Inter routs Verona 5-0 with a brace from Thuram to take provisional lead in Serie A

ROME (AP) — Marcus Thuram scored twice and defending champion Inter Milan routed Hellas Verona 5-0 to take the provisional Serie A lead on Saturday.

Inter moved two points clear of Napoli, which hosts Roma on Sunday with a chance to reclaim the lead. Atalanta could also move level on points with Inter with a victory at Parma later.

Inter was missing top striker Lautaro Martinez, who was out sick. But five goals in the first half made Lautaro’s absence a non-issue.

Joaquin Correa opened the scoring 17 minutes in, Thuram then scored twice before more goals from Stefan de Vrij and Yann Aurel Bisseck.

Correa nearly added another in second-half stoppage time but his effort hit the woodwork.

Inter's only loss across all competitions this season was a derby defeat to AC Milan in September.

Milan was hosting Juventus later.

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Inter Milan's Stefan de Vrij, left, celebrates scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Hellas Verona and Inter Milan at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium, in Verona, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Paola Garbuio/LaPresse via AP)

Inter Milan's Joaquin Correa celebrates scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Hellas Verona and Inter Milan at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium, in Verona, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Paola Garbuio/LaPresse via AP)

Inter Milan's Joaquin Correa celebrates scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Hellas Verona and Inter Milan at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium, in Verona, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Paola Garbuio/LaPresse via AP)

Inter Milan's Marcus Thuram, left, celebrates scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Hellas Verona and Inter Milan at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium, in Verona, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Paola Garbuio/LaPresse via AP)

Inter Milan's Joaquin Correa celebrates scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Hellas Verona and Inter Milan at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium, in Verona, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Paola Garbuio/LaPresse via AP)

Inter Milan's Marcus Thuram, left, celebrates with his teammate Joaquin Correa after scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Hellas Verona and Inter Milan at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium, in Verona, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Paola Garbuio/LaPresse via AP)

Inter Milan's Marcus Thuram scores during the Serie A soccer match between Hellas Verona and Inter Milan at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium, in Verona, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Paola Garbuio/LaPresse via AP)

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Splintered and rudderless after developing nations rejected what they called too little money to deal with climate change, United Nations talks dissolved into factions Saturday.

As workers began to dismantle the furnishings of the climate conference called COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, negotiators went from one big room where everyone tried to hash out a deal together into several separate huddles of upset nations. Hallway talk oscillated between hope for shuttle diplomacy to bridge the gap and kicking the can down the road to sometime next year. Negotiators and analysts had mostly given up hope that the host presidency would get the job done.

It's a fight about big money, but the question dividing them is: Is it big enough?

Developing nations and United Nations reports say there's a need for $1.3 trillion to help adapt to droughts, floods, rising seas and extreme heat, pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather, and transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy. The number would replace an $100 billion-a-year deal for climate cash that's expiring.

After an initial proposal of $250 billion a year was soundly rejected, the Azerbaijan presidency brewed up a new rough draft of $300 billion, that was never formally presented, but also dismissed roundly by African nations and small island states, according to messages relayed from inside. Then a group of negotiators from the Least Developed Countries bloc and the Alliance of Small Island States left the room.

The “current deal is unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do,” Evans Njewa, the chair of the LDC group, said. When asked if the walkout was a protest, Colombia environment minister Susana Mohamed told The Associated Press: “I would call this dissatisfaction, (we are) highly dissatisfied."

With tensions high, climate activists heckled United States climate envoy John Podesta as he left the meeting room. They accused the U.S. of not paying its fair share and having “a legacy of burning up the planet.”

The one thing uniting the separate rooms was unhappiness with the way the presidency was running the conference, especially developing nations who said they felt ignored.

There's “incredible anger and frustration toward the presidency and the way it behaved,” said longtime conference veteran analyst Alden Meyer of the European think tank E3G.

The meeting is already one day past its scheduled end date and the longer it goes the higher the chance that enough delegates will leave that it will not have a quorum to continue, which happened to the biodiversity COP last month in Cali, Colombia.

