Technologies

COP26 climate agreement strikes some as ‘good deal,’ others as ‘blah, blah, blah’

The compromise reached at the UN climate summit officially points a finger at coal but stops short of a «phase out.»

Nearly 200 countries reached an agreement at the United Nations climate summit Saturday that UN Secretary-General António Guterres said takes important steps but still leaves us «knocking on the door of climate catastrophe.»

«The approved texts are a compromise,» Guterres said in a statement. «They reflect the interests, the conditions, the contradictions and the state of political will in the world today. They take important steps, but unfortunately the collective political will was not enough to overcome some deep contradictions.»

The agreement is the first to come out of a UN climate summit with mention of the role of fossil fuels in the climate crisis, CNN reported. But at the last minute, language to «phase out» coal power was changed to «phase down,» a move some said would make it hard to reach key goals around warming.

The agreement asks governments to strengthen emissions-reduction targets by the end of 2022 to keep alive the goal of the Paris climate accords signed six years ago. That treaty calls for holding the rise in the Earth’s average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — and if possible, to 1.5 degrees Celsius above those levels. But the COP26 agreement has no enforcement mechanism, The Wall Street Journal reported, and only urges countries to act. Still, it calls on governments to return next year with their more robust plans to curb emissions, with some negotiators seeing that review as a way to bring about new cuts, the Journal said.

Altered language aside, the agreement includes an explicit call to countries to accelerate their efforts to cut down on coal, the fossil fuel that’s worst when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, and to speed an end to fossil fuel subsidies. And it promises more money to small and developing countries for mitigation and adaptation.

«It’s a good deal for the world,» US climate envoy John Kerry told The Associated Press. «It’s got a few problems, but it’s all in all a very good deal.»

Others weren’t so sure. In regard to funds for smaller countries, developed nations have already missed the deadline for providing $100 billion annually to these countries by 2020. That means trust is low, and many of these countries are disappointed the agreement doesn’t lay the groundwork for establishing a loss and damage fund. This would’ve provided them with the money they need to pay for immediate damage caused by the climate crisis, which is largely caused by developing countries.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg dismissed the agreement as more of the same old talk without real action.

«The #COP26 is over. Here’s a brief summary: Blah, blah, blah,» Thunberg tweeted. «Unless we achieve immediate, drastic, unprecedented, annual emission cuts at the source then that means we’re failing when it comes to this climate crisis,» she said in another tweet, adding that «small steps in the right direction» and «making some progress» equals losing.

CNET’s Katie Collins contributed to this report.

Technologies

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 22 #598

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 22, No. 598.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one — I definitely have at least two of these in my house. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Catch all.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A mess of items.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BATE, LICE, SLUM, CAPE, HOLE, CARE, BARE, THEN, SLAM, SAMBA, BACK

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

TAPE, COIN, PENCIL, BATTERY, SHOELACE, THUMBTACK

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is JUNKDRAWER. To find it, look for the J that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Oct. 22, #1586

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Oct. 22, No. 1,586.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle features some letters I don’t often guess, but it’s not terribly difficult. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with S.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with T.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to an action displaying spectacular skill and daring.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is STUNT.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Oct. 21, No. 1,585 was DETOX.

Recent Wordle answers

Oct. 17, No. 1,581: GROSS
Oct. 18, No. 1,582: HAVEN
Oct. 19, No. 1,583: IDEAL
Oct. 20, No. 1,584: LIMBO

Quick tips for Wordle

#1: Check our list ranking the popularity of all the letters in the alphabet and choose your starter words accordingly. (TRAIN, STERN and AUDIO are good.)

#2: Don’t forget that letters can be used more than once.

#3: Many words are similar. You don’t want to use up multiple guesses that don’t advance your cause. So if the puzzle is STA_E, don’t guess STARE, STATE and STALE. Guess something that uses that R, T and L, like TWIRL.