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Social media giant Meta on Thursday announced it would begin testing its new “Community Notes” feature across its platforms in the United States next week, as it shifts away from third-party fact-checking toward a crowd-sourced approach to content moderation.Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the new system — popularized by the Elon Musk-owned platform X — in January as he appeared to align himself with the incoming Trump administration, including naming a Republican as the company’s head of public policy.The change of system, which Meta will start testing on Tuesday, came after years of criticism from supporters of President Donald Trump, among others, that conservative voices were being censored or stifled under the guise of fighting misinformation, a claim professional fact-checkers vehemently reject.Meta has also scaled back its diversity initiatives and relaxed content moderation rules on Facebook and Instagram, particularly regarding certain forms of hostile speech.AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook’s fact-checking scheme.The initiative will allow users of Facebook, Instagram and Threads to write and rate contextual notes on various content.Meta said approximately 200,000 potential contributors in the United States have already signed up across the three platforms. The new approach requires contributors to be over 18 with accounts more than six months old that are in good standing.During the testing period, notes will not immediately appear on content and the company will gradually admit people from the waitlist and thoroughly test the system before public implementation.- ‘Arbiter of truth’ -Studies have shown Community Notes can help dispel some falsehoods such as vaccine misinformation, but researchers caution that it works best for topics where there is broad consensus.Research also shows that Community Notes on X often rely on the findings of professional fact-checking programs, which Meta has scrapped in the United States.”Meta has long said it doesn’t want to be an ‘arbiter of truth,’ but it has funded those arbiters for the past several years, and it’s not clear whether anyone will step up to replace it,” tech writer Casey Newton wrote in an online commentary. “If no one does, Community Notes will suffer both on X and on Meta’s platforms.”Meta’s new approach ignores research that shows Community Notes users are often spurred by “partisan motives” and tend to over-target their political opponents, according to Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech.Meta, however, emphasized that the notes will only be published when contributors with differing viewpoints agree on their helpfulness.”This isn’t majority rules,” the company said.Moreover, unlike fact-checked posts that often had reduced distribution, flagged content with Community Notes will not face distribution penalties.Notes will be limited to 500 characters, must include supporting links and will initially support six languages commonly used in the United States: English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Portuguese.”Our intention is ultimately to roll out this new approach to our users all over the world, but we won’t be doing that immediately,” the company said.”Until Community Notes are launched in other countries, the third party fact checking program will remain in place for them,” it added.Meta said that it would not be “reinventing the wheel” and will use X’s open-source algorithm as the basis of its system.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month warned that the rollbacks to fact-checking and moderation safeguards were “reopening the floodgates” of hate and violence online.

Canada called Thursday on the Group of Seven powers to back Ukraine against Russia’s “aggression” as US President Donald Trump’s more conciliatory approach toward Moscow split the club of wealthy democracies.Canada, the current G7 president, is gathering foreign ministers for three days of talks inside a rustic hotel in snow-dusted Charlevoix, on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. Once broadly unified, the G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — has been rattled since the return of Trump, who has reached out to Russia and slapped punishing trade tariffs on close allies and competitors alike.Before the full talks, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly sat down with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the highest-level US official to visit since the inauguration of Trump who has taunted the United States’ northern neighbor as the “51st state.”Canada put its maple-leaf flag next to the US Stars and Stripes in a meeting room where Joly and Rubio exchanged French-style pecks on the cheek and shook hands. They did not respond to questions and issued no statements.Joly, opening the formal session of the G7, said she hoped to find ways to “continue to support Ukraine in the face of Russia’s illegal aggression.””We all want to see just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” she said.Rubio has called for the G7 to avoid “antagonistic” language toward Russia, saying it would hinder US diplomacy that could end the war that has killed tens of thousands of people.Since Trump took over from president Joe Biden, US statements have switched from referring to Russia’s “invasion” or “aggression” against its neighbor since 2022 to speaking of the “Russia-Ukraine conflict.” Ukraine, under heavy pressure from Trump who briefly cut off aid, agreed with Rubio in talks Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday voiced general support for a ceasefire but suggested he wanted to speak to Trump about it.