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Rich countries' promise of $300 billion a year in climate finance brought fury at talks in Baku from poor nations that found it too paltry, but it also shows a shift in global political realities. The two-week marathon COP29 climate conference opened days after the decisive victory in the US presidential election of Donald Trump, a sceptic both of climate change and foreign aid. In the new year, Germany, Canada and Australia all hold elections in which conservatives less supportive of green policies stand chances of victory. Britain is an exception, with the new Labour government putting climate high back on the agenda, but in much of the West, concerns about inflation and budgetary shocks from Russia's invasion of Ukraine have dented enthusiasm for aggressive climate measures. At COP29, Germany and the European Union maintained their roles championing climate but also advocated a noticeably practical approach on how much money historical polluters should give poorer countries. "We live in a time of truly challenging geopolitics, and we should simply not have the illusion" otherwise, European climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told bleary-eyed delegates at COP29's pre-dawn closing session Sunday, as activists in the back loudly coughed to drown him out. But he vowed leadership by Europe, hailing COP29 as "the start of a new era for climate finance". German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a Green party member and longtime climate advocate, called for flexibility on ways to provide funding. Europe should "live up to its responsibilities, but in a way that it doesn't make promises it can't keep", she said. Avinash Persaud, special advisor on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, called the final deal "the boundary between what is politically achievable today in developed countries and what would make a difference in developing countries". Activists say that climate funding is a duty, not choice, for wealthy nations whose decades of greenhouse gas emissions most contributed to the crisis that most hits the poorest. This year is again set to be the hottest on record on the planet. Just since COP29, deadly storms have battered the Philippines and Honduras, and Ecuador declared a national emergency due to drought and forest fires. Wealthy historic emitters' promise of $300 billion a year by 2035 is a step up from an expiring commitment of $100 billion annually, but all sides acknowledge it is not enough. The COP29 agreement cites the need for $1.3 trillion per year, meaning a whopping $1 trillion a year needs to come from elsewhere. Even within the $300 billion commitment, some activists see too much wiggle room. "It is, to some extent, almost an empty promise," said Mariana Paoli, the global advocacy lead at London-based development group Christian Aid. She described the target as "creative accounting", saying there was not enough clarity on how much money would come from public funds and in grants rather than loans. She acknowledged the politics of the moment but said that wealthy nations had options such as taxation on fossil fuel companies. "There is a backlash because there is no political will," she said. In one closely scrutinised part of the Baku deal, countries will be able to count climate finance through international financial institutions toward the $300 billion goal. The text states that it is "voluntary" -- potentially opening the way to include China, which is the world's largest emitter but refuses to have requirements like long-developed countries. In a joint statement at COP29, multilateral development banks led by the Washington-based World Bank Group but also including the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank -- which has long faced US criticism -- expected that they together can provide $120 billion annually in climate financing and mobilise another $65 billion from the private sector by 2030. Melanie Robinson, director of the global climate program at the World Resources Institute, said there were good reasons to rely on multinational development banks, including how much capital they can leverage and their tools to advance green policies. "They are the most effective way to turn each dollar of finance into impact on the ground," she said. She agreed that the $300 billion was insufficient but added, "It's a down payment on what we need." Beyond the debate on dollar figures, she pointed to an initiative within the G20 by Brazil, which holds COP30 next year, to reform financial institutions so as to incorporate debtor nations as well as climate concerns. "There is really a much bigger opportunity for us -- which is shifting the whole financial system," she said. sct/givIbadan stampede: Abiodun visits Makinde, calls for NGOs’ collaboration with government in palliative distributionIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashes Labor over synagogue fire

LOS ANGELES — When Mark Delgado made his MLS debut, he was just 17 and even he acknowledges his approach to soccer was unsophisticated. "Just being a young kid and running around," he said. Fortunately for Delgado, his team, the now-defunct Chivas USA, had a rookie assistant coach named Greg Vanney. And while Vanney could do little for the unfocused teenager in their season together, he remembered Delgado and made him the first player he acquired after taking over as manager of Toronto FC in 2014. Seven years later, after moving to the Galaxy, Vanney spent $500,000 on another reunion with Delgado, who this season notched career highs for games (32), starts (29) and assists (nine, including two in the playoffs). And with playmaker Riqui Puig sidelined because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament, Delgado figures to play an even bigger role in Saturday's MLS Cup final with the New York Red Bulls at Dignity Health Sports Park. And for that he has