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Shell has won its appeal against a climate court ruling that it must sharply reduce its carbon emissions.

The oil and gas producer went to the Court of Appeal in the Netherlands following a decision in support of environmental campaign groups in the country, including Friends Of The Earth.

That ruling, in 2021, ordered Shell to cut its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels in order to protect Dutch citizens.

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The emissions curbs included those caused by the use of Shell’s products.

The judge in the appeal dismissed all the claims against Shell.

The company, which exited its dual headquarters structure in The Hague in 2022 to reside only in the UK, had argued that the original district court decision was flawed on many grounds.

They included that only nation states can set such sweeping demands and that such a cut to its business would only shift output towards its competitors without any benefit to the planet.

The ruling was handed down as the COP29 climate summit is staged in Azerbaijan, though the judgment is unlikely to be the end of the matter.

The climate groups, which saw the case as a human rights issue, are now expected to bring their own appeal to the Netherlands’ Supreme Court.

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Satellite images show that smog in Pakistan can be seen from space, as the country battles record levels of air pollution.

Images from NASA Worldview show the east of the country cloaked in a toxic haze, with smog also reaching into India’s northern regions and New Dehli.

Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab region and home to 14 million people, had an air quality index of more than 400 on Tuesday morning, according to IQAir, which tracks global air quality.

Any reading above 300 is considered hazardous – anything between 0 to 50 is considered good.

Earlier in November, parts of Lahore had a reading above 1,900, marking a record high.

IQAir also reported on Tuesday that the concentration of PM2.5 – microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs and can cause cancer – in Lahore was more than 50 times above recommended guidelines.

The city in eastern Pakistan is often ranked as one of the worst places in the world for air pollution.

Regional authorities have banned most outdoor activities, ordered shops to close early, and closed schools and public spaces until 17 November in response to the air pollution.

Health officials said more than 40,000 people have already been treated for respiratory ailments, while hospitals in the region have reported an unprecedented rise in patients with eye and throat irritation and pink eye disease.

It comes as a UN agency warned the health of 11 million children in the Punjab region is at risk if efforts aren’t made to tackle the toxic smog.

Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF’s representative in the country, said in a statement: “Prior to these record-breaking levels of air pollution, about 12% of deaths in children under five in Pakistan were due to air pollution.

“The impact of this year’s extraordinary smog will take time to assess, but we know that doubling and tripling the amount of pollution in the air will have devastating effects, particularly on children and pregnant women.”

Several South Asian countries are engulfed by smog each winter as cold air traps dust, emissions and smoke from farm fires.

Parts of India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh were forced to close schools and businesses last November over air pollution.

A month later, artificial rain was used in Lahore to tackle hazardous smog for the first time.

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Social media platform Bluesky says it has gained 700,000 new users in the week following the US election.

Bluesky, which was originally conceived as part of Twitter by its former chief executive Jack Dorsey, says the new sign-ups are largely from the US and UK.

The company has increased its membership from 9 million people in September to 14.5 million in the week and to 12 November.

“We’re excited to welcome all of these new people, ranging from Swifties to wrestlers to city planners,” Bluesky spokesperson Emily Liu said.

The exodus of X users is believed to have been fuelled by owner Elon Musk‘s support of President-elect Donald Trump, who enjoyed a decisive win on 5 November.

Users on the platform, which Musk bought for $44bn (£34bn) in 2022, have also reported more misinformation, offensive posts, and problems blocking users.

Posting on Bluesky this week, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced she is “back” on the platform, adding: “Good GOD it’s nice to be in a digital space with other real human beings.”

It is not the first time users have left Musk’s platform for Bluesky.

In August, amid rioting in towns and cities across the UK, Bluesky said it registered a 60% increase in activity from users in the UK.

On X, Musk criticised Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, branding him #twotierkier for his response to the rioting, claiming civil war was inevitable in the UK.

Several public figures, including Home Office minister Jess Philips and Labour MP Lewis Atkinson said they were switching platforms.

Mr Lewis posted at the time: “Hello everyone here… another potential alternative to that other place…”

X also experienced a drop in users by around a fifth following its rebranding from Twitter.