- Compromise emerging on statement -German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned that “peace in Europe will only come through strength.””What good is a ceasefire that would then lead to even more suffering, destruction and war in Europe after two or four years?” she said on the sidelines of the G7 talks.Diplomats said the G7 statement may paper over broader differences on Ukraine by focusing on backing the ceasefire plan.If the G7 cannot put together a common statement, “it only benefits countries like China and Russia and sends a message to the Global South,” Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Toshihiro Kitamura said.A diplomat from another country, speaking on condition of anonymity, expected a statement to come together and said it was no small feat considering the level of disagreement.”Everyone is sticking to their positions, although not in a way that seeks to attack others,” he said.Just as Rubio was meeting in Quebec, Trump doubled down in his rhetoric by saying that Canada “only works as a state” of the United States.”This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it between Canada and the US,” Trump told reporters in Washington.Baerbock sported a white suit and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas a red dress — leading the two to say that they chose their colors to show solidarity with Canada.- Trade war -The G7 meeting came just as Trump’s sweeping 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports came into effect Wednesday, leading the European Union and Canada to unveil billions of dollars in counter-tariffs. Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said he raised concerns about the steel and aluminum tariffs in a meeting with Rubio, warning that Americans would be economically hurt.Kallas said that China — identified by Trump as the top competitor to the United States — gained from the trade war Washington was waging on its allies.”Laughing at the side is China. It’s definitely benefiting from this. So there are no winners. Eventually, the consumers end up paying more,” she told CNN from the talks.

An American Airlines jet caught fire Thursday after landing at Denver International Airport in Colorado, dramatic images on social media showed.According to statements from the airline and the US Federal Aviation Administration reported by local media, the flight was diverted to Denver after experiencing engine trouble.”The 172 customers and six crew members deplaned and are being relocated to the terminal,” American Airlines said, in a statement published by Denver broadcaster KDVR.Neither the FAA, the airline nor Denver International Airport responded immediately to AFP requests for comment.The latest incident comes amid concerns about safety after a series of incidents and attempts by President Donald Trump’s administration to cut costs at US aviation agencies.The plane was reportedly en route from Colorado Springs to Dallas-Fort Worth when it was diverted to Denver.Video footage widely shared on social media showed billowing smoke around the jet on the ground near the terminals and passengers standing on a wing as emergency services arrived.

Prestigious US university Johns Hopkins said Thursday it will lay off more than 2,000 employees around the world in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s massive reduction in foreign aid funds.”This is a difficult day for our entire community. The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work,” the leading scientific institution said.The university is based in Baltimore, Maryland’s largest city an hour’s drive north of the US capital, but is eliminating at least 1,975 jobs in projects across 44 countries and 247 jobs in the United States.New US President Donald Trump and his senior advisor, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, have embarked on a campaign to slash federal spending, targeting in particular support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for foreign aid, research and development.Johns Hopkins University is one of the institutions hardest hit by these drastic reductions. In early March, its president Ronald Daniels explained in a message to students and professors that federal money accounted for nearly half of the backing it funds received last year.Referring to a “historical relationship” between the “first American research university” and the government, he warned that students, researchers and professors would see damage to programs designed to improve health, hygiene and medicine across the world.- Drinking water -Thursday’s announcement confirmed that the cuts hit the university’s medical school and school of public health as well as Jhpiego, a global non-profit organization founded more than 50 years ago and which works to improve health in countries worldwide.”Johns Hopkins is immensely proud of the work done by our colleagues in Jhpiego, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the School of Medicine to care for mothers and infants, fight disease, provide clean drinking water, and advance countless other critical, life-saving efforts around the world,” the university said.The university receives roughly $1 billion annually in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is currently running 600 clinical trials, according to The New York Times, which added that Hopkins is one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging such cuts.USAID, the largest funding agency for Jhpiego, distributes humanitarian aid around the world, with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries.Trump, whose appointees are dismantling the humanitarian agency, signed an executive order in January demanding a freeze on all US foreign aid to allow time to assess expenses. Critics warn that slashing USAID work will endanger millions of lives.

