Climate-threatened Pacific Islands criticize Australia at Commonwealth meeting

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Climate-threatened Pacific Islands criticize Australia at Commonwealth meeting

2024-10-24 15:34 Last Updated At：15:41

APIA, Samoa (AP) — Several Pacific island nations singled out Australia to do more to phase out fossil fuel exports during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which opened in Samoa on Thursday.

Tuvalu’s Prime Minister, Feleti Teo, alongside senior officials from Vanuatu and Fiji, backed a new report from the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, which highlights the significant role Australia, Canada and the U.K. play in global emissions.

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Britain's King Charles III, second left, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

King Charles III drinks kava, locally known as "ava," as Queen Camilla looks on during an ava ceremony to welcome royals at Moata village in Samoa's capital Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, right, accepts a cup of kava, locally known as "ava," as Queen Camilla looks on during an ava ceremony to welcome royals at Moata village in Samoa's capital Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, second left in front, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, center, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Queen Camilla, right, talks with Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Women's Forum side-event in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Queen Camilla, left, attends the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Women's Forum side-event in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, center, and Queen Camilla, second left, meet with Head of State of the Independent State of Samoa Tuimaleali'ifano Va'aleto'a Sualauvi II, right, during a welcome ceremony at the National University of Samoa in Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, attends a State Banquet during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, center, is assisted by Assistant Secretary General of the Commonwealth Luis Franceschi, left, at the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, left, and CHOGM Secretary General Patricia Scotland during the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Samoa's Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mata'afa speaks during the State Banquet during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

Samoan Deputy Prime Minister Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio, left, welcomes Prime Minister of Tuvalu Feleti Teo to the official welcome reception for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Delegates attend the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

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Britain's King Charles III, second left, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

King Charles III drinks kava, locally known as "ava," as Queen Camilla looks on during an ava ceremony to welcome royals at Moata village in Samoa's capital Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, right, accepts a cup of kava, locally known as "ava," as Queen Camilla looks on during an ava ceremony to welcome royals at Moata village in Samoa's capital Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, second left in front, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, center, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Queen Camilla, right, talks with Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Women's Forum side-event in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Queen Camilla, left, attends the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Women's Forum side-event in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, center, and Queen Camilla, second left, meet with Head of State of the Independent State of Samoa Tuimaleali'ifano Va'aleto'a Sualauvi II, right, during a welcome ceremony at the National University of Samoa in Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, attends a State Banquet during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, center, is assisted by Assistant Secretary General of the Commonwealth Luis Franceschi, left, at the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, left, and CHOGM Secretary General Patricia Scotland during the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Samoa's Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mata'afa speaks during the State Banquet during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

Samoan Deputy Prime Minister Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio, left, welcomes Prime Minister of Tuvalu Feleti Teo to the official welcome reception for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Delegates attend the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

The report said that fossil fuels extracted in the three nations were responsible for 60% of emissions generated by such extraction across Commonwealth countries since 1990, even though they represent only 6% of the Commonwealth’s population.

The report’s findings also point to a “stark imbalance in fossil fuel extraction” and criticize the contradictions between the climate pledges made by these countries and their ongoing efforts to expand fossil fuel production, especially in Australia and Canada.

Pacific leaders have long warned that continued fossil fuel reliance threatens the very existence of their nations, many of which consist of low-lying islands that could be partly or wholly submerged by rising sea levels.

Teo, who earlier this year ratified a treaty with Australia to strengthen migration and security ties between the two countries as well as climate change mitigation, intensified his calls for Australia to phase out fossil fuel production, warning that current policies by major polluters amount to a “death sentence” for his nation.

“My view of that commitment is that Australia … is highly morally obliged to ensure that whatever action it does will not compromise the commitment it has provided in terms of climate impact,” Teo said at a press conference in Apia, the capital of Samoa.

“On that platform I’m hoping we’ll be able to leverage Australia’s support and hopefully that will translate into reducing emission levels."

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is also in Samoa, said Australia is tackling the “big task” of transitioning its economy to net zero emissions, but cannot be held responsible for emissions from coal and gas exported to other countries.

Wong said that the “vast majority” of new coal-fired power plants are being built in China and other developing nations.

“Australia has to reduce its emissions, but the whole world — if we are going to combat sea level rise, temperature rising — the whole world will have to peak and reduce emissions,” she said on Thursday.

It’s the first time a Pacific Island has hosted the biennial leaders’ summit and climate change is expected to occupy much of the summit’s agenda. More than half of the Commonwealth’s members are small countries like Samoa, many of them island nations among the world’s most imperiled by rising seas.

Tim Burton talks about his dread of AI as an exhibition of his work opens in London

2024-10-24 15:26 Last Updated At：15:30

LONDON (AP) — The imagination of Tim Burton has produced ghosts and ghouls, Martians, monsters and misfits — all on display at an exhibition that is opening in London just in time for Halloween.

But you know what really scares him? Artificial intelligence.

Burton said Wednesday that seeing a website that had used AI to blend his drawings with Disney characters “really disturbed me.”

“It wasn’t an intellectual thought — it was just an internal, visceral feeling,” Burton told reporters during a preview of “The World of Tim Burton” exhibition at London’s Design Museum. “I looked at those things and I thought, ‘Some of these are pretty good.’ … (But) it gave me a weird sort of scary feeling inside.”

