The Headlines - The Governor in the Spotlight at Climate Talks, and Escalating Violence in the West Bank

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

Plus, why private air travel is booming. Here’s what we’re covering:Newsom in the Spotlight at the Climate Conference That Trump Decided to Skip by Somini SenguptaA Flood of Green Tech From China Is Upending Global Climate Politics by Somini Sengupta and Brad PlumerTrump Administration Plans to Send Border Patrol to Charlotte and New Orleans by Dana Goldstein and Hamed AleazizAircraft Carrier Moves Into the Caribbean as U.S. Confronts Venezuela by Eric SchmittSenator Criticizes Rubio for Paying $7.5 Million to Equatorial Guinea to Take Deportees by Edward Wong‘You Are All Terrorists’: Four Months in a Salvadoran Prison by Julie Turkewitz, Tibisay Romero, Sheyla Urdaneta and Isayen HerreraHouse Returns After Long Recess to Take Up Bill to End Shutdown by Michael GoldWho Didn’t Suffer During the Shutdown? People Flying Private by Christine ChungIsrael Arrests 4 After Jewish Extremist Attack in Occupied West Bank by Aaron BoxermanThe Volunteer Buglers Giving 24-Note Salutes by Danny FreedmanTune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Will Jarvis. Today's Wednesday, November 12th. Here's what we're covering. The reason I'm here is in the absence of leadership coming from the United States. This vacuum, it's rather jaw-dropping. This week at the world's highest-profile climate conference, COP 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom has stepped into the spotlight.

For the first time in the history of the U.N. summit, the U.S. did not send a delegation. So Newsom is the most prominent American official at the talks, which are taking place in Brazil. This is part of our economic strategy. It's an economic imperative. It's a global competitive responsibility for us to now assert ourselves more forcefully in the absence of national leadership. In speech after speech, Newsom, who's thought to be considering a run for president, pushed back forcefully on the Trump administration's efforts to pull back from global climate cooperation and double down on fossil fuels.

Newsom cast his state, which is one of the top producers of renewable energy in the U.S., as a stable and reliable partner in the fight to reduce global emissions. The last 10 years have been the hottest on record, though countries have made some progress on lowering the rate of emissions. That's been driven in part. by the fact that renewable energy technology is becoming increasingly accessible, and much of it is coming from China. Something has quietly shifted, I'd say, in the last decade.

And that is China becoming the world's clean energy superpower. It's decided that this is how they're going to power their economy. And now they've produced so much of it. They've saturated the country with electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels. they now need new markets around the world. Samini Sengupta covers climate change for the times and has been reporting from the summit in Brazil. She says that as China has started flooding the global market

with cheap renewable technology, the cost of that technology has dropped, allowing many of the world's developing countries to rapidly and affordably expand their use of green energy. There are new solar panel factories in Vietnam, new electric vehicle plants in Brazil, and Ethiopia has even banned the impact of all gas-powered cars.

While there are concerns in the United States and Europe about one country, China, dominating new energy technologies, the fact that China has made it so cheap and so accessible is actually good for climate action. That's exactly what a diplomat who was leading the talks here told us a couple of days ago. He said, if you're worried about climate, this is good news. Now, three updates on the Trump administration.

The Times has learned that the White House is finalizing plans to send a surge of border agents to New Orleans and Charlotte, North Carolina. That would mark an escalation of the president's immigration crackdown in major U.S. cities, including most notably Chicago. There, a two-month enforcement blitz has led to thousands of arrests. and sparked intense confrontations between angry residents and federal agents who've sometimes responded by using tear gas and pepper spray on crowds. Last week, a federal judge restricted their use of crowd control weapons,

saying that their use of force, quote, shocks the conscience. Also, the U.S. Navy's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier arrived in the Caribbean yesterday, adding to the growing number of warships and military personnel that are stationed in the region. The U.S. has been ramping up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro as White House aides have pushed to oust the authoritarian leader. Troops in the region have been carrying out lethal strikes on boats, the administration says, are smuggling drugs from Venezuela and other countries. The U.S. has now killed more than 75 people on boats since early September. A wide range of legal experts have called those strikes illegal, and one of America's key allies, Britain, has also pushed back and recently stopped sharing intelligence. on drug trafficking in the Caribbean.