And after X was suspended in Brazil this year, Bluesky said it gained three million extra users.

This week, British comedian Greg Davies posted: “Hello all, I’ll be leaving X in the next few days. Thanks for the lovely messages over the years. If you want to know what I’ve been up to you can sign up to my mailing list or follow me on Instagram. Cheers Greg”.

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky was initially conceived as part of Twitter in 2019, but became an independent platform when it officially launched in 2021.

It is owned by Jay Graber, and takes a decentralised approach to social media, one where different platforms and communities can interoperate rather than all live under one corporate banner like Twitter or Facebook.

Despite this, the platform looks a lot like X or Twitter – with direct messaging recently introduced, making it more similar to its rival platforms.

It is second to Threads, Meta’s equivalent, on the US Apple App store, which has 275 million active users a month.

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President-elect Donald Trump’s historic victory was made possible by the broadest coalition of voters the Republican Party has seen in the modern era. On Election Day, our big tent expanded coast to coast and brought in patriotic Americans of all stripes. Many were initially turned away from a Democrat Party that increasingly ignores the concerns of hard-working Americans. But Trump’s leadership, and his agenda for American success, closed the deal.

As Congress returns to Washington, we must prepare the Senate to advance that agenda legislatively and ensure that the president-elect can hit the ground running with his appointees confirmed as soon as possible. The Senate Republican majority will work with President Trump to ensure the Senate calendar allows us to confirm his nominees and pass our shared agenda as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

We have a mandate to govern. With President Trump leading the ticket, Republicans did better than in 2020 in 48 states. We improved our margins in three out of every four counties in the United States and grew support with nearly every demographic group. President Trump won more Hispanic support than any Republican president ever before, and younger voters who have many elections ahead in their lifetimes were crucial to victory. As my colleague Flordia Sen. Marco Rubio describes it, the party is now a ‘multi-ethnic, multi-racial coalition of hard-working Americans who love their country.’ It’s a new day for the GOP – and that’s a very good thing.

We cannot afford to take this coalition for granted. If we fail to deliver on President Trump’s priorities, we will lose their support. They have trusted us with their votes. Now we have to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

At the top of the list is cleaning up the mess left by the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda, which was clearly repudiated by the American people. The Republican Congress must ensure President Trump has the necessary tools and support to enforce border security laws and to remove the violent criminals wreaking havoc in every state. The Biden-Harris administration caused the border crisis. We will end it.

Next, to make America prosperous again, we must take a hatchet to the regulatory apparatus choking our economy, starting with the 1,000 Biden-Harris regulations that have already cost Americans nearly $2 trillion. Streamlining the bureaucratic machine is long overdue.

 

Just undoing the damage done by the Biden-Harris-Schumer Democrats is not enough. Americans have endured devastating price increases over the last four years. They have charged us to increase growth and improve take-home pay, which starts by preventing looming tax hikes. They have directed us to restore order to a volatile world through strength, with a military so powerful and mission-focused our adversaries won’t dare to challenge us. And they have given us the green light to restore American energy dominance.

We have an ambitious agenda, and it will take all of us – each and every Republican – working together with President Trump’s leadership to achieve it. If we don’t successfully execute on our mandate, we risk losing the coalition that swept Republicans into office up and down the ballot.

We will have disagreements along the way. When they arise, we must listen to each other and keep working toward serving the people who gave us this mandate. The Democrat Party will shun or cancel anyone who challenges liberal orthodoxy. This Republican Party listens to our voters and celebrates the marketplace of ideas.

If we listen to the voters who made it possible, last week’s red wave can lift our country to new heights.

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Taiwan is considering a massive $15 billion military package in a show to the incoming Trump administration that it is serious about defending itself against the threat posed by China. 

Officials from Taipei are already engaged in ‘informal’ talks with the incoming Trump team, according to a report by the Financial Times on Monday; although, as President-elect Donald Trump has yet to fill his cabinet, it is unclear who is engaging in these alleged discussions.

