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Nine months ahead of this year’s annual U.N. climate summit, known as COP30, lodging prices in the Brazilian host city of Belem are turning headsand may soon turn off would-be attendees from the first such meeting in the Amazon rainforest. With a shortage of housing and high interest, property owners and rental companies are feeling emboldened to charge five-digit rates, even for cramped rooms with shared bathrooms. On Booking.com, one of the last available hotel rooms listed, a flat apartment, is going $15,266 for one person, up from $158 for the same category currentlya 9,562% increase. A 15-day stay during the conference in November would total $228,992, enough to buy a four-bedroom apartment in one of Belems top neighborhoods. On Airbnb, a room with a shared bathroom in Ananindeua, a poor city near Belem, is listed at $9,320 per day. A comparable room today could be rented for as little as $11 per day. In more upscale neighborhoods, renting an apartment that accommodates eight people costs up to $446,595 for a two-week stay. This one scared me,” joked local architect and digital influencer Renato Balaguer about a dilapidated apartment listed at $10,000 for an 11-day stay. “This is like putting gringos in captivity. False imprisonment is a crime! said Balaguer in a post that went viral. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who champions himself as a protector of the environment, has boasted about hosting the event in the Amazon, which helps regulate the climate by storing large quantities of carbon dioxide, a gas that causes climate change. This is also a landmark year in the annual process because countries must come forward with updated commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Whats more, civic groups are particularly interested in attending because Brazil allows for protests and free expression, which are sharply restricted in the previous three host countries: Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. Brazil, Latin America’s largest and most populous nation, has hosted other world events, such as the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2014 World Cup, with games played in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Manaus, Belo Horizonte, and several other cities. Belem, an Atlantic port city that is on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, doesn’t have the same infrastructure as other big cities, which has led to many questions about its ability to host COP30. Officials estimate that about 50,000 people will attend the summit, scheduled to take place Nov. 1021. Last year in Baku, Azerbaijan, the official tally was 54,148. Before that, in Dubai, attendance reached a record 83,884. Neither the federal government nor the Para state government responded to questions about the number of rooms currently available in Belem, a bustling and impoverished metropolis of 2.5 million people and the median income is $920 per month. Those who booked more than a year in advance secured lower prices, but many of those reservations have already been canceled without explanationa common practice in the hospitality business ahead of major events. Another issue is the increasing prices of accommodations already booked. One European nonprofit reserved a room for $2,000 in December, only to see the price rise to $7,200 two weeks later. Various groups that often attend the annual summit, including environmental nonprofits, activists, scientists, journalists, and businesses, are having to rethink whether they go as the prices rocket up. Planning for COP30 in Belem has been challenging due to limited and expensive accommodations, creating barriers for our participation,” said Roberta Alves, deputy director of communications at Mercy Corps. The international humanitarian nonprofit has participated in several COPs, focusing its advocacy on financing a transition to green energy, adapting to climate change impacts, and how climate change exacerbates conflict. We are awaiting alternative options from the COP30 organizerscritical to ensuring that all voices, especially those from the frontlines of the climate crisis, are included in global conversations, Alves added. Owners and property managers offering rentals say the prices are a question of supply and demand, and besides, they also have high costs. Just the electricity and water for my house cost 5,000 Brazilian real ($860) per month, said Gisleno da Silva, who posted the ad for the Ananindeua room for $9,320 per day. At this price, I already have someone interested, he said, while adding he was open to negotiate. In the face of mounting criticism, the Brazilian government has said it will provide an additional 26,000 bed spaces. Those will include accommodations in docked cruise ships, public schools, new hotels, and military facilities. In a social media post published Friday, COP30 organizers said accredited participants would soon be able to book accommodations on an online platform. We have observed a disproportionate increase in rental prices, which we attribute to real estate speculation. This should stabilize as the government increases the availability of accommodations, Valter Correia, the special secretary for the event, said in the statement. Plenty of advocates are defending Belem, saying its challenges are minor compared to the significance of hosting the most important annual climate meeting in the worlds largest rainforest. In an article published in Valor Economico newspaper in December, environmentalist Priscilla Santos, cofounder of the Amazonians for Climate Network, said criticism of Belem not only reveals colonialist biases but also undermines an event that could be transformative for the region. Everyone wants to save the Amazon, but no one wants to discuss it in the territory? Meanwhile, worried about their reputation, some property managers are distancing themselves from the speculation. In an Instagram video that went viral, Fabrício de Menezes compared the daily rental price of an apartment in Belem, charging $21,800 during COP, to the much lower rates of the iconic Jumeirah Burj Al Arab in Dubai, which markets itself as the worlds only seven-star hotel. I hope this is a joke by the owner, he said. Another local property manager, Carlos Netto, said he would never advise a property owner to charge such high prices. Do you think that gringos are clueless? Where in the world is a 20-day rental more expensive than the property? he posted. ___ The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Fabiano Maisonnave, Associated Press
