,” he continued, referring to Trump. “We are being told to rat out our colleagues,” said the Interior Department employee. “People have taken to using their personal communications because they’re worried that we’re being surveilled somehow. That is crazy,” she said. “Everybody is looking over their shoulder. Everybody is so worried about trying to figure out how to navigate the cascade of implications … All this angst is actually preventing the work that people are paid to do,” added one long-term senior employee with the Commerce Department.  – ‘Can’t bully me’ -Before he even took office, Trump announced that he was tasking his backer Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, which steering a “Department of Government Efficiency” that would restructure the federal executive branch and gut public spending. Around two-thirds of federal spending goes towards programs that Trump would not be able to cut, or those he has pledged not to, including Social Security and Medicare.That has not stopped him from freezing large swathes of federal aid funding, throwing rafts of programs — and the employees who carry them out — into disarray at home and abroad.”It is literally, ‘I, as the leader of these agencies, am going to come into the home and burn it down,'” said the Interior Department employee. “Half the people are like, I need to hold my head up, because I know that’s what you’re trying to do, and I’m not going to let you to let you win. And then the rest are like, wow, this is just brutal,” she said.The goal is to “make the government as inefficient as they claim it is,” said the remote worker who had been with the government since 2014. “In a way, it’s making me more resolved,” he said.Trump “can’t bully me around.”ube-ia-hg-es/cyb/st/jgc

Boeing reported a hefty fourth-quarter loss Tuesday following a bruising 2024, but shares rallied on hopes that early turnaround signs under a new CEO may bear fruit.The US aviation giant reported a loss of $3.9 billion as the company continued to experience a hit from a more than seven-week labor strike that shuttered two major assembly plants.But Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg, who joined Boeing in August, said the company is making progress.Company officials said they expect to lift 737 MAX production in 2025 and to clear out planes in inventory, improving the outlook for free cash flow later in the year.Boeing has worked with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on “an agreed upon path for rate increases” on the 737 MAX, Ortberg told analysts.Ortberg described a number of operational performance indicators that look at parts shortages, work performed out of sequence and other factors. The FAA has limited Boeing’s output of the MAX to 38 planes per month as it keeps close oversight of Boeing following two fatal MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed more than 300 people. The FAA will only lift that level if Boeing makes continued progress on safety concerns. “We need to stay disciplined on maintaining a stable production system,” he said. “But early signs are encouraging.”Boeing’s fourth quarter loss took the company’s full-year loss — its sixth in a row — to $11.8 billion.The results were consistent with a January 23 profit warning in which Boeing flagged the impact of the labor strike on company operations. The 31 percent drop in fourth-quarter revenues to $15.2 billion reflected a hit from fewer plane deliveries, which came in at barely a third of the level in the 2023 period as the labor stoppage halted output on the 737 MAX and the 777. Boeing’s performance was also marred by a troubled flight in January 2024 in which a 737 MAX flown by Alaska Airlines made an emergency landing after the plane suffered a mid-flight blowout on a window panel.Following that incident, Boeing faced intensified scrutiny from US air regulators and slowed output.Boeing has also continued to suffer from legacy fixed-cost defense contracts that have led to losses for the company. Boeing’s profit warning flagged one-time costs of $1.7 billion in its defense, space and security division.- Ramping up -Ortberg told CNBC that Boeing is “actually a little ahead of where I expected” in terms of ramping up production on the 737 MAX following the strike and intensified process control checks after the Alaska Airlines incident.Boeing has been producing the MAX at under the 38 per month authorized by the FAA. Analysts view the restoration of output to 38 per month and subsequent production increases as critical to Boeing’s profit outlook.Ortberg expressed confidence in achieving higher MAX output, telling CNBC “I expect by the second half of the year, we’ll have that approval, and we’ll be moving to a higher production rate.”Ortberg also said he had met with Trump administration representative Elon Musk about Air Force One, the highly customized Boeing plane that flies the president. Trump has installed Musk, the world’s richest man, as an advisor on cutting government spending.”The President wants the airplane sooner, and so we’re working with Elon and the team to figure out what can we do to pull up the schedule of that aircraft,” Ortberg said, speaking about replacement planes.Shares of Boeing finished up 1.5 percent.”It seems investors are focusing on the improvements on the production front and focusing less on the financial results,” said Briefing.com. “We also think investors are looking a few quarters ahead on the hopes of a turnaround.”

