Weather & Climate

Nov. 23 (UPI) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa brought the G20 summit in Johannesburg to a close Saturday, and rejected a proposal by the United States for him to pass control for next year’s meeting in Florida to a junior U.S. embassy official.

Ramaphosa depicted the two-day summit as a win for multilateralism but said it was marred by a U.S. boycott. The United States has repeatedly accused South Africa, without proof, of discriminating against white-minority Afrikaners

“We’ve met in the face of significant challenges and demonstrated our ability to come together, even in times of great difficulty, to pursue a better world,” Ramaphosa said in his closing remarks.

As he closed the conference, Ramaphosa said “We shall see each other again next year” in the United States. It was his only mention of the United States during the summit.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly accused Ramaphosa of “refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency.”

“This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G20 leaders’ declaration, despite consistent and robust U.S. objections, underscored the fact that they have weaponized their G20 presidency to undermine the G20’s founding principles,” Kelly said.

As part of the conference Saturday, the G20 declared a need to address climate change and achieve “gender equality” among participating countries.

While not making any specific reference to President Donald Trump and the United States during the G20 summit, references were made to his administration’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement on the first day of his second term and its undoing of policies aimed at eliminating sexism, racism and homophobia.

South Africa offered to provide an equivalent junior diplomat to hand over the G20 presidency to the United States at his foreign ministry. Country officials said it would breach protocol for Ramaphosa to pass the torch to a U.S. acting ambassador.

China, Russia and Mexico were also no-shows at the Johannesburg G20.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has routinely delegated attendance at such events to Chinese Premier Li Qiang. Russian President Vladimir Putin is wanted by the international court and Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum was not in attendance.

The 2026 G20 summit is scheduled to be held at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort, which is owned by the Trump Organization.

Nov. 22 (UPI) — No agreements were made to phase out the global use of fossil fuels during the United Nations COP30 climate summit in Brazil that ended on Saturda, but discussions to draft one will begin.

Attending nations okayed a voluntary agreement to start discussions to create a plan seeking to gradually end the use of fossil fuels amid strong opposition from nations that produce oil and gas, according to The Guardian.

The climate change conference opened with a draft agreement to address the world’s changing climate, but it did not include a reference to fossil fuels.

In lieu of a fossil fuels deal, the conference produced an agreement from participating wealthy nations to allocate $120 billion to developing nations by 2035 to help them adapt to a changing climate.

The funds would count toward a $300 billion goal to finance climate change efforts in developing nations, the BBC reported.

Representatives from respective COP30 nations also agreed to create a Tropical Forest Forever Facility fund to counteract deforestation. The fund already has $6.6 billion.

Ahead of the climate change conference, many attendees had hoped to create a $1.3 trillion climate change fund, but that did not occur.

Many nations already have initiated measures to address climate change and its effects, but opposition has grown against the notion that a global consensus exists to end the use of fossil fuels to fend off a “climate crisis.”

President Donald Trump is among world leaders who want to expand the domestic use of fossil fuels and favor climate adaptation.

Trump earlier said the United States would not attend the COP30 conference that started on Nov. 10 and ran an extra day into Saturday in Belem, Brazil.

Some state-level representatives and others attended the conference, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, who criticized Trump for not sending a U.S. delegation.

The 2026 U.N. COP30 conference will be held in Turkey.

Nov. 14 (UPI) — Rainstorms that are forecast to bring up to 8 inches of rain to Southern California through Saturday have triggered flood watches in fire-ravaged locales in Los Angeles, San Diego and nearby areas.

Two bouts of rainstorms are predicted to bring between 1 inch and 3 inches of rain on Friday to areas that are still affected by wildfires in January, NBC News reported.

More than 23 million people live in the risk zones as rain began falling on Friday afternoon and already created muddy conditions in areas due to the lack of ground cover because of the January wildfires that decimated many areas in and around Los Angeles and San Diego County.

Officials at Los Angeles International Airport reported about an inch of rainfall in an hour on Friday, and Highway 101 had up to 6 inches of mud accumulation that caused at least one vehicle to get stuck.

A second storm system that includes high winds and between 2 inches and 8 inches of rainfall is expected to impact the area through Saturday as the storms intensify.

Ventura County officials issued an evacuation warning for Thursday to Sunday in the area affected by the Mountain Fire in January.

Also under evacuation warnings are those in Camino Cielo, Matilija Canyon and North Fork.

The heaviest rainfall is expected late Friday night and into Saturday, which has triggered a flood watch from 4 a.m. PST to 10 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Mud flows and debris fields could impact burn areas from January’s wildfires in and near Eaton, Hurst, Kenneth, Palisades and Sunset.

The rainfall could cause extensive damage and possibly become life-threatening, but it also is expected to end Southern California’s annual fire season.

Nov. 8 (UPI) — The Philippines is under high alert as Typhoon Fung-Wong is forecast to strengthen and make landfall on Luzon as soon as Sunday evening.

The Metro Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council issued its highest alert in anticipation of the storm making landfall and lashing the Philippines with high winds and heavy rainfall from Sunday through Tuesday.

“This is our highest state of readiness,” Civil Defense Director George Keyser said during an emergency meeting.

“The volume of rain could be unprecedented, even if the eye makes landfall far north,” Keyser said.

He said forecasters are unsure of how much rain to expect, which requires coordination among 17 local governments and national governmental agencies to handle the storm’s impacts.

“Sunday afternoon through Monday night is critical,” Keyser said. “We must clear streets for search-and-rescue and relief efforts.”

The alert helps to ensure the readiness of 486 traffic enforcers, 130 flood control teams, and 40 road emergency crews, in addition to K-9 units, according to the Philippine Information Agency.

It also activates full response protocols for flood control at 71 pumping stations, video monitoring of 85 critical sites, and the immediate deployment of boats, cranes, payloaders and buses for evacuations as needed.

The Philippines are recovering from Tuesday’s strike by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which killed nearly 200 in the Central Philippines, plus another five in Vietnam, CNN reported.

That storm was the 20th cyclone of 2025 and was the deadliest so far as it passed over the Philippines and made landfall eight times across the archipelago before moving on to Vietnam.

Fung-Wong might prove to be stronger, with wind speeds forecast to reach 115 mph before striking the eastern Philippines as soon as Sunday evening local time.

The typhoon’s mass covers 932 miles and already is impacting the eastern portion of the Philippines with strong winds and heavy rainfall.

Fung-Wong is forecast to pass over the northwestern Philippines while moving northwesterly before turning north on Tuesday and the northeasterly toward Taiwan.