By The Associated Press

Millions of voters are casting ballots Tuesday in U.S. state and local elections. The biggest contests are in Virginia and New Jersey, the only states electing governors this year. Read what to watch for on Election Day.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Terry O’Neill casts his ballot while voting at City Hall, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Ellsworth, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Brickell neighborhood resident Maria Estacio wears an “I Voted” sticker as she leaves a polling place after voting, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Sawaf Duwaji vote on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)
A voter completes their ballot at a voting site, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person prepares to vote at a polling site, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Polling place supervisor Bridget Knighton installs a sign directing voters to a voting site at Miami City Hall, on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill, second from right, takes a picture with Frank Saint-Fort, right, after they both voted in Montclair, N.J., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People vote on Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)
An election worker hands a voter his ballot at Alexandria City Hall, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
A voter checks in at a polling station on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Del Mar, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Workers prepare for voters at a poll site, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Patti Martin, left, Sean Williams, center, and Sofia Guzman, right, wave to voters arriving at a polling station as they show their support for a proposition on the ballot that would allocate money to the San Antonio Rodeo, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Advertisements by the American company Polymarket predict a victory for Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

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By SETH BORENSTEIN and MELINA WALLING

All nations of the world had homework this year: submit new-and-improved plans to fight climate change. But the plans they handed in “have barely moved the needle” on reducing Earth’s future warming, a new United Nations report finds.

And a good chunk of that progress is counteracted by the United States’ withdrawal from the effort, the report adds.

The newest climate-fighting plans — mandated every five years by the 2015 Paris Agreement — shaves about three-tenths of a degree Celsius (nearly six-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit) off a warming future compared with the projections a year ago.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s policies, which range from rolling back environmental regulations to hindering green energy projects, will add back a tenth of a degree of warming, the U.N. Environment Program’s Emissions Gap report said Tuesday.

“Every tenth of a degree has ramifications on communities, on ecosystems around the world. It is particularly important for those vulnerable communities and ecosystems that are already being impacted,″ said Adelle Thomas, vice chair of a separate U.N. scientific panel that calculates climate impacts. ”It matters in heat waves. It matters in ocean heat waves and the destruction of coral reefs. It matters long-term when we think about sea level rise.″

Global average temperature increase is mainly caused by the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which happens when fuels like oil, gas and coal are burned. So the plans that countries turn in must detail how, and how fast, they will cut emissions of such gases.

Within the next decade, Earth is likely to blow past 1.5 C (2.7 F) since the mid-1800s, which is the internationally agreed-upon goal made in Paris. If nations do as they promise in their plans, the planet will warm 2.3 to 2.5 C (4.1 to 4.5 F), the report calculates.

Current policies put the world on path for 2.8 C (5 F) of warming, providing context for upcoming U.N. climate talks in Belem, Brazil.

Even super fast and deep cuts in emissions from coal, oil and natural gas will still more than likely mean global temperatures go up at least 1.7 C (3.1 F) this century with efforts then to bring them back down, the report says.

Ten years ago, before the Paris Agreement, the world was on a path to be about 4 C (7.2 F) warmer.

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“We are making progress,” UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen told The Associated Press. “We have to go faster.”

The United States — which submitted a climate-fighting plan in 2024 from the Biden administration but now will exit the Paris agreement in two months — changes the future outlook significantly. Until the Trump administration decided to get out of the climate-fighting effort, the U.S. plan was promising some of the most significant cuts in future emissions, the report said.

UNEP said the U.S. did not provide comments on the report by their deadline and asked for emissions data about the U.S. to be removed. The UNEP declined but included a footnote at the U.S. request, saying that it doesn’t support the report.

Now the U.N. is calculating that the rest of world must cut an additional 2 billion tons a year of carbon dioxide to make up for what the report projects is growing American carbon pollution. Last year, the world pumped 57.7 billion tons of greenhouse gases into the air and needs to get down to about 33 billion tons a year to have a chance of limiting warming to near the goal, the report said.

Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare, who helps run a separate emissions and temperature projecting report called Climate Action Tracker, said that his calculations show the same as the report.