Human-driven climate change set the stage for the devastating Los Angeles wildfires by reducing rainfall, parching vegetation, and extending the dangerous overlap between flammable drought conditions and powerful Santa Ana winds, according to an analysis published Tuesday.The study, conducted by dozens of researchers, concluded that the fire-prone conditions fueling the blazes were approximately 35 percent more likely due to global warming caused by burning fossil fuels.”Climate change increased the risk of the devastating LA wildfires,” said Clair Barnes of Imperial College London, the lead author of the study by World Weather Attribution, an international academic collaboration.”Drought conditions are increasingly pushing into winter, raising the likelihood of fires breaking out during strong Santa Ana winds that can transform small ignitions into deadly infernos. “Without a faster transition away from planet-heating fossil fuels, California will continue to get hotter, drier, and more flammable.”- Projected to worsen – The study does not address the direct causes of the wildfires, which erupted around Los Angeles on January 7, killing at least 29 people and destroying more than 10,000 homes, the most destructive in the city’s history.Investigators are probing the role of power company Southern California Edison in one of the blazes, the Eaton Fire.Instead, researchers analyzed weather data and climate models to assess how such events have evolved under today’s climate, which has warmed approximately 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels. Using peer-reviewed methods, they found that the hot, dry, and windy conditions were 1.35 times more likely due to climate change.Looking ahead, the study warns that under current scenarios, where global warming reaches 4.7F (2.6C) by 2100, similar fire-weather events in January will become a further 35 percent more likely.Historically, October through December rainfall has marked the end of wildfire season. However, these rains have decreased in recent decades. The study found that low rainfall across these months is now 2.4 times more likely during neutral El Nino conditions, leading to drier, flammable conditions persisting into the peak of the Santa Ana wind season in December and January.- Areas of Uncertainty -The relationship between climate change and Santa Ana winds —  which form in western deserts, then heat up and dry out as they flow down California’s mountains — remains unclear.While most studies predict a decline in these winds as the climate warms, some suggest hot Santa Ana wind events and particularly strong years will persist.This year’s fires followed two wet winters in 2022–2023 and 2023–2024, which spurred the growth of grass and brush. However, almost no rain this winter left the vegetation dry and highly flammable.Globally, extreme shifts between very wet and very dry conditions, known as “precipitation whiplash,” are becoming more common. These swings are driven by a warmer atmosphere that can hold and release greater amounts of moisture, exacerbating weather extremes.

President Donald Trump named her as the youngest White House press secretary in history. And Karoline Leavitt unveiled a Gen Z-style shake up as she made her debut at the famed podium Tuesday.The 27-year-old immediately announced that she was opening up the briefing room to TikTokers and creating a seat for “new media,” echoing her boss’s wider overhaul of the US government.After Trump focused on podcasters in his election victory and bashed “legacy” news organizations, Leavitt said she would be following his “revolutionary media approach.”But some things don’t change. Leavitt admitted that the garrulous former reality TV star Trump will end up taking much of the limelight himself.”The president is the best spokesperson that this White House has,” Leavitt said in her first briefing since Trump’s inauguration eight days ago.”And I can assure you that you will be hearing from both him and me as much as possible.” As reporters’ hands shot up, Leavitt then took questions, starting with two of the so-called new media, Axios and Breitbart, before mixing up traditional news organizations with right-wing outlets.- ‘Smart, tough’ -Leavitt was already a polished presence, with her social media profile mixing shots of life as a young working mother with clips of her on Fox News going after the “fake news” media.Trump said when he appointed her shortly after his election win in November that Leavitt was “smart, tough” and would “excel at the podium.”And Leavitt is nothing if not a Trump loyalist. Raised in New Hampshire, where her family ran an ice cream shop, she sent a letter to her university newspaper in 2017 to protest against the fact that a professor had criticized Trump in class.Eight years later she has had a meteoric rise through the ranks of Trumpworld, thanks partly to her aggressive defense of her 78-year-old boss on the airwaves.A veteran of the press office in his first term, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Congress in New Hampshire in 2022 on a pro-Trump, pro-gun ownership platform. An Instagram post at the time showed her firing a machinegun on a range with the caption: “@joebiden come and take it”, referring to then-president Joe Biden.Then her steely appearances on television as Trump’s 2024 campaign spokeswoman earned her the job as press secretary.In one notable exchange, a CNN interviewer cut Leavitt off after she criticized the network’s moderators chosen to oversee a debate between Trump and Biden.