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Nearest Neighbor Attack hits US company involved with Ukraine weeks before Russian invasion.

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'Overcast' is an archviz project by Oaken Studio. Fabio de Carvalho used Joaquim Valls by BJ Arquitectes Associats as a reference. The animation was rendered in Unreal Engine 5 in Lumen with assets from Evermotion, Kitbash3D, and Quixel Megascans. "Learn the power of decals and how much they can enhance the quality of a scene" - Fabio de Carvalho

Donald Trump has big plans for the economy and a big debt problem that will be a hurdle to delivering on them.Trump has bold ideas on tax cuts, tariffs and other programs, but high interest rates and the price of repaying the federal governments existing debt could limit what hes able to do.Not only is the federal debt at roughly $36 trillion, but the spike in inflation after the coronavirus pandemic has pushed up the governments borrowing costs such that debt service next year will easily exceed spending on national security.The higher cost of servicing the debt gives Trump less room to maneuver with the federal budget as he seeks income tax cuts. Its also a political challenge because higher interest rates have made it costlier for many Americans to buy a home or new automobile. And the issue of high costs helped Trump reclaim the presidency in Novembers election.Its clear the current amount of debt is putting upward pressure on interest rates, including mortgage rates for instance, said Shai Akabas, executive director of the economic policy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The cost of housing and groceries is going to be increasingly felt by households in a way that are going to adversely affect our economic prospects in the future.Akabas stressed that the debt service is already starting to crowd out government spending on basic needs such as infrastructure and education. About 1 in 5 dollars spent by the government are now repaying investors for borrowed money, instead of enabling investments in future economic growth.Its an issue on Trumps radar. In his statement on choosing billionaire investor Scott Bessent to be his treasury secretary, the Republican president-elect said Bessent would help curb the unsustainable path of Federal Debt.The debt service costs along with the higher total debt complicate Trumps efforts to renew his 2017 tax cuts, much of which are set to expire after next year. The higher debt from those tax cuts could push interest rates higher, making debt service even costlier and minimizing any benefits the tax cuts could produce for growth.Clearly, its irresponsible to run back the same tax cuts after the deficit has tripled, said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former Republican congressional aide. Even congressional Republicans behind the scenes are looking for ways to scale down the presidents ambitions.Democrats and many economists say Trumps income tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy, which deprives the government of revenues needed for programs for the middle class and poor.The president-elects tax policy ideas will increase the deficit because they will decrease taxes for those with the highest ability to pay, such as the corporations whose tax rate hes proposed reducing even further to 15%, said Jessica Fulton, vice president of policy at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based think tank that deals with issues facing communities of color.Trumps team insists he can make the math work.The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, including lowering prices. He will deliver, said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump transition spokeswoman.When Trump was last in the White House in 2020, the federal government was spending $345 billion annually to service the national debt. It was possible to run up the national debt with tax cuts and pandemic aid because the average interest rate was low, such that repayment costs were manageable even as debt levels climbed.Congressional Budget Office projections indicate that debt service costs next year could exceed $1 trillion. Thats more than projected spending on defense. The total is also greater than nondefense spending on infrastructure, food aid and other programs under the direction of Congress.What fueled the increased cost of servicing the debt has been higher interest rates. In April 2020, when the government was borrowing trillions of dollars to address the pandemic, the yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell as low as 0.6%. Theyre now 4.4%, having increasing since September as investors expect Trump to add several trillions of dollars onto projected deficits with his income tax cuts.Democratic President Joe Biden can point to strong economic growth and successfully avoiding a recession as the Federal Reserve sought to bring down inflation. Still, deficits ran at unusually high levels during his term. Thats due in part to his own initiatives to boost manufacturing and address climate change, and to the legacy of Trumps previous tax cuts.People in Trumps orbit, as well as Republican lawmakers, are already scouting out ways to reduce government spending in order to minimize the debt and bring down interest rates. They have attacked Biden for the deficits and inflation, setting the stage for whether they can persuade Trump to take action.Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy businessmen leading Trumps efforts to cut government costs, have proposed that the incoming administration should simply refuse to spend some of the money approved by Congress. Its an idea that Trump has also backed, but one that would likely provoke challenges in court as it would undermine congressional authority.Russell Vought, the White House budget director during Trumps first term and Trumps choice to lead it again, put out an alternative proposed budget for 2023 with more than $11 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years in order to potentially generate a surplus.Michael Faulkender, a finance professor who served in Trumps Treasury Department, told a congressional committee in March that all the energy and environmental components of Bidens Inflation Reduction Act from 2022 should be repealed to reduce deficits.Trump has also talked up tariffs on imports to generate revenues and reduce deficits, while some Republican lawmakers such as House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, have discussed adding work requirements to trim Medicaid expenses.The White House was last pressured by high rates to address debt service costs roughly three decades ago during the start of Democrat Bill Clintons presidency. Higher yields on the 10-year Treasury notes led Clinton and Congress to reach an agreement on deficit reduction, ultimately producing a budget surplus starting in 1998.Clinton political adviser James Carville joked at the time about how bond investors pushing up borrowing rates for the U.S. government could humble the commander in chief.I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter, Carville said. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.Josh Boak and Fatima Hussein, Associated Press

