How Biden’s spending plans address the UN’s dire climate warning

The world’s leading climate scientists on Monday delivered their starkest warning yet about the deepening climate emergency, with some of the changes already set in motion thought to be “irreversible” for centuries to come.

A highly anticipated report by the U.N.’s climate panel warns that limiting global warming to close to 1.5 degrees Celsius or even 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels “will be beyond reach” in the next two decades without immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

To be sure, the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold is a crucial global target because beyond this level, so-called tipping points become more likely. Tipping points refer to an irreversible change in the climate system, locking in further global heating.

Sharp post-pandemic price increases in some parts of the economy appear to be fading, but rent is one area in which inflation is expected to stick around.

The consumer price index rose 0.5% in July, well below the 0.9% pace in June. Core consumer prices, excluding food and energy, rose 0.3% last month, shy of economists’ expectations for a 0.4% gain. Year-over-year, the CPI rose 5.4% year-over-year in July, the same as June.

Economists say there are signs the spike in inflation is temporary, as Federal Reserve officials have contended. But one big part of consumers’ out-of-pocket expenditures is rent, and that is expected to rise well into the future.

Private sector reports show double-digit increases in rents across the U.S. this year, but the consumer price index actually showed a slight moderation in rental price gains in July. Economists say that should change as the Bureau of Labor Statistics data catches up, and the increases should be enough to keep the debate going about whether rising inflation is temporary.

A person claiming to be the hacker behind one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists of all time says the theft was done “for fun.”

More than $600 million worth of crypto was stolen in the cyberattack, which targeted a decentralized finance platform called Poly Network.

Decentralized finance is a fast-growing space within the crypto industry that aims to reproduce traditional financial products like loans and trading without the involvement of any middlemen.

While it has attracted billions of dollars in investment, the DeFi space has also given rise to new hacks and scams. For example, a token backed by billionaire investor Mark Cuban recently dropped from $60 to several thousandths of a cent in an apparent “bank run.