According to the report, Taiwan is considering the purchase of an Aegis-class destroyer – a system described by defense contractor Lockheed Martin as ‘the most capable multi-mission combat system deployed in the world today’ as it integrates air and missile defense.

Taipei is also eyeing other sophisticated equipment when it comes to beefing up its war capabilities, including Northrop Grumman’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft, which has been deemed a ‘game changer in how the Navy conducts battle management command and control.’

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Trump transition team for comment on the ‘informal’ talks reportedly taking place. 

However, unnamed sources close to the Trump team reportedly said that up to 60 F-35 fighter jets, 10 retired warships and 400 Patriot missiles could make up the substantial package requested by Taiwan.

‘Taiwan is thinking about a package to show that they are serious,’ one former Trump administration official apparently told the Financial Times. ‘Assuming they follow through, they will go to the U.S. national security advisor when they are named and present a very aggressive package of American hardware.’

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Taiwanese government for comment, but according to a report by Reuters, Taipei denied that there were ongoing talks with the U.S. about an arms package. 

‘There has been a period of consolidation and discussion between Taiwan and the United States on military needs, but there is no new stage of discussion at this time,’ an official told the outlet.

From the campaign trail, Trump threatened to expand the trade war with China, but it is unclear where he stands when it comes to U.S. defense priorities, particularly in the waters off of mainland China.

Beijing has made it clear it intends to ‘reunify’ Taiwan with mainland China, and U.S. security experts have been sounding the alarm that this could happen as soon as 2027.

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Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., will reportedly meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog when he visits the nation’s capital on Tuesday after President-elect Donald Trump named the House Republican Conference chair to be his next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 

Herzog is expected to meet with multiple high-profile lawmakers in D.C. Tuesday, including President Biden, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Stefanik, his office told The Times of Israel. The meeting with Stefanik comes shortly after Trump said she would be his next ambassador to the United Nations.

On Monday, Trump confirmed reports that he would be nominating the GOP conference chairwoman to be his next U.N. ambassador, noting how she ‘is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter.’

Stefanik, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, is also a firm supporter of Israel and has been a leading voice challenging the rising tide of antisemitism on college campuses following the tragic Hamas massacre of innocent Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Stefanik, for example, made headlines last year after pressing the presidents of three of the nation’s most prestigious colleges to share whether they thought ‘calling for the genocide of Jews’ was against their codes of conduct. Eventually, pressure from Stefanik and other GOP leaders resulted in the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigning.

‘The work ahead is immense as we see antisemitism skyrocketing coupled with four years of catastrophically weak US leadership that significantly weakened our national security and diminished our standing in the eyes of both allies and adversaries,’ Stefanik said in a statement Monday to Fox News Digital after it reached out to confirm her meeting with Herzog, which Stefanik’s spokespeople did not acknowledge. 

‘I stand ready to advance President Donald J. Trump’s restoration of America First peace through strength leadership on the world stage on Day One at the United Nations,’ the future UN ambassador added.

Stefanik will be the first major policymaker to meet with Herzog on Tuesday, with their meeting scheduled at 9 a.m. EST, The Times of Israel reported.

Herzog will then reportedly meet with Graham and Biden afterward.

A spokesperson for Graham told Fox News Digital that their meeting was ‘not yet confirmed’ but that they were working out scheduling.

Herzog’s visit to the U.S. comes amid the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, held Sunday through Tuesday in the nation’s capital, during which Herzog will be a keynote speaker.    

Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Stefanik and Herzog but did not hear back prior to publication time.

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Two blue state Democrats in Congress issued blistering assessments of where their party stands after Tuesday night’s overwhelming election defeat and offered suggestions about changes that Democrats need to make.

‘That was a cataclysm,’ Connecticut Sen. Chis Murphy posted on X. ‘Electoral map wipeout. Senate D practical ceiling is now 52 seats. R’s is 62.’

‘Time to rebuild the left,’ Murphy wrote. ‘We are out of touch with the crisis of meaning/purpose fueling MAGA. We refuse to pick big fights. Our tent is too small.’