Construction worker Maoro has lived happily in Colorado for almost four decades, but for the last month he has hardly left his house, afraid that US immigration officials will swoop and deport him.”It’s worse than a prison,” the undocumented migrant tells AFP at his home in the city of Aurora, a major focus of Donald Trump’s heated anti-immigrant rhetoric in the presidential election campaign.”I already feel sick from not going to work,” said Maoro, 59. Unable to pay his rent and dependent on his daughter — an American citizen — Maoro has never been so afraid as he is now, living under a Republican administration that has promised mass deportations of anyone without the right paperwork.When three men in uniform knocked on his door recently, the middle-aged Mexican, who, like other undocumented migrants in this story insisted on using a pseudonym, followed the advice of well-wishers and rights activists in his neighborhood and didn’t answer.His terror is widely shared in Aurora, a suburb of Denver that is home to around 100 nationalities according to local non-profit groups.Churches and mosques are emptying, the intersection where day laborers wait for casual work is sparsely populated, and a shopping center filled with Latin-American food outlets says it got 10,000 fewer visitors than usual in February. On February 5, heavily-armed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers carried out raids in Denver and Aurora, using battering rams and armored vehicles and making a number of arrests.- ‘Operation Aurora’ – The city of Aurora was propelled into the national immigration debate last year when viral video circulated showing armed Latin American men bursting into an apartment.Then-candidate Trump seized on the footage as proof that Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had “taken control” of Aurora.The city’s Republican mayor rejected the claim, insisting the video showed an isolated incident peculiar to that particular building and a neglectful landlord, and pointing to a drop in the city’s crime rate over the previous two years.Trump pressed on, claiming Aurora was a symbol of an America under attack from dangerous migrant criminals, and pledging he would deport millions of people when he got back to the White House.The city’s immigrant population say they are being used as scapegoats for wider societal problems.”Everything that’s going wrong in the United States now is because of Tren de Aragua,” quips Alexander Jimenez, a Venezuelan who fled Nicolas Maduro’s regime a year ago. “That’s not possible.”Jimenez, a grandfather, limits his travel and is hiding with ten members of his family, waiting for their asylum applications to be processed. Since the raids, his grandchildren have refused to go to school, for fear that the police will be waiting for their parents outside. “They see on television what is happening, that they are taking away Venezuelans and all those who are not from here, from this country,” he sighs, pointing out that last month’s ICE raids netted people with no criminal record.A social media posting at the time insisted “100+ members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were targeted for arrest and detention in Aurora, Colo., today by ICE.”According to a report by Fox News, around thirty people were arrested, of whom only one was a gang member.Officials contacted by AFP refused to give details about those who had been taken into custody.- Separated from children -“This targeting of criminals by ICE is being used as a pretext to pick up other people that are innocent, that don’t have criminal records,” said Nayda Benitez, a member of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. Her association offers legal advice classes in Spanish, Arabic and English, educating all-comers on their rights.Attendees at classes learn that they do not have to open their door if the police do not have a judicial warrant, that they can remain silent, and that they do not have to sign any papers. This simple advice was balm for Susana an undocumented Mexican who was deported in 2017, at the beginning of Donald Trump’s first term, and spent five years separated from her children before finally getting back to Colorado.”When you discover that you have rights, it’s a powerful thing, because you say to yourself: ‘if only I had known’,” the 47-year-old said.Susana says she now regrets having spoken too much during her interactions with the authorities last time around. “I knew there was a constitution,” she sighs. “But I didn’t know that this constitution protected me as a migrant.” 