Negotiators gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday in a final push to create a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution.Its the fifth time the worlds nations convene to craft a legally binding plastic pollution accord. In addition to the national delegations, representatives from the plastics industry, scientists and environmentalists have come to shape how the world tackles the surging problem.We must end plastic pollution before plastic pollution ends us, Kim Wansup, South Koreas minister of environment, said during the opening session.The planet is choking on plastic, according to the United Nations. Its polluting lakes, rivers, oceans and peoples bodies.Dont kick the can, or the plastic bottle, down the road, U.N. Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen said in a message to negotiators.This is an issue about the intergenerational justice of those generations that will come after us and be living with all this garbage. We can solve this and we must get it done in Busan, she said in an interview.The previous four global meetings have revealed sharp differences in goals and interests. This weeks talks go through Saturday.Led by Norway and Rwanda, 66 countries plus the European Union say they want to address the total amount of plastic on Earth by controlling design, production, consumption and where plastic ends up. The delegation from the hard-hit island nation of Micronesia helped lead an effort to call more attention to unsustainable plastic production, called the Bridge to Busan. Island nations are grappling with vast amounts of other countries plastic waste washing up on their shores.We think its the heart of the treaty, to go upstream and to get to the problem at its source, said Dennis Clare, legal advisor and plastics negotiator for Micronesia. Theres a tagline, You cant recycle your way out of this problem.'Some plastic-producing and oil and gas countries, including Saudi Arabia, disagree. They vigorously oppose any limits on plastic manufacturing. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia is the worlds largest exporter of primary polypropylene, a common type of plastic, accounting for an estimated 17% of exports last year, according to the Plastics Industry Association.China, the United States and Germany led the global plastics trade by exports and imports in 2023, the association said.The plastics industry has been advocating for a treaty focused on redesigning plastic products, recycling and reuse, sometimes referred to as circularity. Chris Jahn, International Council of Chemical Associations secretariat, said negotiators should focus on ending plastic waste in the environment, not plastic production, to get a deal. Many countries wont join a treaty if it includes production caps, he said.To continue to progress and grow as a global economy, there are going to be more plastics, Jahn added.So we should strive then to keep those plastics in the economy and out of the environment, Jahn said.The United States delegation at first said countries should develop their own plans to act, a position viewed as favoring industry. It changed its position this summer, saying the U.S. is open to considering global targets for reductions in plastic production.Environmental groups accused the U.S. of backtracking as negotiations approached.Center for Coalfield Justice executive director Sarah Martik said the United States is standing on the sidelines rather than leading, putting their thumb on the scale throughout the entirety of the negotiations. She hopes this does not derail other countries ambition.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a national strategy to prevent plastic pollution Thursday, but Martik said she thinks too many of the measures are voluntary to make a difference.Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, said its a mistake for the United States to settle for the lowest common denominator proposals, just to get some kind of agreement.Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the committee chair from Ecuador, recently proposed text for sections where he thinks the delegations could agree.The production and use of plastics globally is set to reach 736 million tons by 2040, up 70% from 2020, without policy changes, according to the intergovernmental Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.Research published in Science this month found it is still possible to nearly end plastic pollution. The policies that make the most difference are: mandating new products be made with 40% post-consumer recycled plastic; limiting new plastic production to 2020 levels; investing significantly in plastic waste management, such as landfills and waste collection services and implementing a small fee on plastic packaging.The treaty is the only way to solve plastic pollution at this scale, said Douglas McCauley, professor at UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley. McCauley co-led the research.Margaret Spring, chief conservation and science officer for Monterey Bay Aquarium, said plastic pollution used to be considered largely a waste problem. Now it is widely viewed as an existential crisis that must be addressed, said Spring, who represents the International Science Council at the negotiations.Ive never seen peoples understanding of this issue move as fast, given how complex the topic is, she said. It gives me hope that we can actually start moving the dial.The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press