| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Friday, November 5, 2021 by Linda Noakes and Katy Daigle | Hello Here's what you need to know. Pfizer's antiviral pill cuts the risk of severe COVID-19 by 89%, young climate activists take to the streets at COP26, and could Ethiopia's capital fall? | | | | | Today's biggest stories  COP26 After a frantic week of nonstop pledges and announcements, national delegates will cede the stage at the U.N. climate conference to youth activists and civic groups.
Recognizing the impact that climate campaigners have had on raising public understanding of climate change, world leaders have praised the influence of youth activists Vanessa Nakate of Uganda and Greta Thunberg of Sweden in the run-up to the Glasgow summit.
The two are expected to join other students in a protest by the Fridays for Future movement, not far from where activists have towed a giant iceberg from Greenland to Glasgow’s River Clyde.
The day will feature presentations, panels and exhibitions by civic activists groups showcasing how they are helping vulnerable populations around the world.
With the looming question of whether the Paris Agreement goal of holding global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius was still possible, U.S. Vice President Al Gore and UK COP26 President Alok Sharma will sit down with civil society leaders to discuss progress made so far at the Glasgow summit - and more importantly, what still needs to be done over the next week of negotiations.
The IEA chief Fatih Birol surprised many at COP26 by saying pledges made so far during the conference – if all implemented – could potentially hold warming to 1.8 C. The announcement worried climate experts and irked U.N. negotiators, who emphasized that the policies pledged by governments still put the world on track for 2.7 C of warming.
See our full coverage of COP26
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U.S.
A trial of Pfizer's experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 has been stopped early after the drug was shown to cut by 89% the chances of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of developing severe disease. Pfizer said it plans to submit interim trial results for its pill to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of the emergency use application it opened in October.
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote today on the social policy and climate-change bill and a bipartisan infrastructure bill that form the centerpiece of President Joe Biden's legislative agenda.
The Manhattan district attorney has convened another grand jury to weigh possible new charges in a case involving the Trump Organization, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Texas over a state law that places strict curbs on voting by mail, in the latest effort by the Biden administration to combat new voting restrictions being enacted in Republican-controlled states across the nation.
In a trial that will scrutinize citizen's arrest laws, an almost all-white Georgia jury will hear opening arguments in the case of three white men accused of chasing down and killing Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery, who they say they suspected was a burglar.
WORLD
Nine anti-government factions will form an alliance to push for a political transition in Ethiopia, two of the groups said, piling more pressure on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Rebellious forces from the Tigray region have pushed to within a day's drive of the capital Addis Ababa and are threatening to march on the city of 5 million people.
China will make people who support Taiwan independence criminally liable for life, a spokeswoman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office said. This is the first time that China has spelt out concretely punishment for people deemed to be pro-Taiwan independence, as tensions rise between the mainland and the self-ruled island China claims as its own.
The morning after Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, residents of New Delhi woke up under a blanket of toxic smog and breathed in the most dangerously polluted air of the year so far, after revelers defied a fireworks ban.
Poland said a Belarusian soldier tried to fire flares at Polish border troops and others tried to tear down fencing along the frontier amid rising tension over a wave of migrants trying to reach European Union territory from Belarus.
Spanish police have broken up a gang that trafficked hundreds of migrants across the Balkans into the European Union concealed in trucks in inhumane conditions, authorities said.
| | | | | | | | | Video of the day  NASA unveils spacecraft that targets asteroids The space agency introduced its first planetary defense test mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, a spacecraft it plans to launch later this month on a mission to crash into an asteroid. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
