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.

Related Articles

On eve of UN climate talks in Brazil, a call for less talking and more doing

Hamline University, Manitou Fund send St. Paul teachers into the woods to write lesson plans

Don’t toss your Halloween pumpkin — bake, compost or feed it to farm animals instead

Heidi Klum reveals her much-anticipated 2025 Halloween costume

Black vultures attack and kill cattle. Climate change is one reason they’re spreading north

“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.

Related Articles

For drivers on the spectrum, interactions with police can be nerve-wracking

The man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent says it was a protest. Prosecutors say it’s a crime

Chrysler recalls 320,000 Jeep plug-in hybrids due to faulty battery that can catch fire

Losses for Big Tech pull Wall Street lower

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine sales tumble after government guidance on the shots narrows

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.

Related Articles

2 Massachusetts men have been arrested in the weekend explosion at Harvard Medical School, FBI says

The man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent says it was a protest. Prosecutors say it’s a crime

Chrysler recalls 320,000 Jeep plug-in hybrids due to faulty battery that can catch fire

Losses for Big Tech pull Wall Street lower

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine sales tumble after government guidance on the shots narrows

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.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hurling a sandwich at a federal agent was an act of protest for Washington, D.C., resident Sean Charles Dunn. A jury must decide if it was also a federal crime.

Related Articles

Chrysler recalls 320,000 Jeep plug-in hybrids due to faulty battery that can catch fire

Losses for Big Tech pull Wall Street lower

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine sales tumble after government guidance on the shots narrows

Today in History: November 4, Obama wins presidency in historic election

New York City voters are choosing their next mayor as Mamdani faces Cuomo in a generational battle

“No matter who you are, you can’t just go around throwing stuff at people because you’re mad,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Parron told jurors on Tuesday at the start of Dunn’s trial on a misdemeanor assault charge.

Dunn doesn’t dispute that he threw his subway-style sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent outside a nightclub on the night of Aug. 10. It was an “exclamation point” for Dunn as he expressed his opposition to President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital, defense attorney Julia Gatto said during the trial’s opening statements.

“It was a harmless gesture at the end of him exercising his right to speak out,” Gatto said. “He is overwhelmingly not guilty.”

A bystander’s cellphone video of the confrontation went viral on social media, turning Dunn into a symbol of resistance against Trump’s monthslong federal takeover. Murals depicting him mid-throw popped up in the city virtually overnight.

“He did it. He threw the sandwich,” Gatto told jurors. “And now the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has turned that moment — a thrown sandwich — into a criminal case, a federal criminal case charging a federal offense.”

A grand jury refused to indict Dunn on a felony assault count, part of a pattern of pushback against the Justice Department’s prosecution of surge-related criminal cases. After the rare rebuke from the grand jury, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office charged Dunn instead with a misdemeanor.

CBP Agent Gregory Lairmore, the government’s first witness, said the sandwich “exploded” when it struck his chest hard enough that he could feel it through his ballistic vest.

“You could smell the onions and the mustard,” he recalled.

Lairmore and other CBP agents were standing in front of a club hosting a “Latin Night” when Dunn approached and shouted profanities at them, calling them “fascists” and “racists” and chanting “shame” toward them.

“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.

Lairmore testified that he and the other agents tried to de-escalate the situation.

“He was red-faced. Enraged. Calling me and my colleagues all kinds of names,” he said. “I didn’t respond. That’s his constitutional right to express his opinion.”

After throwing the sandwich, Dunn ran away but was apprehended about a block away.

Later, once the viral video spread on the internet, Lairmore ‘s colleagues jokingly gave him gifts making light of the incident, including a subway sandwich-shaped plush toy and a patch that said “felony footlong.” Defense attorney Sabrina Schroff pointed to those as proof that the agents recognize this case is “overblown” and “worthy of a joke.”

Parron told jurors that everybody is entitled to their views about Trump’s federal surge.

“Respectfully, that’s not what this case is about,” the prosecutor said. “You just can’t do what the defendant did here. He crossed a line.”

Dunn was a Justice Department employee who worked as an international affairs specialist in its criminal division. After Dunn’s arrest, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his firing in a social media post that referred to him as “an example of the Deep State.”

He was released from custody but rearrested when a team of armed federal agents in riot gear raided his home. The White House posted a highly produced “propaganda” video of the raid on its official X account, Dunn’s lawyers said. They noted that Dunn had offered to surrender to police before the raid.

Dunn’s lawyers have argued that the posts by Bondi and the White House prove Dunn was impermissibly targeted for his political speech. They urged U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to dismiss the case for what they allege is a vindictive and selective prosecution. Nichols, who was nominated by Trump, didn’t rule on that request before the trial started Monday.

Dunn is charged with assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer. Dozens of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol were convicted of felonies for assaulting or interfering with police during the Jan. 6 attack. Trump pardoned or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of them.