Vox Sentences: The US-China climate deal is a BFD

1. The deal to save the planet

Chinese adults wear masks on a smoggy day near Tiananmen Square October 19, 2014 in Beijing, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

• The US and China have reached a historic deal to limit greenhouse gas admissions.

  [White House / John Podesta and John Holdren]

• The details: the US commits to cutting emission by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025, and China commits to having emissions peak in 2030 and to boost non-fossil fuels to 20 percent of the country's energy.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• Obama will probably have to implement his end entirely through executive action, since the Republican Congress is already denouncing the plan.

  [Washington Post / Philip Bump]

• The Chinese end of this represents a far bigger emissions reduction (or, rather, prevented emissions growth).

  [Council on Foreign Relations / Michael Levi]

• But the deal is non-binding, and a binding agreement needs to be worked out through the UN next year. Here's why the UN process has been failing so far.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• China was getting more serious about emissions on its own, since health problems from pollution are a big political problem domestically, which aided the deal's chances.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• Max Fisher: "Obama's climate deal proves China is the biggest foreign policy success of his presidency."

  [Vox / Max Fisher]

• Senate Democrats aren't as enthusiastic about action on climate change, and are moving for a lame duck vote to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

  [New Republic / Rebecca Leber]

• For years, opponents of climate change regulations have cited China's refusal to reduce their emissions as a reason to not reduce the US's — which will be a hard claim to make now.

  [Mother Jones / James West]

2. Russian troops in Ukraine

A tank operated by pro-Russia rebels is driven down Artena in the direction of the central railway station on July 21, 2014 in Donetsk, Ukraine. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

• Russian troops and tanks are coming into Ukraine, according to NATO sources.

  [NYT / David Herszenhorn]

• Possible motives: pro-Western parties sweeping elections in Ukraine, failures of pro-Russian rebels already there, worries about losing control over those rebels, and concern about losing Crimea.

  [Businessweek / Carol Matlack]

• The US called an emergency UN Security Council meeting in response, with ambassador Samantha Power stating that Russia "talks of peace, but it keeps fueling war."

  [AP]

• This breaks the ceasefire in the region, but Julia Ioffe and Linda Kinstler argue the ceasefire was never real to begin with.

  [New Republic / Julia Ioffe and Linda Kinstler]

• Meanwhile, Ukraine's economy appears to be on the brink of collapse.

  [CNBC / Michelle Caruso-Cabrera]

3. Philae lands

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, about to (hopefully) become the first to make contact with a human-made spacecraft. (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA via Getty Images)

• Philae is the first human-made spacecraft to ever to successfully land on a comet.

  [USA Today / Traci Watson]

• Here are the first photos in human history of the surface of a comet.

  [Vox / Susannah Locke]

• Here are the basics of how the spacecraft worked, and why landing on comets is so hard.

  [Vox / Joseph Stromberg]

• xkcd live-cartooned the landing.

  [xkcd / Randall Monroe]

• The mission cost about half what the US midterm elections cost.

  [Vox / Joseph Stromberg]

4. Ebola update

Ebola is stopped in the US. But it continues to take lives in West Africa. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

• Soon after beating its first Ebola outbreak, Mali has another one on its hands.

  [NYT / Donald McNeil]

• The Ebola death toll is now officially above 5,000.

  [CBS / AP]

• The US is scaling back its troop deployment to Liberia, which is intended to help combat the disease.

  [NBC News / Jim Miklaszewski and Tony Capra]

5. Misc.

• There is perhaps no harder test in the world than The Knowledge, the test for becoming a London cab driver — and Uber could soon make it obsolete.

  [NYT / Jody Rosen]

• At least 10 people have been executed in the US against the wishes of the juries that convicted them.

  [New Yorker / Paige Williams]

• Here's a Sesame Street short that was so dark it was kept under wraps for decades.

  [Dangerous Minds / Amber Frost]

• A neat electronics kit lets you play everyday objects like instruments — hitting your cat's head could be an F#, say.

  [The Atlantic / Chris Heller]

• Poppies are an important symbol on Armistice Day in Britain, and are often embroidered on players' jerseys. One player refused — out of respect for Irish civilians killed by the British military.

  [Washington Post / Ishaan Tharoor]

• 28 philosophers name the most important books of their college years; Wittgenstein and Kant are the most common picks.

  [Demasiado Aire]

• Will Chris Christie veto a bill to help pigs — to help himself win Iowa?

  [The Atlantic / Conor Friedersdorf]

6. Verbatim

• "Everything bad that can happen to Bart, happens to Milhouse — but it’s always just a little bit worse."

  [The Toast / Mallory Ortberg]

• "I can't imagine that either a President Spacey [on House of Cards] or the president’s chief of staff on ‘Scandal’ could really get away with murder. I wish I’d known about that when I was in office … You know, think of all the opportunities I've missed … so many people had it coming."

  [Bill Clinton via Washington Post / Nia-Malika Henderson]

• "I really wanted some Chicken Express, and she was like, ‘Hey, we should get some Chicken Express tomorrow.’ And we actually ended up getting Chicken Express the next day."

  [Alex Lee ("Alex from Target") to NYT / Nick Bilton]

• "It also offers salads, which visitors can purchase from a futuristic-looking vending machine."

  [The Atlantic / Olga Khazan]

• "I suspect, in the long run, the media bias against incremental progress may be more damaging than any bias the media display toward the political left or right."

  [CNN / Steve Johnson]

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