Biden, Trump to Meet in White House on Wednesday

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on November 07, 2024 shows US President Joe Biden (L) addresses the nation from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, November 7, 2024, after Donald Trump wins presidential election, and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) attends a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by SAUL LOEB and JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP)
(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on November 07, 2024 shows US President Joe Biden (L) addresses the nation from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, November 7, 2024, after Donald Trump wins presidential election, and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) attends a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by SAUL LOEB and JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP)
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Biden, Trump to Meet in White House on Wednesday

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on November 07, 2024 shows US President Joe Biden (L) addresses the nation from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, November 7, 2024, after Donald Trump wins presidential election, and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) attends a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by SAUL LOEB and JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP)
(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on November 07, 2024 shows US President Joe Biden (L) addresses the nation from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, November 7, 2024, after Donald Trump wins presidential election, and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) attends a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by SAUL LOEB and JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP)

US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump will meet on Wednesday at the White House on Biden's invitation, a White House spokesperson said on Saturday.

Trump will take office on Jan. 20 after defeating current Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

"At President Biden’s invitation, President Biden and President-elect Trump will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Biden had initially sought reelection but dropped out of the race in July after a disastrous debate against Trump.



Pay up or Face Climate-Led Disaster for Humanity, UN Chief Warns COP29 Summit

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)
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Pay up or Face Climate-Led Disaster for Humanity, UN Chief Warns COP29 Summit

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders at the COP29 summit on Tuesday to "pay up" to prevent climate-led humanitarian disasters, and said time was running out to limit a destructive rise in global temperatures.

Nearly 200 nations have gathered at the annual UN climate summit in Baku, focused this year on raising hundreds of billions of dollars to fund a global transition to cleaner energy sources and limit the climate damage caused by carbon emissions.

But on the day of the summit designed to bring together world leaders and generate political momentum for the marathon negotiations, many of the leading players were not present to hear Guterres' message. After victory for Donald Trump, a climate change denier, in the US presidential election, President Joe Biden will not attend. Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a deputy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is not attending because of political developments in Brussels.

"On climate finance, the world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price," Guterres said in a speech. "The sound you hear is the ticking clock. We are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and time is not on our side."

This year is set to be the hottest on record. Scientists say evidence shows global warming and its impacts are unfolding faster than expected and the world may already have hit 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 F) of warming above the average pre-industrial temperature - a critical threshold beyond which it is at risk of irreversible and extreme climate change.

As COP29 began, unusual east coast US wildfires that triggered air quality warnings for New York continued to grow. In Spain, survivors are coming to terms with the worst floods in the country's modern history and the Spanish government has announced billions of euros for reconstruction.