By SETH BORENSTEIN and MELINA WALLING, Associated Press

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — U.N. climate negotiations were expected to begin Monday at a meeting on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon, with leaders pushing for urgency, cooperation and acceleration after more than 30 years fighting to curb global warming by drastically reducing the carbon pollution that causes it.

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André Corrêa do Lago, president of this year’s conference, known as COP30, emphasized that negotiators engage in “mutirão,” a Brazilian word derived from an Indigenous word that refers to a group uniting to work on a shared task.

“Either we decide to change by choice, together, or we will be imposed change by tragedy,” do Lago wrote in his letter to negotiators Sunday. “We can change. But we must do it together.”

Complicating the calls for togetherness is the United States. The Trump administration did not send high-level negotiators to the talks and is withdrawing for the second time from the 10-year-old Paris Agreement, which is being celebrated as a partial achievement here in Belem.

The United States has put more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas than any other country. China is the No. 1 carbon polluter now, but because carbon dioxide stays in the air for at least a century, more of it was made in the U.S.

“I think the environment we are in, the geopolitical landscape, is particularly challenging,” said Palau Ambassador Ilana Seid, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States. Small island nations suffer some of the worst effects of climate change because rising seas swallow land. “The United States withdrawing from the Paris Agreement has really shifted the gravity” of the whole negotiating system.

President Donald Trump’s actions damage the fight against climate change, former U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Todd Stern said.

“It’s a good thing that they are not sending anyone. It wasn’t going to be constructive if they did,” he said.

The Nature Conservancy chief scientist Katharine Hayhoe compared the negotiations to a potluck dinner.

“Everybody brings the contributions that they are making,” which in this instance are new and strengthened plans to cut carbon pollution, Hayhoe said. “And it’s obvious who took the time to bake the fresh pie with fruit that they picked and who fished out that year old chicken frozen chicken nuggets from the back of their freezer.”

“The United States as a country will not be showing up with a dish,” Hayhoe said. However, she and several others including former lead American negotiators are pointing to U.S. cities, states and businesses that they said will take up the slack.

In a letter to negotiators released late Sunday, Simon Stiell, the U.N. climate chief, said the 10-year-old Paris Agreement is working to a degree, “but we must accelerate in the Amazon. Devastating climate damages are happening already, from Hurricane Melissa hitting the Caribbean, Super Typhoons smashing Vietnam and the Philippines, to a tornado ripping through Southern Brazil.”

Not only must nations do more faster but they “must connect climate action to people’s real lives,” Stiell wrote.

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 Kate Sullivan, Bloomberg News

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Americans may receive a tariff “dividend” of at least $2,000 could come via the tax cuts passed in his signature economic policy bill earlier this year.

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Bessent was asked on ABC’s “This Week” about a social media post by Trump earlier Sunday that derided people who oppose tariffs and said a “dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”

Bessent said he hadn’t spoken to the president about this idea but “the $2,000 dividend could come in lots of forms, in lots of ways. It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president’s agenda — no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security – deductibility on auto loans.”

Trump has been stepping up his defense of his tariffs regime since the Supreme Court on Nov. 5 heard arguments for a suit to get them thrown out. Several justices seemed skeptical, raising the possibility many of the levies could be overturned, forcing more than $100 billion in refunds and taking away a centerpiece of his second term.

The president has said it would be a “disaster” for the U.S. if the court ruled against him.

Part of the case involves Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariffs, which impose taxes of between 10% and 50% on most U.S. imports depending on the originating country. Trump says those duties are warranted to address the longstanding national trade deficit.

One question surrounding the administration’s defense of tariffs is whether revenue raised from tariffs are de facto taxes, which Chief Justice John Roberts said have “always been the core power of Congress.”

Trump cited revenue flows in his Truth Social post on Sunday, saying the U.S. is “taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion.”

Asked about the president’s comment, Bessent expanded the argument.

“Over the course of the next few years we could take in trillions of dollars,” he told ABC. “But the real goal of tariffs is to rebalance trade and make it more fair.”

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday announced the latest in a series of strikes on boats accused of ferrying drugs, killing six people in attacks on two vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

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The dual strikes on Sunday bring the total number of known attacks up to 19 and the death toll to at least 75 people since the Trump administration launched a campaign against drug trafficking in South American waters that many see as a pressure tactic on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“These vessels were known by our intelligence to be associated with illicit narcotics smuggling, were carrying narcotics, and were transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Hegseth posted on social media.

The Trump administration has provided no evidence for its assertions, and lawmakers, including Republicans, have pressed for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the strikes.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Hegseth met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who oversee national security issues last week, providing one of the first high-level glimpses into the legal rationale and strategy behind the strikes.