Meyer said there is still hope that someone can bridge the gap between the separate parties, find common ground and then hand the presidency a compromise on a sliver platter.

If not, there's two possibilities, Meyer said. One is that the meeting could be adjourned temporarily until next January — before Donald Trump takes power in the United States. And the other is that some kind of small agreement — not on finance — could be made and everything financial gets pushed to next year's COP in Belem, Brazil. But that meeting is already jam-packed with importance because it's when the world is supposed to increase its carbon pollution-cutting efforts.

Teresa Anderson, the global lead on climate justice at Action Aid, said that in order to get a deal, “the presidency has to put something far better on the table.”

Speaking late Sunday, Adonia Ayebare, the chair of the G77 and China negotiating bloc, said the group was still consulting.

"The process is in the hands of the presidency,” he said.

Developing countries accused the rich of trying to get their way — and a small financial aid package — via a war of attrition.

After bidding one of his suitcase-lugging delegation colleagues goodbye and watching the contingent of about 20 enter the meeting room for the European Union, Panama chief negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez had enough.

“Every minute that passes we are going to just keep getting weaker and weaker and weaker. They don’t have that issue. They have massive delegations,” Gomez said. “This is what they always do. They break us at the last minute. You know, they push it and push it and push it until our negotiators leave. Until we’re tired, until we’re delusional from not eating, from not sleeping.”

With developing nations' ministers and delegation chiefs having to catch flights home, desperation sets in, said Power Shift Africa's Mohamed Adow. “The risk is if developing countries don’t hold the line, they will likely be forced to compromise and accept a goal that doesn’t add up to get the job done," he said.

Monterrey Gomez said the developing world has since asked for finance deal of $500 billion up to 2030 — a shortened timeframe than the 2035 date. “We’re still yet to hear reaction from the developed side,” he said.

Ali Mohamed, the chair of the African Group of Negotiators said the bloc “are prepared to reach agreement here in Baku ... but we are not prepared to accept things that cross our red lines.”

But despite the fractures between nations, several still held out hopes for the talks. “We remain optimistic,” said Nabeel Munir of Pakistan, who chairs one of the talks' standing negotiating committees.

The Alliance of Small Island States said in a statement that they want to continue to engage in the talks, as long as the process is inclusive. “If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement," the statement said.

"A lot of countries and delegates, they are preparing for a bad outcome,” said Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, adding that he doesn’t want to prejudge the outcome. “There is indeed a great sense of uncertainty and anxiety in the corridors.”

Monterrey Gomez said there needs to be a deal.

“If we don’t get a deal I think it will be a fatal wound to this process, to the planet, to people,” he said.

Associated Press journalists Ahmed Hatem, Aleksandar Furtula and Joshua A. Bickel contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Yalchin Rafiyev, Azerbaijan's COP29 lead negotiator, gestures as he walks through the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Susana Muhamad, environment minister of Colombia, speaks to members of the media during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Panama Climate Envoy Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez speaks to members of the media during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, walks through a crowd during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Activists participate in a demonstration at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Jennifer Morgan, Germany climate envoy, right, and Joanna MacGregor, senior advisor for U.N. climate change, talk near Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, bottom left, in a meeting room at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attends a news conference at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

ADDDS NAME Activist Gina Marcela Cortes Valderrama, center, participates in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Activist Harjeet Singh holds a sign as he attends a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

An activists participates in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Jennifer Morgan, Germany climate envoy, speaks in a hallway during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, walks in the hallway during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Panama Climate Envoy Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez speaks to members of the media at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Marina Silva, Brazil environment minister, stands near a sign for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, center right, and U.S. Deputy Climate Envoy Sue Biniaz, center, walk outside the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A member of security stands with the Baku Olympic Stadium in the background during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Attendees pull luggage as they walk into the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Australia Climate Minister Chris Bowen, center, walks through a hallway at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

U.S. Deputy Climate Envoy Sue Biniaz, right, and Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate commissioner, second from right, walk out of an elevator during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, right, walks through the hallways of the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

People sleep in the Chinese delegation offices at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Activists demonstrate in silence protesting a draft of a proposed deal for curbing climate change at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)