A senior official told the times the country did not want to be complicit in the American strikes. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio is facing criticism for a deal he struck with Equatorial Guinea to agree to take deportees from the U.S. in exchange for $7.5 million. In a letter to Rubio, Democratic Senator Gene Shaheen called the deal highly unusual, noting that Equatorial Guinea has one of the most corrupt governments in the world. The U.S. State Department itself has called corruption a, quote, severe problem in the West African country and noted in a report that government officials there are said to be involved in human trafficking. The multi-million dollar payment is by far the largest the U.S. has made to another country to take in people who are not its citizens, as the Trump administration has tried to fast-track deportations. The most high-profile agreement to take in deportees was one the U.S. struck with El Salvador earlier this year. In that case, hundreds of immigrants, most of them without a criminal record, were sent to a notorious maximum security prison there.

The Times recently spoke with 40 of those men who described beatings and intense physical and psychological abuse in the prison. Forensic experts said the testimonies were credible, saying there was compelling evidence of torture. On Capitol Hill today, the House of Havanaugh. House of Representatives will return to session to take up the bill that could end the ongoing shutdown and fund the government through January 30th. The bill has significant momentum, but the House vote could be close. Nearly all Democrats are opposed to the measure, since it doesn't extend

health care subsidies, so House Speaker Mike Johnson will likely need every single Republican to show up and vote for it. The House, though, hasn't been in session for over 50 days, and lawmakers trying to rush back to D.C. for the vote could be delayed by the air-trial. traffic disruptions that have escalated during the shutdown. Meanwhile, as the shutdown has caused cancellations and delays for commercial airlines, new data shows that private air travel has boomed. According to numbers from the industry, private aviation had its best month in nearly two decades in October, with companies reporting record numbers of bookings.

Private jets can pivot more easily than big airlines when there are air traffic control issues or other problems, and they've largely been able to. avoid flight restrictions that the Trump administration put in place at the country's largest airports. Overall, the recent surge is part of a bigger uptick in private air travel in the U.S. The CEO of one charter jet company told the Times, quote, ultimately, airline disruption is good advertisement for private aviation. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers have been escalating their attacks on Palestinians, burning homes, torching vehicles, and beating residents.

According to the U.N., October was the worst month of settler violence in nearly two decades with more than 250 attacks as Jewish extremists have descended on the occupied territory in droves. The latest major attack came yesterday in an industrial zone, where dozens of masked men set fire to a warehouse, smashing windows, and beating several Palestinians. Israeli police say they have arrested four people in connection with the incident. attack. Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups say arrests like that are a rarity. A number of rights groups have accused the Israeli government of frequently turning a blind eye to settler violence. They say Israeli authorities often disperse clashes without detaining the attackers, and few are

ever charged with crimes. One Israeli rights group found that in a nearly two-decade span, police investigated more than 1,700 cases of violence against Palestinians. Nearly all of them were closed without an indictment. And finally, for many decades, a solemn, iconic part of funerals for veterans has been the 24-note bugle call known as Taps. Starting in 2000, most veterans have been eligible to receive funeral honors that include a rendition of the song. and quickly outstripped supply. At one point, there were about 1,800 veteran deaths a day and only 500 military buglers. In response, the Pentagon green lit a digital bugle that looks like the real thing,

but plays an old recording from Arlington National Cemetery. Now the Times has been covering how thousands of local musicians across the country, some of whom see the electronic bugle as deceptive, have been volunteering to play taps themselves instead. For example, members of the volunteer group Bugle across America, played at more than 5,000 military funerals or ceremonial events last year. One volunteer told the times, it just broke my heart when I realized that they were using canned music.

And a 19-year-old student, who's also been playing at funerals, said, quote, maybe it won't change the world, but it might change someone's day. Those are the headlines. I'm Will Jarvis. The show will be back tomorrow. Thank you.