While Democrats said it wasn’t enough, Senate Republicans voted a day later to reject legislation that would have put a check on President Donald Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela without congressional authorization.

The strikes began in early September and have targeted vessels largely in the Caribbean Sea but have increasingly shifted to those in the eastern Pacific, where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled. The Trump administration also has build up a massive military force in South American waters, including ordering an aircraft carrier to the region.

Trump has justified the strikes by saying the United States is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and claiming the boats are operated by foreign terror organizations that are flooding America’s cities with drugs.

The strikes and military footprint have raised speculation about an effort to oust Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The Venezuelan leader has said the U.S. government is “fabricating” a war against him.

In the latest strikes, Hegseth posted a video — as has become customary — showing one boat floating before exploding in a fireball. The footage cuts to what appears to be another boat moving through the water, and it looks to be carrying packages. There is a blast, and flames and smoke pour from the boat.

By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track Monday after a handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to break the impasse in what has become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services, the longest in history.

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Senate moves toward compromise legislation to end government shutdown

What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal drew sharp criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation provides funding to reopen the government, including for SNAP food aid and other programs, while also ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers the Trump administration had left in doubt.

But notably lacking is any clear resolution to expiring health care subsidies that Democrats have been fighting for as millions of Americans stare down rising insurance premiums. That debate was pushed off for a vote next month, weeks before the subsidies are set to expire.

President Donald Trump noted the deal as he arrived at the White House after watching the Washington Commanders’ game on Sunday evening against the Detroit Lions, on the 40th day of the funding lapse. “It looks like we’re getting close to the shutdown ending,” he said.

The Senate could wrap up passage as soon as Monday. The bill cleared a procedural hurdle, 60-40, late Sunday, with eight Democrats joining most Republicans. In a rare dissent, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York voted against because it failed to fully address the health care funds.

It would next go to the House, where lawmakers have been away since September but were being told to prepare to return to Washington this week. Then, it’s to Trump’s desk for his signature.

Here’s a look at the deal as it’s moving through Congress:

Funding to reopen the government, for now

Included is funding to keep much of the federal government running for the next couple of months, to Jan. 30, with a stopgap measure. It largely funds government operations at their current rates.

Yet in a breakthrough for what’s considered a more normal appropriations process, the package also includes several bills to fully fund other government operations including agricultural programs and military construction along with veterans’ affairs for the full fiscal year, through September 2026.

Additionally, the package ensures states would be reimbursed for money they spent to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, and the Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC, running during the shutdown.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, said she was “relieved.”

“This shutdown has gone on far too long,” she said. “And I also think it’s highly significant that we’ll have three yearlong appropriations bills attached. Veterans Day is coming very soon, and it would be wonderful if we get the full-year Veterans Affairs bill signed into law.”

Health care funding still up for debate

The Democrats failed to secure their main demand during the shutdown, which was an extension of the health care subsidies that many of the 24 million people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act rely on to help defray costs.

Instead, the package guarantees a vote on the issue in December — which was not enough for most of the Democrats, who rejected the deal and voted against it.

“The American people want us to stand and fight for health care,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Federal workers get a reprieve

The package seeks to roll back some of the Trump administration’s shutdown-related hits to the federal workforce. Employees have faced repeated threats of firings and mass layoffs this year.

The stopgap measure reinstates federal workers who had received reductions in force, or layoff, notices and protects against such future actions.

It also would provide back pay for federal workers who were furloughed or working without pay during the shutdown — something that’s traditionally provided but that the Trump administration had threatened was not guaranteed.

Getting the bill to the president’s desk

Political and procedural hurdles remain as Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, slogs through more voting and the shutdown entered its 41st day Monday.

Senators hope to skip past a series of steps that could drag voting out all week if the dissenters put up a prolonged fight.

One Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against advancing the package Sunday, and he is said to have concerns over a hemp industry provision. And three ultra-conservative GOP senators held up voting for more than two hours as they demanded consideration of their ideas. It is unclear if any of them plans to stage further protests.

Democrats, who have fought for the past month in their hopes of preserving the health care subsidies, also could delay final passage, and their next steps are uncertain.

And the package faces fresh scrutiny once it goes to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana holds a slim GOP majority and would likely need almost all Republicans to support the bill in the face of objections from Democrats who are holding out for the health care funds.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the party will fight the bill, forcing the Republicans in the House to pass it largely on their own.

“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits” Jeffries said. “Donald Trump and the Republican Party own the toxic mess they have created.”