America’s special envoy on climate change John Kerry has told Sky News that strained relations between the US and China have made it harder for him to do his job.
Speaking exclusively to Sky from a climate summit in Milan, Mr Kerry said his ability to persuade China to be more ambitious in reducing its carbon emissions has been affected by the growing geo-political tensions between the two superpowers.
He said: “It’s been more complicated because of other issues.
Image: John Kerry arrives to attend the Youth4Climate pre-COP26 conference in Milan
“Originally… climate was going to be treated on its own, because of its urgent demands.
“But reality has crept in, in the last few months, and so there’s been a slowdown in our ability to be able to move.
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“My hope is that we will still be able to find some common ground.
“I will be meeting with my counterpart from China shortly, and we are both hopeful that we can make some progress.”
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Mr Kerry has previously said that if China fails to shift its net zero carbon emissions target from 2060 to 2050, then the rest of the world’s efforts to tackle global warming could be in vain.
I ask him what message it will send to the rest of the world if China’s President Xi Jinping does not turn up to COP26 in Glasgow in person.
He says: “I actually haven’t really thought about it very much to be truthful.
“Some 190 some countries will come… and it’s not going to be defined by if President Xi shows up.
“The vast, vast majority of countries in the world are very anxious to be part of a moment where we really turn a corner, and we’re heading in the right direction of the climate crisis.”
Does special envoy Kerry fully trust that he is the right person to help lead the global fight against the climate crisis?
He said: “Well, the proof is in the pudding, right?
“I think this is not a matter of trust in the sense that we’re making judgements about whether we trust this or trust that.
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“He’s committed to this, and he’s publicly doing major things in order to try to make this work.
“And I’ve been impressed by the statements he’s made to date, committing his government and the world to take action, and I think he’s offering leadership.
“But in the end you know we have to get there, and it’s the doing the actions… that’s what will determine, what should determine, the judgements people will make about Glasgow and what happens there.”
I ask the former US secretary of state if he ever feels anger towards those nations and leaders who are not willing to act.
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19 September: China yet to confirm COP26 attendance
He says: “I feel frustration in the length of time and the slowness with which, as a world, we have been moving to date.
“People have been put in jeopardy by current practices, and for the last 30 years, we have known how bad it is and still, people are moving too slowly.
“You know I’m not going to get lost and try to just voice anger, I’m going to try day to day to do my best, which is what I’m doing.
“I consider myself lucky to be able to be in the middle of that fight.
He pauses and adds, slightly jokingly, “Sometimes I can reserve the anger and scream in the dark, but I couldn’t do it publicly.”
For so long, the Epstein story has cast them in a cameo role.
Everyday coverage of the scandal churns through the politics and process of it all, reducing their suffering to a passing reference.
Not anymore.
Not on a morning when they gathered on Capitol Hill, survivors of Epstein‘s abuse, strengthened by shared experience and a resolve to address it.
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1:54
Epstein survivors call for release of all files
In a news conference that lasted over an hour, they brought an authenticity that only they could.
There was vivid recollection of the abuse they endured and a certainty in the justice they seek.
They had the safety of each other – adults now, with the horrors of youth at a distance, though never far away.
It was an emotional gathering on Capitol Hill, attended by survivors, politicians and several hundred members of the public who turned up in support.
Banners read “Release the files”, “Listen to the victims” and “Even your MAGA base demands Epstein files”.
Image: Haley Robson was one of several Epstein survivors who spoke. Pic: AP
A startling spectacle
That last statement isn’t lost on Donald Trump. As if for emphasis, one of the speakers was the ultra-loyal House representative Marjorie Taylor Greene – they don’t make them more MAGA.
In a spectacle, startling to politics-watchers in this town, she stood side by side with Democrat congressmen to demand the Epstein files be released.
It reflects a discontent spread through Donald Trump’s support base.
He is the man who once counted Jeffrey Epstein as a friend and who has said he’d release the files, only to reverse course.
A woman known as the “Ketamine Queen” has officially pleaded guilty to selling Friends star Matthew Perry the drug that killed him.
Jasveen Sangha initially denied the charges but agreed to change her plea in a signed statement in August, just a few weeks before she had been due to stand trial.
The 42-year-old , a dual citizen of the US and the UK, has now appeared in a federal court in Los Angeles to plead guilty to five charges, including supplying the ketamine that led to Perry‘s death.