- ‘Wonder woman’ -Her loyalty was such that she returned to work four days after the birth of her first child when Trump survived an assassination attempt at a political rally last June.”I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,'” Leavitt told The Conservateur magazine in an article titled “Wonder Woman.” It remains to be seen how often Leavitt will step up to the podium in future. Before the briefing she had only had a brief encounter with reporters on the White House driveway and a single “gaggle” on Air Force One, reserving most of her appearances for Fox News.But she has still caused a stir, with conservative commentator Mary Rooke posting a picture of her driveway appearance with two similarly coiffed aides and saying: “We are finally entering our Blonde Supremacy era.”Her first briefing showed a practised performer who was mostly comfortable exchanging jabs with the media. Unlike her predecessor, Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, she made no use of the heavy “binder” where spokespeople often have key lines set out. She also avoided the fate of Trump’s first press secretary, Sean Spicer, who was widely ridiculed after falsely insisting during his first briefing that the crowd for Trump’s 2017 inauguration was the largest history. Three other spokespeople followed during Trump’s first term with one of them, Stephanie Grisham, failing to make a single appearance at the podium.

The healthcare system for millions of low-income Americans and rafts of other programs were thrown into disarray Tuesday after President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on federal funding, a move opponents blasted as unconstitutional.It was Trump’s latest radical step since he took office a week ago, vowing to force the US government and its employees to back his right-wing political goals or face retribution.Potentially trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans and other aid were frozen by the White House order set to take effect Tuesday at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT), casting a shadow over everything from education to small businesses.Online portals used to access the Medicaid health insurance program for poor families and disabled individuals were quickly inaccessible.”This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed,” Oregon Senator Ron Wyden posted on X.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the website would be fixed soon and that “no payments have been affected.”She defended the drastic move as part of Trump’s bid to make the government “good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”The freeze is not a “blanket” stop on spending, but a tool to check that “every penny that is going out the door is not conflicting with the executive orders and actions that this president has taken,” Leavitt said.She said the temporary pause would not impact individual Americans but would instead target programs to weed out anything “illegal.”She listed as examples racial equality and climate change programs that Trump has vowed to eradicate — and did not answer a question about whether Medicaid recipients would be cut off.The extraordinary measure follows a similar freeze on most US foreign aid.- Constitutional challenge -The order, signed by acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Matthew Vaeth, did not make clear how such a pause on disbursements of funding will work or for how long.Several non-profit groups have filed suit in federal court seeking a temporary halt to the order until its legality is assessed.Federal spending included more than $3 trillion in financial assistance like grants and loans in fiscal year 2024 — all of which was approved by Congress.Democrats accused Trump of usurping Congress’ constitutionally mandated control over budget spending as part of a broader attempt to force the government to bend to his personal will.This has included firing independent government watchdogs and several career prosecutors who were involved in an official probe of his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.The Trump administration says the funding stoppage is just a way to enforce compliance with the administration’s policies.This is “certainly within the confines of the law,” Leavitt said, citing the White House legal team, and claiming Trump “has the power to fire anyone” in the administration.- ‘Sweeping halt’ -Democratic Senator Patty Murray called the White House spending order “a brazen & illegal move.””The law is the law — Trump must immediately reverse course, follow the requirements of the law, & ensure the nation’s spending laws are implemented as Congress intended,” she posted on X.Another Democratic senator, Richard Blumenthal, said the “illegal” order will create “havoc” in medical and research facilities, which receive major government funding.The White House memo stated that “federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities.”It stated that Social Security and Medicare benefits — used by retirees — were excluded from the pause.Areas that might be impacted, it said, include “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal” — references to racial equality and climate change programs that Trump has vowed to overturn.The Sierra Club, an environmental organization, said the freeze could jeopardize funding for everything from disaster relief to home heating subsidies, safe drinking water programs, and the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.”In issuing a sweeping halt to federal funding, grants and loans, Donald Trump has… immediately and significantly put Americans in danger,” Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous.

