UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world to raise its ambition in implementing the Paris climate agreement as the United States weighed pulling out of the landmark emissions-cutting deal.    

Making his first address on climate since taking the UN helm five months ago, Guterres said it was “absolutely essential” the world implements the 2015 agreement “with increased ambition”.    

The United States is among the 147 countries and parties that have ratified the agreement, but President Donald Trump has voiced concerns the deal signed by the previous US administration could harm the US economy.    

READ MORE: Trump moves to roll back Obama climate policies

“We believe that it would be important for the US not to leave the Paris agreement,” Guterres said in response to a question following his address at New York University.    

“But even if the government decides to leave the Paris agreement, it’s very important for US society as a whole – the cities, the states, the companies, the businesses – to remain engaged. It is very clear that governments aren’t everything.”

At a summit meeting of the G7 group of leading economies over the weekend, Trump refused to join the other six leaders in pledging to implement the Paris accord and said he would announce the US position this week.    

Guterres said the United Nations was engaged with the US administration and Congress to try to convince them to abide by the deal.    

His appeal suggested if the United States – the world’s biggest carbon emitter after China – were to quit the accord, the onus would be on other key players such as China, India, and the European Union to do more to fight global warming.    

The Paris agreement’s commitment to curb carbon emissions and limit temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees “do not nearly go far enough”, Guterres said.

“So we must do our utmost to increase ambition and action until we can bend the emissions curve and slow down global warming,” he said. 

Betting on green economy 

Describing the agreement as a “remarkable moment in the history of humankind”, the UN chief stressed that private corporations – including oil and gas companies – were not awaiting government policy and joining the green economy.    

“Some may seek to portray the response to climate change as a fundamental threat to the economy,” said Guterres. “Yet what we are witnessing in these early years of a systemic response is the opposite.    

“Those who fail to bet on the green economy will be living in a grey future,” he warned. “On the other hand, those who embrace green technologies will set the gold standard for economic leadership in the 21st century.”

READ MORE: The Paris climate agreement and why it matters

Guterres pointed to growth in the clean energy sector, saying solar power grew 50 percent last year and that more new jobs were being created in renewable energy than in oil and gas.    

He argued climate action was a sound security policy, warning of mass displacement from natural disasters or from refugees whose lands become unlivable.    

The UN chief vowed to mobilise governments, the energy industry, investors, and civil society to “raise the bar on climate action”.    

As a first step, Guterres said he would press for ratification of an agreement reached last year on phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.    

Guterres announced plans for a summit in 2019 to review progress in implementing the Paris agreement.

Source: AFP news agency

“Carpool Karaoke: The Series” is based on the popular Carpool Karaoke segment from “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” Apple purchased rights to the show back in mid-2016 and showed off the first trailer in February. The show was originally supposed to launch in April, but its debut was delayed.

Carpool Karaoke: The Series for Apple Music will welcome a different group of superstars every Tuesday, with new episodes available exclusively to Apple Music subscribers in more than 100 countries. Celebrity pairings include Will Smith and James Corden; Miley, Noah, Billy Ray and the entire Cyrus family; Shakira and Trevor Noah; Game of Thrones stars Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams; Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith; John Legend, Alicia Keys and Taraji P. Henson; LeBron James and James Corden; and many more.

“Carpool Karaoke: The Series” will be available solely to Apple Music subscribers in more than 100 countries.

Syrian rebels say the United States and its allies are sending them more arms to try to fend off a new push into the southeast by Iran-backed militias aiming to open an overland supply route between Iraq and Syria.

Tensions escalated in the southeastern region of Syria, known as the Badia, this month when government forces supported by Iraqi militias deployed in a challenge to rebels backed by President Bashar al-Assad’s enemies.

This has coincided with a march towards the Syrian border by militias from Iraq. They reached the frontier adjoining northern Syria on Monday. A top Iraqi militia commander said a wider operation to take the area from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) started on Tuesday.

WATCH: Syria: Starvation as a weapon of war

While in Iraq the US has fought alongside Iranian-backed Iraqi government forces and militias against ISIL, in Syria Washington has lined up against Assad’s Iranian-backed government and wants to block a further expansion of Iranian influence with its regional allies.

Several rebel groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army (FSA) banner operate in sparsely populated Badia, where they captured swathes of territory from ISIL this year. US air raids on May 18 targeted Iran-backed fighters who had moved into the area.

Also in May, Damascus declared both the Badia and Deir Az Zor priorities of its campaign to re-establish its rule over Syria, which has been shattered by six years of war that have killed hundreds of thousands of people. The government is being helped by both Iran and Russia, while the opposition has been helped by the West and regional states that oppose Assad.

Rebels said military aid has been boosted through two separate channels: a programme backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), known as MOC, and regional states including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and one run by the Pentagon.

“There has been an increase in the support,” said Tlass Salameh, head of the Jaish Usoud al-Sharqiya, one of the FSA groups backed by the CIA-sponsored programme. “There’s no way we can let them open the Baghdad-Damascus highway,” he said.

READ MORE: Syria’s civil war explained from the beginning

A senior commander of a Pentagon-backed group, Maghawir al-Thawra, told Reuters news agency a steady flow of weapons had arrived at their base near the Iraqi border since the pro-Damascus forces began deploying this month.

He said efforts to recruit and train local fighters from Deir Az Zor had accelerated at their garrison at Tanf, on the highway some 20km from the Iraqi border.

