📌 Drastic Plastic, Venezuela, More

Companies that created an alliance to end plastic pollution made 1,000 times more plastic in 5 years than the waste they removed.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) was set up in 2019 by ExxonMobil, Dow, Shell, TotalEnergies and ChevronPhillips, some of the world’s biggest plastic producers. Companies that created an alliance to end plastic pollution made 1,000 times more plastic in 5 years than the waste they removed. ​

They promised to divert 15 million tonnes of plastic waste from the environment in five years to the end of 2023 by improving collection and recycling and creating a circular economy.

An analysis by energy consultants Wood Mackenzie, obtained by Greenpeace’s Unearthed team, reveals the five companies alone produced 132 million tonnes in five years of two plastics — polyethylene and polypropylene.

The production was over 1,000 times the weight of the 118,500 tonnes of waste plastic the alliance removed from the environment in the same period.

The data was revealed as delegates prepared to meet in Busan, South Korea, to hammer out the world’s first treaty to cut plastic pollution. The treaty has a mandate to agree on a legally binding global agreement to tackle plastic pollution across the entire plastic life cycle.

The US government recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the “president-elect” on Tuesday.

Months after President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won the July election, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized González in a post on X in which he also demanded “respect for the will” of Venezuelan voters.

The administration of US President Joe Biden previously said González earned the most votes in the disputed July 28 election, but it had fallen short of acknowledging him as president-elect.

Maduro and electoral authorities have rejected repeated calls from the US, the EU, Colombia, Brazil, and other nations to provide detailed voting records supporting the president’s reelection.

Experts from the United Nations and the US-based Carter Center, which observed the election at Maduro’s government's invitation, determined that the results announced by electoral authorities lacked credibility.

Dozens of people on a month’s cruise fell ill with norovirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

The Coral Princess, a 965-foot cruise ship operated by Princess Cruises, sailed from Singapore to Long Beach, California. The ship had over 2,700 passengers and crew members aboard.

According to a news release from the CDC, 55 passengers reported being ill with norovirus, and 15 crew members had the same illness. The first illness was reported on Nov. 9, and the ship docked in California on Nov. 17.

Norovirus is a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness that causes uncomfortable symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting. It spreads most in enclosed spaces, including cruise ships. The CDC says most cases resolve within one to three days.

This is the eighth norovirus outbreak reported to the CDC in 2024. In 2023, 13 outbreaks were reported. On one Viking Cruises vessel, over 13% of passengers and nearly 2% of crew members reported falling ill during a two-week journey.

Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs will dent US growth, said Morgan Stanley’s chief global economist, Seth Carpenter

President-elect Trump stated that he intends to impose a blanket tariff of 10%–20% on all imports and extra tariffs ranging from 60%–100% on goods imported from China. During the September Presidential debate, he described this approach as a means to extract funds from competing countries.

Carpenter said that if the tariffs are enacted all at once, they could result in a “big negative shock” to the economy. “Then into 2026, we think growth starts to come down a great deal in the US because of those tariffs and other policies.”

Mark Malek, CIO at brokerage firm Siebert, noted that if the proposed tariffs are levied, especially on top of those already imposed by the Joe Biden administration, the automobile, consumer electronics, machinery, construction and retail space would see higher inflation.

Should sweeping tariffs be enacted, markets could price out interest rate cuts entirely for 2025, said Ben Emons, chief investment officer and founder of FedWatch Advisors, adding that tariffs could also “restrain” growth.

Los Angeles passed a “sanctuary city” ordinance Tuesday to protect immigrants from deportation.

The ordinance, drafted more than a year ago, codifies the protection of migrants into municipal law and bans the use of city resources to assist federal immigration enforcement. The move comes after President-elect Donald Trump vowed to deport any “criminals who are being illegally harbored.”

Under the law, no investigations, arrests, transfers or detentions of any people for immigration enforcement would be allowed on city property or by city employees. Police would be exempt if investigating serious crimes.

“So-called sanctuary cities and states sound warm and fuzzy, but the protections they offer are not for

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getting ice cream; they're for people who've entered the country illegally and committed additional crimes,” said Roxanne Hodge, communications director for the Republican Party of LA County.

While the law will allow the city to keep migrants' citizenship or immigration status confidential, it would not stand up to a warrant issued by a federal or state judge. Trump promised to ban sanctuary cities nationwide during a campaign rally in North Carolina.

Jimmy Lai, the 76-year-old founder of the now-defunct Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily, has testified in a national security trial.

Lai told the court today that he had “never” used his foreign contacts, which include ex-US VP Mike Pence and former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen, to influence foreign policy on Hong Kong.

This is his first time testifying in court, even though he has undergone multiple trials since 2020. The trials have been criticized as politically motivated amid Beijing's tightening grip on the city.

Lai maintains that he never advocated for Hong Kong's independence and opposed violence, asserting that Apple Daily's values align with Hong Kong's core values of democracy and freedom.

Apple Daily ceased operations in 2021 after authorities froze its bank account and arrested key staff, citing violations of the National Security Law. Lai's prosecution has drawn international attention, with rights groups and foreign governments, including the US and UK, calling for his release.

Concerns about Lai's health have been raised by his family and legal team, noting his weight loss and frailty during court appearances. Lai has been in solitary confinement since late 2020, previously sentenced on charges of unauthorized assembly and fraud.

A restaurant in Saskatchewan has many tribal customers, and the personable waiter, Adam Rieger, found it hard to connect.

He began learning Cree to take orders and welcome guests and helped break the ice by asking tribal customers to help him with certain words.

“He has positive energy, and then when he came back to us, he told me that he’s been trying to learn Cree,” said a Cree Nation member, Natasha Wolfe.

Wolfe shared a video of him doing his job in Cree on social media to alert tribal members of his compassion and interest in their language.

He said his Cree is still basic, but he will keep trying to learn. He said he finds some parts of Cree challenging, like learning the written language and the alphabet. Rieger watches YouTube lessons by Cree member Simon Bird, who the waiter says can communicate the phonetics of the language perfectly.

“Once I started doing this and seeing people’s reactions, it completely changed my perspective … immediately people would light up and start talking and be excited,” Rieger said.