It has been 10 years since a teenage Shamima Begum and two friends secretly left Britain to marry Islamic State group fighters in Syria.Over the past decade Nadia Fall, a British theater director of Muslim heritage, has watched the polarizing and vitriolic debate about Begum’s infamous case, online radicalization, and who is to blame.”We kept thinking ‘well these are girls, these are children really, legally,'” said Fall, who began work on a film project with writer Suhayla El-Bushra.”The stories never really were (told) from their point of view.”The resulting new drama, “Brides,” which premiered at the US-based Sundance festival and is loosely inspired by their story, is an attempt to change that.As much a road movie about friendship as it is political, the film follows two fictional Muslim teenagers on their journey through Turkey, to Syria.”Brides” does not concern itself so much with what happens in Syria, but how and why the girls traveled there in the first place.Doe and Muna suffer racist bullying at school. They live in a neighborhood where graffiti scrawled on the wall says “Behead All Muslims.” Their parents are abusive, emotionally or physically.They convince each other that the men waiting for them in Syria will treat them with more respect than they experienced back home. “This is not an apologist film,” said Fall.But “teenage brains are hardwired to take risks,” and the girls “were duped” by shadowy online voices who falsely purported to represent Islam, she said.- ‘Empathize’ -The subject matter continues to be divisive.Last year, Begum lost a high-profile bid to appeal the stripping of her British citizenship.She was 15 years old when she travelled to Syria. Now 25, Begum has not been able to return from a refugee camp in northern Syria.Tabloid newspapers, who have consistently called Begum a “vile fanatic” who has “no place on our soil,” celebrated the latest court ruling.Rights groups argue that Begum should answer for any crimes in her home country.While the film’s characters are not specifically based on Begum, the influence is clear.Actress Safiyya Ingar grew up in London’s Hackney, “ten minutes from where those girls are from.”Co-star Ebada Hassan listened to a BBC podcast to study Begum’s infamous case.”I thought it was imperative to get a person’s point of view who’d been through that, instead of just using what I’ve seen in the media for this portrayal,” she said.”It was nice to hear her voice. I tried to empathize with her before filling these shoes. But, she added, “I’m not trying to pretend to be her — at all.”- ‘Monsters’ -Fall believes that young people including Begum have been treated differently by the UK government, legal system and media due to their faith and skin color.”We didn’t want to regurgitate stories about radicalization and so on. But we just thought it was our story to tell,” said Fall.Like most films at Sundance, the movie is up for sale to potential distributors.Fall believes the subject remains urgent, as the divisive forces that drove the girls’ terrible decisions are stronger than ever.”It’s not gone away, this idea of ‘us versus them’, ‘these people are different,’ and trying to exploit other people feeling marginalized,'” said Fall.”It doesn’t have to be Syria,” she warned.

Donald Trump’s new press secretary on Tuesday invited TikTokers and podcasters to apply for White House press passes, in an effort to reach beyond the mainstream media that the US president often slams.In her first time at the White House podium, Karoline Leavitt said an additional seat for “new media voices” had been reserved at the front of the cramped briefing room.Trump has repeatedly criticized traditional media as the “enemy of the people,” and he credits a series of podcast appearances for aiding his return to the White House. “As the youngest press secretary in history, thanks to President Trump, I take great pride in opening up this room to new media voices,” the 27-year-old Leavitt told a packed briefing room.”Whether you are a TikTok content creator, a blogger, a podcaster, if you are producing legitimate news content… you will be allowed to apply for press credentials to this White House,” she said.The shake-up was more modest that some news organizations had feared, after the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. talked in November about “opening up” the press room.The 49 seats in the room are allocated to a number of news organizations, including AFP, that are members of the White House Correspondents Association.Reporters without seats are allowed to stand at the side if there is space — as they did for Leavitt’s packed-out debut on Tuesday.The new press secretary also vowed to hold reporters accountable for what she said were “lies” about Trump.”We know for a fact there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family, and we will not accept that,” she said.The briefing at the iconic White House podium was Leavitt’s first since Trump was inaugurated eight days ago. She has so far largely spoken to conservative television outlets including Fox News.Trump sidestepped interviews with some major US TV networks during the election campaign, opting instead to speak to several largely right-wing podcasts including the hugely popular Joe Rogan Experience.