“The equipment and reinforcements come and go daily … but in the last few weeks they have brought in more heavy military vehicles, TOW [missiles], and armoured vehicles,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Two armoured vehicles newly delivered to the Tanf garrison were shown in photos sent to Reuters from a rebel source. A video showed fighters unpacking mortar rounds.

In a written response to emailed questions, a spokesman for the US-led coalition did not say if coalition support to Maghawir al-Thawra had increased.

Colonel Ryan Dillon said coalition forces were “prepared to defend themselves if pro-regime forces refuse to vacate” a de-confliction zone around Tanf.

“The coalition has observed pro-regime forces patrolling in the vicinity of the established de-confliction zone around the Tanf training site in Syria … Pro-regime patrols and the continued armed and hostile presence of forces inside the … zone is unacceptable and threatening to coalition forces,” Dillon said.

US jets this week dropped leaflets on pro-government forces instructing them to pull out of the Tanf area to the Zaza junction further from the border. The leaflets were obtained by Hammurabi Justice, a Maghawir-linked website.

The Syrian army could not be reached for comment.

READ MORE: Syria Civil War: ‘The sky is falling’ in Aleppo 

A commander in the military alliance fighting in support of Assad said the deployment of government forces and pro-Damascus Iraqi fighters in Badia would “obstruct all the plans of the MOC, Jordan and America”.

The commander, a non-Syrian, said Assad’s enemies were committed to blocking “what they call the [Shia] Crescent”. But, he said, “Now, our axis is insistent on this matter and it will be accomplished.”

The Iraqi Badr militia said its advance to the Syrian border would help the Syrian army reach the border from the other side.

“The Americans will not be allowed to control the border,” its leader, Hadi al-Amiri, told al-Mayadeen TV.

Source: Reuters news agency

An ex-Apple designer and former Twitter engineer have teamed up for a new take on iPhone photography, with today’s launch of their iOS camera app called Halide. The idea is to offer a variety of high-end tools for taking quality photographs, but packaged in a way where accessing those controls via gestures becomes like muscle memory – similar to using the dials on a camera.

Explains the app’s website, the new app’s gesture-based control scheme is meant to feel “as intuitive and tactile as a great film camera, like an old Leica or Pentax.”

While there are a number of alternative camera applications for iOS today – like Camera+ or Camera Awesome, for example – these tend to be marketed towards mainstream users who want to “shoot like a pro.” Halide, on the other hand, is designed more with the power user in mind first. That is, it will largely appeal to those who have some understanding of photography, and want to do things like quickly change the exposure or manually focus with a swipe.

However, there is a built-in automatic mode like the stock iOS app. This makes the app usable even by novice iPhone photographers, who sometimes need help when trying to take tricky shots.

But this automatic mode is designed to be turned off by tapping the “A” button in order to tweak specific values like ISO, white balance and shutter speed, however. The app also includes professional tools like focus peaking (which highlights the areas in focus, allowing users to manually pull focus), a detailed histogram, an adaptive level grid and support for both JPG and RAW capture.

Halide was developed by Ben Sandofsky and Sebastiaan de With, both of whom have experience with high-end photography. Sandofsky previously worked on Periscope’s video processing stack, was an advisor to both HBO’s “Silicon Valley” and Shyp, and worked as the tech lead on Twitter’s iPhone, iPad and Mac applications.

Meanwhile, de With is an ex-Apple designer who has done client work for Sony, T-Mobile, Mozilla and others, and runs the San Francisco design agency Pictogram, which designed the Nylas Mail app; he also worked on Doubletwist’s design, and others. He’s a photographer, as well, often taking photos as he take trips by motorcycle.

Beyond the app’s feature set, something that differentiates the app is its gesture-based interface. But its controls also work with a tap so you don’t have to learn all the gestures immediately. This makes the overall experience more consistent, and doesn’t leave newcomers hunting around to access the app’s features.

The team sees the gesture-based interface as part of what makes Halide usable – even for less experienced photographers.

“You don’t really need to understand concepts like Exposure Compensation, EVs, or manual focus to enjoy the features in Halide,” says de With. “So we hope to see many people pick it up, not just the die-hard photographers.”

Another feature in the app is “instant review,” which lets you swipe left or right on the photos you just took to either trash them or mark them as favorites. You can also use 3D Touch to preview the last photo you took in Halide.

The team was inspired to build Halide after seeing how the iPhone’s sensors improved over the years, even as the shooting experience remained stagnant.

“I went to Hawaii with friends, and I was that guy lugging around a giant camera,” explains Sandofsky, of how he came up with the initial idea. “At the bottom of a waterfall, the humidity made the camera sensor condensate, so I had to keep it off for a day while the camera internals dried out,” he says. “For the next day, I shot everything with an iPhone. At the time, iOS lacked important features, and all the camera apps had issues. But I was blown away by the quality of that tiny camera, and remembered how much more I enjoyed the trip by going light.”

Sandofsky says he built the first prototype on his flight home from that trip, and later showed it to de With, who had further ideas around the user experience. Development officially started around WWDC last year, when the new camera APIs were announced.

A year later, the app was ready to launch.

The team doesn’t expect their new app to fully replace the default camera app, but instead exist alongside it – ready for those times you want to take a great photo, not just a quick snap.

The app’s co-creators tell TechCrunch they’re self-funding Halide, which they consider a “passionate side project.”

Halide is available for $2.99 at launch, and will increase to $4.99 next week. If it does well, the team may consider a new pricing structure in the future, but didn’t go into details.

The app is available in English, with plans for localizations in Spanish, Dutch, German, and French.