BELEM (Brazil) – COP 30 has once again proved to be a flop, as was the case with COP 29 last year in Baku, Azerbaijan (as we wrote here). This time, the United Nations Conference of the Parties on climate change — held in Belem, Brazil, a few days ago — almost collapsed, but a compromise was ultimately reached: a final political agreement was unanimously approved by the 195 states that participated in the conference (with Donald Trump’s United States absent). But it’s a sham agreement: there is no explicit reference to a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and gas. →
TORONTO – Continued cuts to the number of international student visas, first under Justin Trudeau’s government and now under Mark Carney’s, is bringing Canadian colleges and universities to their knees.
TORONTO – The snow, although forecast, has left drivers stunned, and many of them, perhaps unprepared, have been involved in traffic accidents caused by the slipperiness of the roads. →
KATHMANDU – In the early hours of this morning, Italian mountaineering sources announced, as reported by the Italian news agency AGI (here), that the Italian “AviaMEA-Evk2CNR” rescue team took off from the Kathmandu heliport to reach the Yalung Ri area. Their goal was to attempt to rescue two climbers: Marco Di Marcello, 37-year-old Italian-Canadian biologist and mountain guide of Abruzzo origin and resident in Calgary, Alberta, and Markus Kirchler, a 29-year-old South Tyrolean from San Genesio, a former track and field talent who lives in Munich, Germany.
TORONTO – There are still hopes of finding alive Marco Di Marcello, the Italian-Canadian mountaineer missing since Monday in the Nepalese Himalayas. Confirmation that he and the other Italian still missing (Markus Kirchler from South Tyrol, Italy) have not yet been declared dead came today from the Italian Foreign Ministry. And for Marco there is one more sign that gives hope: his GPS’ signal. →
