Washington: US President Joe Biden has said that Elon Musk had purchased a social media platform in Twitter that spews lies across the world.
Twitter laid off half its workforce but said cuts were smaller in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.
Biden said at a fundraiser: “And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends – that spews lies all across the world… There’s no editors anymore in America. There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters earlier that Biden had been clear about the need to reduce hate speech and misinformation.
“That belief extends to Twitter, it extends to Facebook and any other social media platforms where users can spread misinformation,” she said.
Musk has promised to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a “hellscape.” But major advertisers have expressed apprehension about his takeover for months.
COP27: Loss and damage funding to address climate risks
Sharm El-Sheikh: With the adoption of the loss and damage funding formally in the COP27 agenda in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, a platform has been created to explore the financing options to find possible ways to address climate change risks.
A slew of financial pledges were announced by the developed nations in the backdrop of a year when extreme climate events demonstrated again the urgency to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Also climate envoy calling on rich countries to support poor nations at most risk from the environmental damage.
At the opening of the two-day Climate Implementation Summit at COP27, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for a historic pact between the developed and developing countries to combine capacities, and pivot the world towards reducing carbon emissions, transforming energy systems and avoiding a climate catastrophe.
Joining the issue, Britain Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, “Instead of developing countries being unfairly burdened with the carbon debt of richer nations and somehow expected to forgo that same path to growth, we are helping those countries deliver their own fast track to clean growth.
“The UK is making further commitments to support this today by investing 65 million pounds in a range of green investment projects in Kenya and in Egypt.”
With delegates discussing finance issues at COP27, the first African COP for six years, the new report lays out the grim economic future some of the poorest countries in the world will face.
By 2050 and 2100 the economies of these countries are still expected to be higher than they are today. This study highlights the amount of damage caused to their GDP by climate change, compared to a scenario where climate change didn’t take place.
Estimates based on peer-reviewed methodology by Burke et al show that based on current climate policies, where global temperature rise reaches 2.7C by the end of the century, African countries can expect to suffer an average GDP hit of minus 20 percent by 2050 and of minus 64 percent Aby 2100.
Even if countries keep global temperature rise to 1.5C as set out in the Paris Agreement, African countries face an average GDP reduction of minus 14 percent by 2050 and minus 34 percent by 2100. This underlines the fact that a robust loss and damage mechanism will be needed, even if countries succeed in keeping global heating to under 1.5C.
Harjeet Singh, Head of Global Political Strategy, Climate Action Network International, said: “The new financial pledges from some rich countries to address loss and damage are welcome. It shows that they are finally acknowledging the lack of finance to meet the needs of people affected by climate disasters”.