In a lengthy X thread that had more than 7 million views on Monday morning, Murphy said Democrats ‘don’t listen enough; we tell people what’s good for them’ and skip ‘past the way people are feeling (alone, impotent, overwhelmed) and straight to uninspiring solutions (more roads! bulk drug purchasing!) that do little to actually upset the status quo of who has power and who doesn’t.’

Murphy acknowledged a disconnect between everyday working class voters and the ‘elites’ and suggested the party needs to more openly embrace candidates who reject the status quo. 

‘And when progressives like Bernie aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists,’ Murphy wrote. ‘Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base.’

‘We cannot be afraid of fights – especially with the economic elites who have profited off neoliberalism. The right regularly picks fights with elites – Hollywood, higher ed, etc. Democrats (e.g. the Harris campaign) are tepid in our fights with billionaires and corporations.’

Murphy told his followers that ‘real economic populism should be our tentpole.’

‘Those are hard things for the left,’ Murphy wrote in the final post of the thread. ‘A firm break with neoliberalism. Listen to poor and rural people, men in crisis. Don’t decide for them. Pick fights. Embrace populism. Build a big tent. Be less judgmental. But we are beyond small fixes.’

New York Democrat Rep. Pat Ryan, who won re-election in New York’s 18th Congressional District despite the red wave that swept across most of the country, also put forward a post-mortem on social media that was seen by millions of users.

‘First and foremost, if you’re using the words ‘moderate’ or ‘progressive’ you’re missing the whole f***ing point,’ Ryan wrote on X. ‘It’s not ideological. It’s about who fights for the people vs. who further empowers and enables the elites.’

Ryan explained his take on why he was able to win as a Democrat in a pro-Republican climate and said he ‘put affordability front and center every day.’

‘Most importantly, I told folks exactly who it was that was ripping them off, and I grounded it locally. It’s the billionaires and big corporations making record-breaking profits while the rest of us struggle.’

Ryan wrote, ‘It’s not enough to throw these seemingly disparate policies at people. We must articulate a unifying principle, and clearly tell folks who’s at fault.  For me, it was Freedom. and Patriotism. And the fault lies with the same elites, in both parties, who’ve run this country for far too long.’

Various camps within the Democratic Party have been pointing fingers at each other Democrat presidential candidate Vice President Harris’ loss to President-elect Donald Trump last week.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pinned blame for the loss on the Democratic Party for ‘abandoning’ the working class, sparking a rebuke from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

‘It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,’ Sanders posted to X last week, accompanied by a press release on the election results. ‘And they’re right.’

Pelosi responded that the party has not left the working class behind in favor of kowtowing to ‘big-money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party,’ as Sanders had argued in his press release. 

‘With all due respect, and I have a great deal of respect for him [Sanders], for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working-class families. That’s where we are,’ Pelosi told the New York Times’ ‘The Interview’ podcast on Saturday.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

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The ‘moral clarity’ that Rep. Elise Stefanik is bringing into her new role as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations will help fight the organization’s ‘hate and lies,’ Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. said Monday.

The appointment of the New York Republican by President-elect Donald Trump is one of the first personnel moves announced in the early days of his transition period.

‘Congratulations Rep. Elise Stefanik on your nomination as the next U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.,’ Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon wrote on X. ‘At a time when hate and lies fill the halls of the U.N., your unwavering moral clarity is needed more than ever.’ 

Danon is looking forward to ‘working closely with Elise Stefanik on tackling malicious lies at the U.N. advanced by hostile nations while staying unswervingly committed to truth and justice,’ Jonathan Harounoff, Israel’s U.N. spokesperson, told Fox News Digital. 

Trump said in an earlier statement to the New York Post — which was the first to report on Stefanik’s nomination — that ‘Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter.’

Stefanik is currently the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference and is the fourth-highest ranking House Republican.  

She was elected to her sixth term in the House last week and previously has made national headlines for grilling the presidents of Ivy League universities about the rising antisemitism on college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.  

‘I am truly honored to earn President Trump’s nomination to serve in his Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,’ Stefanik told the New York Post. ‘During my conversation with President Trump, I shared how deeply humbled I am to accept his nomination and that I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the United States Senate. President Trump’s historic landslide election has given hope to the American people and is a reminder that brighter days are ahead – both at home and abroad.’  