The US government, already shaken by Donald Trump’s radical reforms, could begin shutting down entirely this weekend as Democrats grapple with the politically risky option of opposing the president’s federal funding plans.With a Friday night deadline to fund the government or allow it to start winding down, the Senate is set for a crunch vote ahead of the midnight cut-off on a Trump-backed bill passed by the House of Representatives.The package would keep the lights on through September, but Democrats are under immense pressure from their own grassroots to defy Trump and reject a text they say is full of harmful spending cuts.”If there’s a shutdown, even the Democrats admit it will be their fault,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer — who has long insisted that it is bad politics to shut down the government — indicated he would vote for the bill, raising hopes for its success.Others in the minority party — worried that they would be blamed over a stoppage with no obvious exit ramp — also appear ready to incur the wrath of their support base by backing down.But Schumer has not explicitly told his troops which way to jump, telling reporters “each is making his or her own decision” and the vote remains on a knife edge.- ‘Do the right thing’ -Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who voted against a bill to avert a shutdown as recently as 18 months ago, urged the minority party to “put partisan politics aside and do the right thing.” “When the government shuts down, you have government employees who are no longer paid, you have services that begin to lag. It brings great harm on the economy and the people,” he told Fox News.The funding fight is focused on opposition to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by tech mega-billionaire Elon Musk, which is working to dramatically downsize the government.DOGE aims to cut federal spending by $1 trillion this year and claims to have made savings so far of more than $100 billion through lease terminations, contract cancellations and firing federal workers.Its online “wall of receipts” accounts for less than a fraction of that total, however, and US media outlets have found its website to be riddled with errors, misleading math and exaggerations.Grassroots Democrats, infuriated by what they see as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s lawless rampage through the federal bureaucracy, want their leaders to stand up to DOGE and Trump.The funding bill is likely to need support from at least eight Democrats, but Republicans ignored the opposition’s demands to protect congressional control over the government’s purse strings and rein in Musk.- ‘Carte blanche’ -Washington progressive representative Pramila Jayapal told CNN there would be a “huge backlash” against Senate Democrats supporting the bill.Several top Democrats have warned, however, that a shutdown could play into Musk’s hands, distracting from DOGE’s most unpopular actions, which just this week has included firing half the Education Department’s workforce.”It’s not really a decision, it’s a Hobson’s choice: Either proceed with the bill before us, or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.The Democratic leader claimed that Musk and Trump were hoping for the government to grind to a halt.”A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now… with nobody left at the agencies to check them,” he said.Republicans control 53 seats in the 100-member Senate.Legislation in the upper chamber requires a preliminary ballot with a 60-vote threshold — designed to encourage bipartisanship — before final passage, which only needs a simple majority.Schumer and Pennsylvania Senator Fetterman are so far the only Democrats committed to allowing the bill to move forward, as no other Democrats have indicated publicly they would be willing to cross the aisle.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to impose 200 percent tariffs on wine, champagne and other alcoholic beverages from European Union countries, in retaliation against the bloc’s planned levies on American-made whiskey.Trump has launched trade wars against competitors and partners alike since taking office, wielding tariffs as a tool to pressure countries on commerce and other policy issues.His latest salvo was a response to the European Union’s unveiling of tariffs on $28 billion in US goods, to be imposed in stages starting in April.The EU measures — including a 50 percent tariff on American whiskey — were a tit-for-tat measure against Trump’s levies on steel and aluminum imports that took effect Wednesday.”If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.Global markets tumbled on the news, with Wall Street down sharply, and criticism of the move was swift from European spirit makers.French wine and champagne company Taittinger said a 200 percent tariff could bring the cost of some bottles from about $60 to more than $180.France’s federation of wine and spirit exporters, known by the acronym FEVS, put the blame on the European Commission for placing its members “directly into the crosshairs of the US president.””We are fed up with being systematically sacrificed for issues unrelated to our own,” said the group’s director general Nicolas Ozanam.