She faces up to 65 years in prison after admitting one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
Prosecutors agreed to drop three other counts related to the distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of methamphetamine that was unrelated to the Perry case.
In a brief statement when the plea deal was announced, her lawyer Mark Geragos said she was “taking responsibility for her actions”.
The judge is not bound to follow any terms of the plea agreement, but prosecutors have said they will ask for less than the maximum possible sentence.
Perry died aged 54 in October 2023. He had struggled with addiction for years, but released a memoir a year before his death during a period of being clean.
He had been using ketamine through his regular doctor as a legal, but off-label, treatment for depression, but in the weeks before his death had also started to seek more of the drug illegally.
Perry bought large amounts of ketamine from Sangha, including 25 vials for $6,000 (£4,458) in cash four days before his death, prosecutors said.
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3:42
What Perry’s death says about Hollywood
Sangha, described by prosecutors as the “Ketamine Queen of North Hollywood”, is now the fifth and final person to plead guilty to charges connected to the supply of drugs to the Friendsstar.
The actor’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, an acquaintance Erik Fleming, and a physician, Mark Chavez, all agreed to plead guilty when the charges were announced in August 2024.
Another doctor, Salvador Plasencia, initially pleaded not guilty and had been due to face trial alongside Sangha, but changed his plea in July.
Sangha and Plasencia had been the primary targets of the investigation.
The three other defendants: Chavez, Iwamasa and Fleming pleaded guilty in exchange for their co-operation, which included statements implicating Sangha and Plasencia.
Perry had bought ketamine from Sangha after he was led to her by Fleming, prosecutors said.
On the day of Perry’s death, Sangha told Fleming they should delete all the messages they had sent each other, according to Sangha’s indictment.
Sangha is due to be sentenced on 10 December.
The other four defendants are also still awaiting sentencing.
Perry was one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing in Friends – which ran on NBC between 1994 and 2004.
He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for all 10 seasons of the show.
The Friends stars were among around 20 mourners who attended his funeral in November 2023, according to TMZ.
The deployment of National Guard soldiers on to the streets of LA by Donald Trump was always deeply controversial – and now it has been deemed illegal, too, by a federal judge.
In late spring in Los Angeles, I observed as peaceful protests against immigration raids turned confrontational.
I watched as Waymos – self-driving cars – were set alight and people waving flags shut down one of the city’s busiest freeways. I saw government buildings spray-painted with anti-government sentiment and expletives. Some people even threw bottles at police officers in riot gear.
In exchange, I saw law enforcement deploy “flash bang” crowd control devices and fire rubber bullets into crowds, indiscriminately, on occasion.
Image: Mounted Los Angeles police officers disperse protesters earlier this summer. Pic: San Francisco Chronicle/AP
Image: A person reacts to non-lethal munitions shot in Los Angeles.
Pic: Reuters
But Trump sent them in anyway, against the wishes of the local government. LA mayor Karen Bass condemned the deployment as an act of political theatre and said it risked stoking tensions.
The language Trump used was, arguably, inflammatory, too. He described LA as an “invaded” and “occupied city”. He spoke of “a full-blown assault on peace”, carried out by “rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country”.
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Trump: ‘We will liberate Los Angeles’
It didn’t reflect reality. The size of the protests were modest, several thousand people marching through a handful of streets in downtown LA, a city which spans 500 square miles and has a population of almost four million.
The majority of the soldiers simply stood guard outside government buildings, often looking bored. Some of them are still here, with nothing to do. Now a judge has ruled that the operation was illegal.
US District Judge Charles Breyer said the Trump administration “used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armour) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles”.
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3:13
Marines head to Los Angeles
In a scathing judgement, he effectively accused the White House of turning National Guard soldiers and marines into a “national police force.”
That breaches a law from 1878, barring the use of soldiers for civilian law enforcement activities.
It is a blow to what some view as the president’s ambition to federalise Democrat-run cities and deploy the National Guard in other states around the country. He had threatened to send troops to Chicago as part of an initiative he says is cracking down on crime, widening the use of National Guard troops, as seen on the streets of Washington DC.
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4:58
The fightback against immigration raids in LA
But since this judge ruled that the deployment of National Guard and marines to LA in June was unlawful in the way it unfolded, Trump may have to be inventive with his rationale for sending soldiers into other US cities in the future.
This legal judgement, though, is being appealed and may well be overturned. Either way, it is unlikely to stem the president’s ambition to act as national police chief.