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Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., has been offered the role of national security adviser in the next Trump administration, a source confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Waltz has been one of President-elect Trump’s most visible surrogates during the 2024 campaign, spearheading military outreach and helping with the Veterans For Trump coalition.

The Florida congressman is the first retired Green Beret to serve in Congress and had previous administration experience as a policy adviser to former Defense Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Waltz being offered the role. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Elevating a House lawmaker to the administration could complicate Republicans’ ability to govern the chamber, however.

Waltz is in a safe red seat on the eastern Florida coast, so it’s highly unlikely to fall into Democratic hands. But replacing a House member is a process that could take several weeks.

Republicans are on track to win the House majority by just a slim margin, so whittling down their numbers in Congress could fuel delays to Trump’s own first 100-day agenda.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., speculated on Fox & Friends last week that Republicans would win by about four to six seats.

Waltz is the second House lawmaker tapped for an administration role after House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., accepted Trump’s nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations earlier on Monday.

Both Stefanik and Waltz are members of the House Armed Services Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 

‘I am truly honored to earn President Trump’s nomination to serve in his Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. During my conversation with President Trump, I shared how deeply humbled I am to accept his nomination and that I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the United States Senate,’ Stefanik said in her statement accepting the nomination.

‘The work ahead is immense as we see antisemitism skyrocketing coupled with four years of catastrophically weak U.S. leadership that significantly weakened our national security and diminished our standing in the eyes of both allies and adversaries. I stand ready to advance President Donald J. Trump’s restoration of America First peace through strength leadership on the world stage on Day One at the United Nations.’

Like Waltz, Stefanik’s upstate New York district is a safe Republican stronghold.

The NSA role does not require Senate confirmation, but the role of UN ambassador does.

Sources previously told Fox News Digital that Waltz was in contention for the role of Secretary of Defense. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump transition team for comment on Waltz being offered the NSA role.

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President-elect Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter shared a vlog of her experience on election night on Monday, capturing her thoughts and emotions as her grandfather clinched the presidency.

Kai Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump, Jr., posted the video on YouTube Monday afternoon. The vlog – which is short for a video blog – begins with the teenage girl getting her makeup professionally done and expressing her thoughts about the election.

‘I am here in my house getting ready for the election night at Mar-a-Lago and the convention center,’ Kai Trump says as she sits in a makeup chair. ‘I think today we’re going with straight hair. Jessica’s going to do my amazing makeup…I am still trying to pick a dress out.’

The teenager casually shares her plans in the video, including having dinner with her grandfather hours before he was elected president.

‘I’m going to see my grandpa, have family dinner with him, just, like, spend time with them,’ Kai Trump says. ‘And then I think I’m going to head over to the convention center after… just see my friends and like, close family that have supported me and my grandpa over time.’

Kai Trump also discusses a recent golf competition she had and details about her life. The teenager is also seen singing along to songs with her friends in the car.

‘I haven’t seen my grandpa in a while because he’s been campaigning,’ she says in the video. ‘I’m super excited to see him again. He’s called me almost every other day.’

The vlog also depicts the 17-year-old’s emotions shifting from anxious to optimistic as the electoral votes were announced in her grandfather’s favor.

‘I’m a little nervous,’ Kai Trump says at the beginning of the night. ‘Actually, that’s an understatement. I’m very nervous. The past five days I have been so nervous…I feel like I’ve had butterflies in my stomach for so long, and I really hope we find out [the results] soon.’

At the end of the video, the teenager described Nov. 5 as a ‘special night’ and gushed about her grandpa. 

‘I’m extremely proud of him,’ Kai Trump says. ‘I think he deserves it more than anyone in the whole world. And he really has worked his butt off every single day for the past really eight years or more.’

‘He’s such an incredible person and such a unique person,’ the granddaughter continues. ‘And he just fights every single day for America over and over and over again. And he’ll never give up.’

The teenager has been candidly sharing facets of her life on social media in recent days. On Sunday, Kai Trump posted a collection of photos and videos on Instagram of her golfing with her grandfather.

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