- ‘Hostile and abusive’ -Trump called the EU’s planned levy on US whiskey “nasty” and dubbed the bloc “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.”The Republican billionaire president has also said the European Union — which for decades has been at the heart of a US-led Western alliance — was formed to take advantage of the United States.He told reporters he would not bend on his aggressive tariffs policy, while European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc is ready to negotiate over escalating duties, though she insisted that tariffs are “bad for business.”French Foreign Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said his country would “not give in to threats” and was “determined to retaliate,’ while Spain’s agriculture minister said he hopes to negotiate.US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg Television he had plans to speak with his European counterparts, while an EU spokesperson said its trade chief has reached out to Washington.EU economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis meanwhile held an introductory call with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in which he expressed concern over US tariffs and their negative economic impact on both sides.- ‘Devastating’ -The European spirits trade group, Spirits Europe, called on both sides to stop using the sector as a “bargaining chip” in their tariffs fight.US wine merchants and restaurant owners also eyed Trump’s threats with trepidation.A 200 percent tariff would send business costs “through the roof,” said Francis Schott, a restaurant owner based in New Jersey who serves European and American wines.”It’s just business that will go away. It’s devastating,” he told AFP. “If I lose half of the profit I make on alcoholic beverages, my business is no longer viable.”Europe exported nearly $5.2 billion worth of wine and champagne to the United States in 2023, according to the World Trade Organization.- EU levy ‘disappointing’ -US distillers have called the EU’s levy on American whiskey “deeply disappointing.”A 2018 imposition of similar tariffs led to a 20 percent drop in American whiskey exports to the European Union.Trump’s tariff wars have taken aim at Canada, Mexico and China over allegations they are not doing enough to curtail fentanyl smuggling or illegal immigration into the United States — even if in the case of Canada, the border sees negligible smuggling.He has also taken aim at commodities including steel, aluminum and copper.Some countries like China and Canada have already imposed retaliatory tariffs, while uncertainty over Trump’s trade plans and worries that they could trigger a recession have roiled financial markets.After talks in Washington on Thursday with Lutnick, Canadian science and industry minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said he saw “potential for a reset” in cross-border relations when new prime minister Mark Carney takes office Friday.

The prestigious Johns Hopkins University said Thursday it is being forced to lay off more than 2,000 employees in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s massive reduction in foreign aid funding.”This is a difficult day for our entire community. The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally,” the school, a leading institution of scientific research, said in a statement.Hopkins, in Maryland’s largest city an hour’s drive north of the US capital, is eliminating more than 2,000 positions — 1,975 in projects across 44 countries and 247 jobs in the United States.The cuts impact several key programs, including the university’s medical school and school of public health, and Jhpiego, a global health non-profit organization founded at the university more than 50 years ago and which works to improve health in countries worldwide.”Johns Hopkins is immensely proud of the work done by our colleagues in Jhpiego, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the School of Medicine to care for mothers and infants, fight disease, provide clean drinking water, and advance countless other critical, life-saving efforts around the world,” the university said.The cuts make Johns Hopkins one of the universities most deeply impacted by the slash of federal funding for research. The university receives roughly $1 billion annually in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is currently running 600 clinical trials, according to The New York Times, adding that Hopkins is one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging such cuts.The US Agency for International Development (USAID), the largest funding agency for Jhpiego, distributes humanitarian aid around the world, with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries.US President Donald Trump, who is dismantling the humanitarian agency, signed an executive order in January demanding a freeze on all US foreign aid to allow time to assess overseas expenses. Critics warn that slashing USAID work will affect millions of people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that he had “serious questions” about Washington’s plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine but Moscow was ready to discuss it with US President Donald Trump.Putin made his first comments on the plan, which Ukraine agreed to on Tuesday at talks with the United States, saying he was “for” the proposed ceasefire, but that “there are nuances” and he had “serious questions” about how it would work.