General Motors faced questions Tuesday about the impact of potential moves by the Trump administration targeting trade and the environment, with the uncertainty overshadowing the company’s latest results. The big US automaker reported a quarterly loss due to costs from restructuring a China initiative, though that was offset by a 2025 earnings forecast that topped analyst expectations. However its projections did not try to quantify the effects of new tariffs that Trump has threatened on key markets in which GM operates, such as Mexico, or the White House’s planned rollback of policies promoting electric vehicles.Acknowledging the “uncertainty,” Chief Executive Mary Barra said the company had been “proactive” in engaging the Trump administration and Congress.”We have stressed the importance of a strong manufacturing sector and American leadership in advanced technologies,” Barra said in a letter to shareholders. “It’s clear that we share a lot of common ground, and we appreciate the dialogue.”Barra pledged to be “agile” in responding to any shifts.GM shares tumbled around 10 percent shortly after midday. Shares rose nearly 50 percent in 2024.In the fourth quarter, GM reported a loss of $3.0 billion compared with profits of $2.1 billion a year ago.Revenues rose 11 percent to $47.7 billion.The company projected 2025 earnings of between $11 and $12 per share, above analyst expectations.GM garnered higher auto sales in the fourth quarter led by its home market, where pricing remained strong. But the earnings were dented by a $4 billion in non-cash costs from revamping the SAIC General Motors Corporation. The company had signaled the hit in early December as it sought to bring down costs and clear out inventory in China.- Scenario planning -GM’s 2025 outlook includes the full-year availability of sport utility vehicles revamped in 2024, as well as new EVs under the Cadillac brand set to launch.But executives faced multiple questions about how the fast-changing policy landscape affects its outlook.Barra said the company has been studying “multiple scenarios” on tariffs. Trump has threatened punishing 25 percent duties on all goods from Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent on goods from China, starting February 1.GM builds trucks in both Canada and Mexico, but “we have the capacity in the United States to shift some of that,” she said.The company is “encouraged” that Mexico’s leader, Claudia Sheinbaum, has indicated that they are working to avoid tariffs, she said.”But we’re doing the planning… and have several levers we can pull.”GM also faced questions over EVs, which have emerged as a punching bag of the new White House.GM officials are targeting production of 300,000 EVs in 2025. One of Trump’s executive orders last week pledged to undo policies that disadvantage gasoline-powered cars, and opened the door to removing tax credits for EV purchases and to a fight over California’s strict climate policies.”There’s a lot of moving parts out there,” said Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson, who described GM as having “multiple playbooks” to respond.”The reason that we guided to the status quo is because there are really infinite permutations on policy,” Jacobson said. “But rest assures … we’ve got plans in place, and we’re continuing to work proactively with the administration and with Congress on what we think are the right things to do, which is preserve American jobs and preserve American innovation.”

The United Nations confirmed Tuesday it had received notification from Washington of its withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement, a key campaign pledge of US President Donald Trump.On his first day back in the White House, Trump announced the United States would leave the accord, which is managed by the UN climate change body. It brings together almost all the world’s nations and aims to keep global average temperature rise below a critical threshold.”I can confirm to you that the United States has notified the secretary-general, in his capacity as a depository, of its withdrawal on January 27 of this year from the Paris agreement,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.”According to Article 28, paragraph two, of the Paris agreement, the withdrawal of the United States will take effect on January 27, 2026.”The move comes as global average temperatures over the past two years surpassed the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold for the first time, underscoring the urgency of climate action.  Trump previously withdrew the United States from the Paris accord during his first term. Despite this, the agreement — adopted in 2015 by 195 parties to curb greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change — appears poised to endure.Washington typically provides 22 percent of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat’s budget, with the body’s operating costs for 2024-2025 projected at $96.5 million.Billionaire entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg has announced that his foundation will step in to meet the shortfall.The secretariat is tasked with supporting the global response to climate threats, and organizes international climate conferences, the next of which will be COP30 held in Brazil in November.Dujarric told a media briefing that “we reaffirm our commitment to the Paris agreement and support all effective efforts to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”Since coming back to office, Trump has also declared a “national energy emergency” to expand drilling in the world’s top oil and gas producer, said he would scrap vehicle emissions standards, and vowed to halt offshore wind farms.Critics warn the Paris withdrawal undermines global cooperation on reducing fossil fuel use and could embolden major polluters like China and India to weaken their commitments, while Argentina, under libertarian President Javier Milei, has also said it is “reevaluating” its participation.