the coach to thank — not just for the faith in him, but also for the mentoring Vanney has done along the way, taking Delgado from a talented if wild teenager and molding him into a player and person so stable and disciplined that the coach called him "the great balancer." "To really talk things out with Greg and really study film, I became more of a thinker, right?" said Delgado, 29. "I guess you can say it's gained his trust. Eventually things worked out." Delgado is not the only player who has benefited from a relationship with Vanney. In fact, for all the attention the coach's technical and strategic acumen has received, those personal connections off the field have become an equally important factor in what has been one of the greatest turnarounds in MLS history. After winning just eight games and finishing 13th in a 14-team conference a year ago, the Galaxy will play for their sixth MLS title. After winning just two playoff games in the last eight seasons, the Galaxy have won twice that many in the last six weeks. A franchise even its own fans had given up on 19 months ago is 90 minutes away from being the best in the world's largest first-division league. And Vanney is getting much of the credit for that. "He is the reason why I came here," said forward Dejan Joveljic, who joined the Galaxy halfway through Vanney's first season in L.A. and leads the team with 20 MLS goals this year. "Of course he's a good coach. But first of all, he's a very real gentleman and I appreciate him." "He's really like a father," added winger Joseph Paintsil, who left Belgium for the Galaxy in January. "We don't need a coach who shouts and makes you angry and mad. He always comes to you as his own son to discuss with you patiently and calmly. That has really given me confidence." Vanney said his mother, Jeanette, who taught kindergarten for four decades, instilled those traits in him. "My mom was super nurturing. She was such a loving person," Vanney said. "My dad was super intense. Hard-working athletic director, former college football player. He had a fiery personality. My mom was always just very calm." Yet despite their conflicting personalities, Bill and Jeanette were married for 53 years before Jeanette died at 69, eight months before her son won his first MLS Cup as a coach with Toronto in 2017. "I feel like I have both sides of them," Vanney said. Which is to say he too can be fiery. But it's not his first option, nor his most successful one. "That my-way-or-the-highway [approach] is gone," said Dan Calichman, a teammate of Vanney's on the inaugural Galaxy roster in 1996 and his top assistant for the last decade in Toronto and Los Angeles. "We motivate and we get on these guys, but it's just so much more respectful, it's so much more valuing their knowledge. "When a player feels like he's listened to, you get the buy-in." For Vanney, it's not about coaching players. It's about coaching the holy trinity that makes up each player. "Philosophically, the way I see it, every player is actually three parts," he said, holding up both hands to tick through the traits he finds significant. "There's the person, there's the player and then there's the competitor. If you can connect with a person, they will trust you and you can drive them as much as you need to get the best out of them. If they don't think you're doing it for the right reasons and for their best interest, at some point they cut you out. "If you're a good coach and your vision matters and you care about the person, you can teach them. But I believe the most important part of that is being genuine and connecting with the person. That establishes the trust you need to really coach." That approach has worked for Vanney, whose 141 victories in 9 1/2 seasons tied him for fourth among active coaches at the end of this season. Saturday's MLS Cup final will mark his fourth appearance in the championship game; in the last quarter-century, no coach has been there more often. His 69.6% winning percentage in 23 playoffs games in second to LAFC's Steven Cherundolo, who has managed half as many games, and if the Galaxy win, Vanney will become the fourth coach in league history to win championships with two different teams. But that success wasn't the only thing that brought him back to the Galaxy. After taking Toronto to the MLS Cup final three times in four seasons, winning the only treble in league history in 2017, Vanney started to feel the club, which had a new general manager and new president, had no clear vision for the future. So despite agreeing to a contract extension late in the 2020 season, he asked out of the deal. Conversations quickly began with the Galaxy, who a month earlier had fired Guillermo Barros Schelotto, their fourth coach in as many seasons. For both sides it was a perfect fit: The rudderless Galaxy, once perennial contenders, had made just one playoff appearance in four seasons and needed stability and a proven winner while Vanney would be returning to a club whose culture he understood, having played on the first trophy-winning team in 1998. "I always wanted to come back here," said Vanney, who played three years at UCLA before signing with the Galaxy ahead of the club's inaugural season. "This has always kind of been my club, the club [to which] I felt the most attached." But the team he returned to wasn't the one he started with. In his first six seasons with the Galaxy, the team finished first in the conference four times, won Supporters' Shield, U.S. Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions League titles and played in three MLS Cup finals. In the four seasons before he came back, the Galaxy lost more games than they won, finished in the bottom half of the league table three times and made the playoffs just once. "I personally have an expectation for what the Galaxy should look like," Vanney said. "It's hard to me to see the Galaxy struggling. That's not where the Galaxy should be." The rebuild, however, was not easy. When Vanney arrived he found the team didn't have much of a sports science staff or scouting department and the academy program had been allowed to wither. Then, at the end of his first season, general manager Dennis te Kloese departed, leaving Vanney to assume his duties as well. It proved to be too much. When Vanney took the job, he had outlined a three-year plan to return the Galaxy to prominence, yet his third season was one of the worst ever, with the team winning a franchise-low eight games and giving up a franchise-high 67 goals. Along the way there was a fan boycott, the team's longtime president was fired and, for the first time, the Galaxy's leading scorer finished with fewer than eight goals. "It was embarrassing," captain Maya Yoshida said. And Yoshida was with the Galaxy for only the final three months of the turmoil. Questions were raised about whether Vanney, who was entering the final year of his contract, was still the right man for the job. So after the season mercifully ended, the coach met with Dan Beckerman, the chief executive and president of AEG, the Galaxy's parent company, and asked for help. "I said I can't do all of these things," Vanney recounted of the conversation. "I really like working with a really good GM. It's two completely different sports when you are signing players and working with agents and getting those players across the finish line and then working with those players and making them fit together on the field. "I want a GM who's challenging me to be better and asking the right questions and giving me ideas to think about. I don't know everything." Beckerman agreed and Will Kuntz, whom Vanney had hired in April as the senior vice president of player personnel, was promoted to general manager in December. When the Galaxy took the field for the first time in February, nine of the 15 players Vanney used in a season-opening draw with Inter Miami had been signed by Kuntz. Both men say the process has been a collaborative one that begins with Vanney settling on the profile of the players he wants and Kuntz and the scouting department Vanney developed scouring the globe to find them. "The dialogue always has to be there, or else you end up with pieces that don't fit," Vanney said. "Will couldn't coach the team. That's not his strength. I couldn't get anyone signed. That's not my strength. The beauty is the collaboration of the different departments. That to me is what a club is." But even after providing Vanney with what he wanted — spending a club-record $20.7 million on transfer fees for Paintsil, Gabriel Pec and Miki Yamane in just seven weeks — Kuntz figured it would take time to turn those players into a team. Instead, the Galaxy matched modern-era club records with 19 wins and 69 goals this season, were unbeaten at Dignity Health Sports Park and became the first team since 2008 to go from eight victories to the MLS Cup final in one season. "I didn't see this coming this soon. And that's all Greg," Kuntz said. "The more pieces you add to a team, the harder it is. The fact that you can do a complete squad transformation and get everyone to jell, it's very rare." Rarer still is the way Vanney had been able to use the nurturing skills his kindergarten-teacher mother taught him to get the most out of those new players. Like Pec, 23, who came to MLS from Brazil's Vasco da Gama, where he played as a wide winger in a rigid system that left little room for improvisation. With the Galaxy, Vanney encouraged him to move closer to the penalty area, take chances and play with the freedom he did on the playground. The result? Sixteen goals and 14 assists, making him the youngest players in club history to record 30 goal contributions in one season. "Everyone was really trusting, believing that I could do it," Pec said through a translator. "That gave me so much joy that I could show who I was. What we are seeing, it's Gabriel when I was a kid. It was inside me but it was asleep. [Vanney] has brought this back and suddenly I'm awake." And so, after seven seasons in hibernation, are the Galaxy. ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com . 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NoneBy HALELUYA HADERO The emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools that allow people to efficiently produce novel and detailed online reviews with almost no work has put merchants , service providers and consumers in uncharted territory, watchdog groups and researchers say. Phony reviews have long plagued many popular consumer websites, such as Amazon and Yelp. They are typically traded on private social media groups between fake review brokers and businesses willing to pay. Sometimes, such reviews are initiated by businesses that offer customers incentives such as gift cards for positive feedback. But AI-infused text generation tools, popularized by OpenAI’s ChatGPT , enable fraudsters to produce reviews faster and in greater volume, according to tech industry experts. The deceptive practice, which is illegal in the U.S. , is carried out year-round but becomes a bigger problem for consumers during the holiday shopping season , when many people rely on reviews to help them purchase gifts. Fake reviews are found across a wide range of industries, from e-commerce, lodging and restaurants, to services such as home repairs, medical care and piano lessons. The Transparency Company, a tech company and watchdog group that uses software to detect fake reviews, said it started to see AI-generated reviews show up in large numbers in mid-2023 and they have multiplied ever since. For a report released this month, The Transparency Company analyzed 73 million reviews in three sectors: home, legal and medical services. Nearly 14% of the reviews were likely fake, and the company expressed a “high degree of confidence” that 2.3 million reviews were partly or entirely AI-generated. “It’s just a really, really