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Putin’s comments as “very manipulative”, suggesting in his nightly address that Putin is “actually preparing a refusal” to the proposal, but “is afraid to say directly to President Trump that he wants to continue this war”.The United States has called for Russia to agree a ceasefire without any conditions but Putin raised a number of objections, saying: “I think we need to talk to our American colleagues… Maybe have a telephone call with President Trump and discuss this with him.”Putin said a ceasefire was “the right idea”, but would benefit Ukraine at a point when its troops are suffering setbacks while Russia is rapidly capturing territory. He also questioned how a ceasefire would be monitored along a front line measuring thousands of kilometres.Trump said Putin’s statement was “promising” but “not complete”.”A lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed. Now we’re going to see if Russia is there and, if not, it will be a very disappointing moment for the world,” Trump said.”I’d love to meet with him or talk to him. But we have to get it over with fast.”After visiting a military headquarters in the Kursk region on Wednesday, the Russian president hailed his troops’ progress against Ukraine, saying they were “advancing in practically all areas” of the front line.He said that “based on how the situation on the ground develops, we will agree on the next steps on ending the conflict and reaching agreements acceptable to all”.As Trump pushes for a speedy end to the more than three-year-long conflict, his envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Thursday to discuss the plan.A top Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov, said Witkoff would meet Putin when the president “gives the signal”, Russian news agencies reported.Russia has been grinding forwards on the battlefield for over a year, and claimed on Thursday to have driven Ukrainian forces from the town of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region.Trump has expressed optimism that his team can secure a ceasefire, despite Moscow’s battlefield gains.- ‘Long-term peace’ -Putin said on Thursday: “We agree with proposals to cease hostilities, but on the basis that cessation would lead to long-term peace and address the root causes of the crisis.”Russia has already ruled out accepting foreign peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of a ceasefire or long-term security guarantee for Kyiv.That could go against a request Ukraine has made of European allies to deploy military “contingents” on its territory once the conflict ends to protect against future attacks from Russia.”It is absolutely unacceptable to us that army units of other states be stationed in Ukraine under any flag,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a briefing.”Be it a foreign contingent or a military base… all this would mean the involvement of these countries in a direct armed conflict with our country.”- Battle for Kursk -Russia, meanwhile, claimed rapid advances in the Kursk region — where Kyiv launched a cross-border assault last August and has held territory since.The Russian defence ministry said it had “liberated” Sudzha along with two other settlements in the border region.Sudzha, home to around 5,000 people before the fighting, was the largest settlement Kyiv seized after it launched its shock assault into Russia.The Kursk region was one of Kyiv’s few bargaining chips in swapping land with Russia, which has occupied around a fifth of Ukraine since it took Crimea in 2014 and launched its full-scale assault in February 2022.Ukraine now risks losing its grip on the border region entirely, after ceding dozens of square kilometres (miles) in the past week, according to military bloggers.In Ukraine, the Sumy region’s military administration said on Facebook on Thursday that it had ordered the mandatory evacuation of eight villages near the border with Kursk, due to “the exacerbation of the operational situation in the region” and “constant shelling by Russia”.Moscow’s rapid advances in the region came after the US paused intelligence-sharing and security support for Ukraine, although analysts and officials cautioned against making a direct link.Washington said it had resumed its support for Kyiv ahead of the talks with Moscow.

Global sea levels rose more than expected in 2024, Earth’s hottest year on record, according to an analysis released Thursday by the US space agency NASA.On its website, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration explained that last year’s increase “was due to an unusual amount of ocean warming, combined with meltwater from land-based ice such as glaciers.”According to the analysis led by NASA, which monitors rising water levels using satellite imagery, the world’s seas rose by 0.23 inches (0.59 centimeters) in 2024, well above the 0.17 inches (0.43 cm) predicted by scientists.”Every year is a little bit different, but what’s clear is that the ocean continues to rise, and the rate of rise is getting faster and faster,” said researcher Josh Willis of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Rising sea levels are among the consequences of human-induced climate change, and oceans have risen in line with the increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature — a change which itself is caused by greenhouse gas emissions.Over a recent three-decade period, from 1993 to 2023, average sea levels around the globe have risen by some four inches (10 cm) in total, according to NASA.The phenomenon is caused primarily by two factors: the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, which increases the flow of freshwater into oceans; and the expansion of sea water due to heat, a process known as thermal expansion.In recent years, the observed rise in sea levels has been mainly caused by the first factor and less by the second, according to NASA. “But in 2024, those contributions flipped, with two-thirds of sea level rise coming from thermal expansion,” the agency said.The year 2024 was the warmest on record since such recordkeeping began in 1850.Sea levels are expected to rise further as humanity continues to emit greenhouse gases, threatening vast populations living on islands or along coastlines.