Burton said he thinks AI is unstoppable, because “once you can do it, people will do it.” But he scoffed when asked if he’d use the technology in this work.

“To take over the world?” he laughed.

The exhibition reveals Burton to be an analogue artist, who started off as a child in the 1960s experimenting with paints and colored pencils in his suburban Californian home.

“I wasn’t, early on, a very verbal person,” Burton said. “Drawing was a way of expressing myself.”

Decades later, after films including “Edward Scissorhands,” “Batman,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Beetlejuice,” his ideas still begin with drawing. The exhibition includes 600 items from movie studio collections and Burton's personal archive, and traces those ideas as they advance from sketches through collaboration with set, production and costume designers on the way to the big screen.

London is the exhibition’s final stop on a decade-long tour of 14 cities in 11 countries. It has been reconfigured and expanded with 90 new objects for its run in the British capital, where Burton has lived for a quarter century.

The show includes early drawings and oddities, including a competition-winning “crush litter” sign a teenage Burton designed for Burbank garbage trucks. There’s also a recreation of Burton’s studio, down to the trays of paints and “Curse of Frankenstein” mug full of pencils.

Alongside hundreds of drawings, there are props, puppets, set designs and iconic costumes, including Johnny Depp’s “Edward Scissorhands” talons and the black latex Catwoman costume worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in “Batman Returns.”

“We had very generous access to Tim’s archive in London, stuffed full of thousands of drawings, storyboards from stop-motion films, sketches, character notes, poems,” said exhibition curator Maria McLintock. “And how to synthesize such a wide ranging and meandering career within one exhibition was a fun challenge — but definitely a challenge.”

Seeing it has not been a wholly fun experience for Burton, who said he’s unable to look too closely at the items on display.

“It’s like seeing your dirty laundry put on the walls,” he said. “It’s quite amazing. It’s a bit overwhelming.”

Burton, whose long-awaited horror-comedy sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” opened at the Venice Film Festival in August, is currently filming the second series of Netflix’ Addams Family-themed series “Wednesday.”

These days he is a major Hollywood director whose American gothic style has spawned an adjective — “Burtoneqsue.” But he still feels like an outsider.

“Once you feel that way, it never leaves you,” he said.

“Each film I did was a struggle,” he added, noting that early films like “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” from 1985 and “Beetlejuice” in 1988 received some negative reviews. “It seems like it was a pleasant, fine, easy journey, but each one leaves its emotional scars.”

McLintock said Burton “is a deeply emotional filmmaker."

“I think that’s what drew me to his films as a child,” she said. "He really celebrates the misunderstood outcast, the benevolent monster. So it’s been quite a weird but fun experience spending so much time in his brain and his creative process.

“His films are often called dark,” she added. “I don’t agree with that. And if they are dark, there’s a very much a kind of hope in the darkness. You always want to hang out in the darkness in his films.”

“The World of Tim Burton” opens Friday and runs until April 21, 2025.

Associated Press journalist Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this story.

This story has corrected that the Catwoman costume is from “Batman Returns,” not “Batman.”

Climate-threatened Pacific Islands criticize Australia at Commonwealth meeting

News

Climate-threatened Pacific Islands criticize Australia at Commonwealth meeting

Britain's King Charles III, second left, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

King Charles III drinks kava, locally known as "ava," as Queen Camilla looks on during an ava ceremony to welcome royals at Moata village in Samoa's capital Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, right, accepts a cup of kava, locally known as "ava," as Queen Camilla looks on during an ava ceremony to welcome royals at Moata village in Samoa's capital Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, second left in front, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, center, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Queen Camilla, right, talks with Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Women's Forum side-event in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Queen Camilla, left, attends the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Women's Forum side-event in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, attends a State Banquet during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, center, is assisted by Assistant Secretary General of the Commonwealth Luis Franceschi, left, at the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, left, and CHOGM Secretary General Patricia Scotland during the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Samoa's Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mata'afa speaks during the State Banquet during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

Samoan Deputy Prime Minister Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio, left, welcomes Prime Minister of Tuvalu Feleti Teo to the official welcome reception for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Delegates attend the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Britain's King Charles III, second left, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

King Charles III drinks kava, locally known as "ava," as Queen Camilla looks on during an ava ceremony to welcome royals at Moata village in Samoa's capital Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, right, accepts a cup of kava, locally known as "ava," as Queen Camilla looks on during an ava ceremony to welcome royals at Moata village in Samoa's capital Apia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, second left in front, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, center, visits the Mangrove Restoration Project at Moata'a Village in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Queen Camilla, right, talks with Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Women's Forum side-event in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Queen Camilla, left, attends the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Women's Forum side-event in Apia, Samoa Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Manaui Faulalo/Pool Photo via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, attends a State Banquet during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, center, is assisted by Assistant Secretary General of the Commonwealth Luis Franceschi, left, at the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, left, and CHOGM Secretary General Patricia Scotland during the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Samoa's Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mata'afa speaks during the State Banquet during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (William West/Pool Photo via AP)

Samoan Deputy Prime Minister Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio, left, welcomes Prime Minister of Tuvalu Feleti Teo to the official welcome reception for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

Delegates attend the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool)

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