The numbers indicate “a lack of political will,” he said.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By MICHAEL CASEY and LEAH WILLINGHAM, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Two Massachusetts men have been arrested in connection with a weekend explosion at Harvard Medical School, authorities said Tuesday.

The FBI’s Boston office announced the arrests on social media ahead of a 1 p.m. news conference. It didn’t provide further details.

The explosion occurred early Saturday on the fourth floor of Harvard Medical School’s Goldenson Building. No one was injured. The building houses labs and offices associated with the school’s neurobiology department.

Medical school officials said the explosion caused no structural damage and that all labs and equipment remained intact. The Boston Fire Department determined that the explosion was intentional. Police said officers did not find additional devices during a sweep of the building.

An officer who responded to a fire alarm that morning encountered two people running from the building, university police said.

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Reginald Person II, who has autism, has never been pulled over by police in real life, but a special program held late last week allowed him to practice what would happen to put him more at ease.

Person, 39, of Severn, was one of many attendees of Pathfinders for Autism’s traffic stop practice event in Howard County. He said it helped him practice not being anxious in the situation.

“Since I’m on the spectrum, I wanted to learn the steps I should take to stay calm,” Person said. “When something like this happens, I want to know what to do.”

Gail Montgomery signed up her son Wesley to attend because he just earned his learner’s permit and she wants him to know what to expect. The Eldersburg mother-son duo came to Howard County so that he could get the practice.

“I want him equipped to handle himself, to lessen the chance of anything adverse happening,” Gail Montgomery said.

After going through the traffic stop, she realized they had never talked about what goes into being pulled over; she had never told him where the car registration was. Wesley went through the course twice to feel even more prepared.

“I’m feeling good,” Wesley Montgomery said. ” I felt like I communicated my actions clearly.”

Pathfinders for Autism provides resources for those on the spectrum as well as family and caregivers. Shelly McLaughlin, program director for the nonprofit, said this includes workshops and trainings as well as informational events such as the traffic stop practice, free of charge.

The organization has been offering traffic stop practices around the state since 2021; a free webinar on the topic can also be viewed on its website.

During the event, a Howard County Police Department officer simulated a traffic stop by sounding the police siren and flashing the lights. The officer then got out of the car and allowed drivers and passengers to ask questions in a controlled setting. Attendees can go through the simulation as many times as they’d like.

The next event will take place in Baltimore County on Oct. 30 at Security Square Mall, noon to 4 p.m.

“Any driver or passenger of any age is welcome to come because we also think everybody in the car should know what to do if the car gets pulled over,” McLaughlin said. “We want to reinforce that positive interaction, and we want to be able to really emphasize, Look, these are the people that will help you. These are the people you go to when you don’t feel safe or you need help.”

Attendees are given a “traffic stop toolkit,” an envelope with tips on how to interact with the police and disability disclosure cards.

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After they go through the course, they are encouraged to answer a survey and visit tents set up by Pathfinders, the Maryland Autism Society and Howard County Emergency Services. Participants could also practice calling 911 and learn about features such as texting 911 and enabling medical ID on cellphones.

Events such as this are crucial to building trust and understanding between law enforcement and the autism community, said Howard County Police Lt. John Lloyd.

“What [officers] are learning is also to be patient and to be understanding; not everyone you stop you’re going to know that they have a disability,” Lloyd said. “It’s putting you through this training scenario where if someone acts differently than you would expect them to act, that doesn’t always mean that there’s a criminal element. There could simply just be a disability that you cannot see.”

Lauren Dunaway, 18, said her parents “strongly encouraged” her to go to the mock traffic stop event with other students from the Glenwood Academy. Though she’s been driving for two years, the thought of getting pulled over was “extremely nerve wracking.”

Glenwood Academy is an Eldersburg private school that focuses on helping students with language-based learning disabilities; the school brought more than a dozen students to the practice Friday.

Though Dunaway, who lives in Ellicott City, had learned about what to do during her Driver’s Education course, the experience was completely different, she said.

“I am grateful that someone was with me in the car,” Dunaway said. “I felt like I might have freaked out over this, but I’m so glad I did it because now I feel more prepared in case it’s a real situation.”

Have a news tip? Contact April Santana at asantana@baltsun.com or at 443-834-7525.