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Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group and OpenAI stepped up their AI partnership Monday, setting up a 50-50 held company called SB OpenAI Japan.SoftBank Chief Masayoshi Son and OpenAI Chief Sam Altman appeared at an event in Tokyo, talking up their collaboration and inviting Japanese companies to join.Son, holding a shiny blue crystal ball as a symbolic prop, said its AI service Cristal could be used by companies for planning, marketing, emails, and figuring out old source codes.Cristal will first roll out in Son’s own SoftBank Group companies, which include Arm, a semiconductor and software company, and PayPay, an electronic payment service. SoftBank said it plans to spend $3 billion a year to integrate Cristal across its companies.“This will be superintelligence for the company. I’m so excited,” Son told reporters and other participants at the Transforming Business through AI event.Altman talked about the just announced “deep research,” which allows ChatGPT to carry out more complicated tasks, including preparing reports by browsing the web and finding thousands of sources far more quickly than a human worker.Deep research will be available in Japan in the Japanese language, he said.“This partnership with SoftBank will accelerate our vision for bringing transformative AI to some of the world’s most influential companies, starting with Japan,” said Altman.SoftBank and OpenAI, along with Oracle, are part of the Stargate project supported by President Donald Trump, investing up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.Son said Stargate will expand into Japan, as well as other nations.The technology sector has been shaken by the recent announcement from Chinese newcomer DeepSeek that it has come up with very smart but low-cost AI. Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyama Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
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Worries about President Donald Trump’s tariffs are hurting U.S. stocks Monday as financial markets worldwide drop on concerns about a potential trade war.The S&P 500 was down 1.4% in early trading following similar losses for stock markets across Asia and Europe. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 435 points, or 1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.8% lower.Everything from bitcoin to the Mexican peso fell, not just the stocks of U.S. companies expected to be the first to feel pain from Trump’s tariffs on goods imported from Canada, Mexico, and China. On Wall Street, some of the sharpest losses hit Big Tech and other companies that could be hit hardest by higher interest rates.The fear is that Trump’s tariffs will push up prices for groceries, electronics and all kinds of other bills for U.S. households, putting upward pressure on a U.S. inflation rate that’s largely been slowing since its peak three summers ago. Stubbornly high or accelerating inflation could keep the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates, which it began doing in September to give the U.S. economy a boost.To be sure, U.S. stock prices remain close to their all-time high, which was set less than two weeks ago. And Monday’s losses weren’t as bad as some other recent drops, such as one in December when the Fed hinted fewer rate cuts may arrive in 2025 than expected.But much of Wall Street had been hoping Trump’s talk of tariffs through the presidential campaign was just that, talk, and an opening point for negotiations with U.S. trading partners. Now that Trump has followed through, the fear is about how much retaliation will occur in what could be an escalating trade war that damages economies worldwide, including the United States.“The uncertainty at this stage is tremendousnot only of how these eventual negotiations will play out, but worries about how this is only the tip of the iceberg and more tariffs are on the horizon,” said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management.Traders on Wall Street are already paring expectations for how many cuts to interest rates the Federal Reserve may deliver this year, if any. Lower interest rates can encourage U.S. employers to hire more workers, while also goosing prices for investment, but the downside is they can give inflation more fuel.“Living in the Midwest, I might feel the trade war soonest and most,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, because of how much crude oil flows over the northern U.S. border to make gasoline. “Our refiners can’t easily switch away from Canadian crude.”Crude oil prices rose, suggesting inflationary pressure may already be starting. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.3% to $73.45. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.8% to $76.29.Trump himself warned Americans they may feel “some pain” from the tariffs, which he said would be “worth the price” to make America great again. He also said Sunday night that import taxes will “definitely happen” with the European Union and possibly with the United Kingdom as well.Among all the uncertainties upsetting Wall Street was the basic question of how Trump would decide whether and when Canada, China, and Mexico are doing enough to lift the tariffs.“It’s hard to map out how long this could last,” Jacobsen said.Wall Street famously hates uncertainty, and prices fell nearly across the board. Nearly 90% of all the stocks in the S&P 500 dropped.Constellation Brands, the company that sells Modelo and Corona beers and also sells alcohol in Canada, fell 5.6%. Automakers, which import heavily from Mexico, also sank. General Motors dropped 5%.Instead of stocks and crypto, investors moved instead into U.S. government bonds, which are seen as some of the safest possible investments. The resulting rally in their prices drove longer-term Treasury yields down.The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.50% from 4.55% late Friday.It’s a reprieve, at least temporarily, from a rise in longer-term Treasury yields that has shaken Wall Street in recent months. Yields have climbed in part on expectations for just such tariffs from Trump, and the possible result of higher interest rates they could entail. Short-term Treasury yields rose Monday as expectations waned for cuts to rates from the Fed. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 4.24% from 4.21%Higher yields put pressure on all kinds of investments, but they’re particularly burdensome on stocks seen as the most expensive.That puts the spotlight on companies like Nvidia and other winners of the artificial-intelligence boom. Nvidia fell 5.3% and was the heaviest single weight on the S&P 500.They’d already come under pressure last week, after a Chinese upstart said it had developed a large language model that could perform as well as big U.S. rivals, but without having to use the most expensive, top-flight chips.That raised doubt about whether all the investment Wall Street had assumed would occur for chips, large data centers and electricity would really have to occur. Such assumptions had driven stocks like Nvidia, Constellation Energy, and others to record after record.The tariffs took center stage in a week where other events would typically take center stage, including a report on Friday showing how many workers U.S. employers hired last month.In stock markets abroad, indexes fell 1.5% in London, 1.7% in Paris and 1.8% in Frankfurt. In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi sank 2.5%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.7%. Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott, AP Business Writers
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