good tool for these review scammers,” said Maury Blackman, an investor and advisor to tech startups, who reviewed The Transparency Company’s work and is set to lead the organization starting Jan. 1. In August, software company DoubleVerify said it was observing a “significant increase” in mobile phone and smart TV apps with reviews crafted by generative AI. The reviews often were used to deceive customers into installing apps that could hijack devices or run ads constantly, the company said. The following month, the Federal Trade Commission sued the company behind an AI writing tool and content generator called Rytr, accusing it of offering a service that could pollute the marketplace with fraudulent reviews. The FTC, which this year banned the sale or purchase of fake reviews, said some of Rytr’s subscribers used the tool to produce hundreds and perhaps thousands of reviews for garage door repair companies, sellers of “replica” designer handbags and other businesses. Max Spero, CEO of AI detection company Pangram Labs, said the software his company uses has detected with almost certainty that some AI-generated appraisals posted on Amazon bubbled up to the top of review search results because they were so detailed and appeared to be well thought-out. But determining what is fake or not can be challenging. External parties can fall short because they don’t have “access to data signals that indicate patterns of abuse,” Amazon has said. Pangram Labs has done detection for some prominent online sites, which Spero declined to name due to non-disclosure agreements. He said he evaluated Amazon and Yelp independently. Many of the AI-generated comments on Yelp appeared to be posted by individuals who were trying to publish enough reviews to earn an “Elite” badge, which is intended to let users know they should trust the content, Spero said. The badge provides access to exclusive events with local business owners. Fraudsters also want it so their Yelp profiles can look more realistic, said Kay Dean, a former federal criminal investigator who runs a watchdog group called Fake Review Watch. To be sure, just because a review is AI-generated doesn’t necessarily mean its fake. Some consumers might experiment with AI tools to generate content that reflects their genuine sentiments. Some non-native English speakers say they turn to AI to make sure they use accurate language in the reviews they write. “It can help with reviews (and) make it more informative if it comes out of good intentions,” said Michigan State University marketing professor Sherry He, who has researched fake reviews. She says tech platforms should focus on the behavioral patters of bad actors, which prominent platforms already do, instead of discouraging legitimate users from turning to AI tools. Prominent companies are developing policies for how AI-generated content fits into their systems for removing phony or abusive reviews. Some already employ algorithms and investigative teams to detect and take down fake reviews but are giving users some flexibility to use AI. Spokespeople for Amazon and Trustpilot, for example, said they would allow customers to post AI-assisted reviews as long as they reflect their genuine experience. Yelp has taken a more cautious approach, saying its guidelines require reviewers to write their own copy. “With the recent rise in consumer adoption of AI tools, Yelp has significantly invested in methods to better detect and mitigate such content on our platform,” the company said in a statement. The Coalition for Trusted Reviews, which Amazon, Trustpilot, employment review site Glassdoor, and travel sites Tripadvisor, Expedia and Booking.com launched last year, said that even though deceivers may put AI to illicit use, the technology also presents “an opportunity to push back against those who seek to use reviews to mislead others.” “By sharing best practice and raising standards, including developing advanced AI detection systems, we can protect consumers and maintain the integrity of online reviews,” the group said. The FTC’s rule banning fake reviews, which took effect in October, allows the agency to fine businesses and individuals who engage in the practice. Tech companies hosting such reviews are shielded from the penalty because they are not legally liable under U.S. law for the content that outsiders post on their platforms. Tech companies, including Amazon, Yelp and Google, have sued fake review brokers they accuse of peddling counterfeit reviews on their sites. The companies say their technology has blocked or removed a huge swath of suspect reviews and suspicious accounts. However, some experts say they could be doing more. “Their efforts thus far are not nearly enough,” said Dean of Fake Review Watch. “If these tech companies are so committed to eliminating review fraud on their platforms, why is it that I, one individual who works with no automation, can find hundreds or even thousands of fake reviews on any given day?” Consumers can try to spot fake reviews by watching out for a few possible warning signs , according to researchers. Overly enthusiastic or negative reviews are red flags. Jargon that repeats a product’s full name or model number is another potential giveaway. When it comes to AI, research conducted by Balázs Kovács, a Yale professor of organization behavior, has shown that people can’t tell the difference between AI-generated and human-written reviews. Some AI detectors may also be fooled by shorter texts, which are common in online reviews, the study said. However, there are some “AI tells” that online shoppers and service seekers should keep it mind. Panagram Labs says reviews written with AI are typically longer, highly structured and include “empty descriptors,” such as generic phrases and attributes. The writing also tends to include cliches like “the first thing that struck me” and “game-changer.”None

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