Good morning.
After four years of negotiations, and 12 years since the last biodiversity targets were agreed in Japan, governments appeared to have signed a once-in-a-decade deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems at the UN biodiversity summit in Canada.
The potentially transformational agreement for nature could bring better protection for the planet’s vital ecosystems such as the Amazon and Congo basin rainforests, big reforms to agriculture, and better protection of indigenous territories and rights. But there were concerns that key issues had been overlooked and that objections from some African states were ignored.
Talks went into the night on Sunday in Montreal until finally nearly 200 countries – but not the US or the Vatican – signed an agreement to put humanity on a path to living in harmony with nature by the middle of the century.
Negotiators from Cameroon, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo expressed incredulity that the agreement had been put through. The DRC said it had formally objected to the agreement, but a UN lawyer said it had not. The negotiator from Cameroon called it “a fraud”, while Uganda said there had been a “coup d’état” against the Cop15.
What does the deal include? It includes targets to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade, reform $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and restore 30% of the planet’s degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine ecosystems. Here are some more details.
Argentina beat France on penalties to win World Cup after stunning final
It was a consecration, the spiritual overtones entirely appropriate. Lionel Messi not only led the nation to World Cup glory; he finally plugged the burning gap on his CV, winning the one title that has eluded him – at the fifth time of asking, surely the last time. In the process he gilded his claim to being recognised as the greatest player of them all.
Argentina had to win this final three times, France refusing to accept it was Messi’s destiny to get his hands on the iconic gold trophy, that it was somehow preordained. It will go down as surely the finest World Cup final of all time, the most pulsating, one of the greatest games in history because of how Kylian Mbappé hauled France up off the canvas towards the end of normal time.
After an electrifying extra time in which Messi and Mbappé scored, the match went to penalties, and when Gonzalo Montiel scored the winning one, Messi sank to his knees in the centre circle, engulfed by teammates.
Argentina’s third World Cup triumph will go down as Messi’s World Cup, just as the second in 1986 belonged to Maradona. Both men came to transcend their teams and the tournaments, with Messi collecting the Golden Ball in Qatar as the competition’s star player. It has long felt as if he has had a celestial scriptwriter at work, guiding him to his destiny. The image of him and the trophy was what so many fans – and not just those from Argentina – had craved.
How did fans react in Argentina? There was delight in Buenos Aires that Argentina will be bringing home football’s most coveted trophy. After the game, fans flocked to the Obelisk in central Buenos Aires, the streets a carnivalesque cacophony of cheers, car horns, cumbia music and bullhorns.
Toronto area shooting: gunman kills five in residential unit
Five people were shot and killed in a residential unit in the Greater Toronto area before the gunman was killed by police, authorities said.
Police were called to a residential building in Vaughan, north of Toronto, at about 7.20pm on Sunday to reports of an active male shooter who had shot several people at a condo in the Ontario city.
Mass shootings are rare in Canada, and Toronto has long prided itself as being one of the safest big cities in the world.
“When police arrived, an interaction occurred between the officers and a male subject and the subject was shot. He was pronounced deceased at the scene,” York regional police said in a statement released late on Sunday. “Horrendous scene,” the York police chief James MacSween added. “Six deceased. One of them is the subject. The other five are victims.”
Who was the shooter? Police have not identified the suspect or named the deceased. MacSween said he didn’t have details on whether the shooter was a resident of the building.
In other news …
The California congressman Adam Schiff has said he believes there is “sufficient evidence” to criminally charge Donald Trump in relation to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Schiff’s statement came a day before the House January 6 select committee is poised to release an outline of its extensive investigative report.
Elon Musk has asked Twitter users whether he should step down as the head of the company, promising to abide by the results of his poll. Musk assumed the role of CEO at the end of October after firing senior executives and dissolving its board of directors. Within minutes, more than one million people had voted.
Ohio advocates hoping to replicate a string of abortion rights victories fear being stymied by Republican lawmakers who are attempting to make it harder to pass citizen-initiated constitutional amendments. They want to raise the threshold for successful ballot initiatives to 60%, up from the simple majority.
A flagship Thai navy warship sank amid strong waves and high winds on Sunday, and dozens of sailors are still missing. More than 100 sailors were rescued yesterday evening from HTMS Sukhothai – one of seven navy corvettes – after high winds made the boat tilt sharply toward the water.
Stat of the day: TSA intercepted record number of guns at airports in 2022 and 88% were loaded
The Transportation Security Administration has intercepted a record number of guns at airport safety checkpoints this year, and an overwhelming majority of them were loaded. In a statement, TSA revealed that as of 16 December, its officers had intercepted 6,301 firearms. Out of those, 88% were loaded. The number marks an increase of more than 300 from the 5,972 firearms that were detected in 2021. About 86% of the firearms confiscated last year were loaded. The agency said it anticipated preventing a total of 6,600 firearms in carry-on bags from entering the secure area of airports by the end of 2022, a nearly 10% jump from last year’s numbers.
Don’t miss this: Growing up in a different culture doesn’t mean you can’t love Christmas too
Growing up in a Muslim family in the 90s, Christmas was something I experienced at a remove, writes Yasmina Floyer. It quite simply was not for us as my family saw it as a religious celebration. I had no concept of Fomo when I was a child, but I felt it like a hot stone sitting in my stomach. Nobody needed to tell me that Santa wasn’t real. I knew he wasn’t because in spite of everything the movies wanted me to believe, being a good girl and wishing very hard did not result in a visit from the big guy. Now that I am an adult with a family of my own, everything has shifted. I am not the only one who can see that Christmas has become more of a secular event than a religious one. To me, Christmas means honouring the people dearest to you.
Climate check: Connecticut makes climate change studies compulsory
Next July, Connecticut will become one of the first states in America to mandate climate change studies across its public schools as part of its science curriculum. The new law passed earlier this year is part of the state’s attempts to address concerns over the short duration – and in some cases, absence – of climate change studies in classrooms. “We absolutely have got to face it head on, and it starts when children are very young. We need to arm them with the tools to be part of a solution to a problem they had no hand in creating,” the Connecticut state representative Christine Palm told the Guardian.
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