⏳ Monday Fix: One Minute to Midnight

Morning all,

COP26 is up and running as leaders gather in Glasgow, express cautious hope, and seek further commitments... all as the clock ticks closer to midnight.

Until tomorrow,

Your Fixers,

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

Halloween is over, you know what that means... #54days.

GOOD LISTENER?

Here's the podcast version of today's newsletter - enjoy!

LET'S CATCH UP

A man in Spain died after being gored by a bull during a bull-running festival.

According to Sky News, the 55-year-old was repeatedly attacked by the bull, despite others trying to entice the animal away and distract it.

The incident sparked widespread debate online about Spain's culture of bull fighting and bull running. Many outlets cited a 2020 survey by Electomania, saying 46% of Spaniards were in favour of banning bullfighting. A further 34% were not in favour of the events but did not support a legal ban, while 18% said the tradition should be preserved.

In Japan, as widely expected the country's governing party won Sunday's election, but have secured a smaller majority than before.

CNN described it as a "big win" for the country's recently-appointed prime minister, Fumio Kishida.

CLIMATE COVERAGE

'One minute to midnight' - that will be the warning from Prime Minister Boris Johnson later today as the COP26 summit gets underway.

Johnson also made news by saying - for the first time - he was against the idea of a new coal mine in Cumbria, something he said is a decision for planning authorities, despite the government being criticised for it.

Remember: As CNN reported, coal is "the single biggest contributor to climate change".

Here - in our opinion - is the most helpful article we've seen with the latest updates on COP26. Worth a read.

Here is a link to our weekend piece, explaining the summit and the key things to be aware of.

Not the smoothest of starts: Many attendees were stuck in London, after a fallen tree led to severe delays on the train line to Glasgow.

ON TODAY'S AGENDA...

US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, will spend a few hours in Dublin today before heading on to the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

Why? The quick stop in Ireland will be largely focused on the ongoing efforts to secure an international corporation tax rate of 15% - something Ireland agreed to at the last minute of negotiations.

KEEPING AN EYE...

As we reported last week, Elon Musk now runs a trillion-dollar company. As we also reported, the UN's food scarcity chief also said just 2% of Musk's wealth would solve world hunger.

That 2% represents $6 billion.

Well, Musk has raised an interesting proposition. If the UN's World Food Programme can show how they would spend the $6b to actually solve world hunger, he said he will "sell Tesla stock right now and do it".

We'll keep an eye on this one for you...

CHATTER THAT MATTERS

British institutions such as the British Museum are facing tough decisions at the moment as the conversation around returning stolen artefacts starts to gain momentum.

Just last week, two ceremonies were held to mark the return of artefacts from the UK to Nigeria where they were originally looted from.

It sparks an interesting debate, and thought-provoking conversation about the British Empire and its colonial past, putting museums etc in a difficult position about what stance to take.

Here is a link to a very interesting piece we read over the weekend.

"The question is, to which side will this institution, which holds so much cultural clout, give its seal of approval as the UK attempts to address its complicated, controversial history in an era of such division and anger." - CNN's Luke McGee

PANDEMIC

President Biden's Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, has tested positive for coronavirus.

According to widespread reports, Psaki last saw Biden on Tuesday.

MOST READ

• BBC News: Major incident after two trains crash at Salisbury
• The Guardian: 'The Great Resignation': almost one in four workers planning job change
• The Financial Times: Junior lawyers work ever longer hours as demand keeps surging
• Al Jazeera: Tigrayan forces claim to capture new town of Kombolcha
• The Irish Times: Anti-social behaviour in Galway: 'It has never been as bad'

TWITTER TRENDS

The video below of M ark Zuckerberg and a colleague talking through all the changes coming with Meta, went viral over the weekend. Why? It's....jjjust...so...scripted?

ON A LIGHTER NOTE...

If Mariah says it is time, it is time.