LONDON/SAO PAULO — More than 100 companies, including Unilever, L’Occitane and Iberdrola, have called on governments to enact tougher policies to reach a United Nations goal of halting nature loss by the end of the decade.

With more than 1 million species on the brink of extinction, the world agreed to a landmark deal in 2022 to protect biodiversity, including a pledge to protect 30% of the world’s natural ecosystems.

Countries will convene at the COP16 biodiversity summit in October in Colombia to work out the details of implementing the pledge. In a letter shared exclusively with Reuters ahead of the talks, 132 companies with combined revenues of $1.1 trillion demanded stronger action.

Other companies that signed the call for action — on measures ranging from subsidy reform to water use and farming practices — include miner Teck Resources, food group Danone, energy company RWE and cement maker Holcim.

Humans are decimating wildlife by destroying native ecosystems, polluting nature and driving climate change.

Whatever the financial cost of preventative measures, some of those backing the letter have said the much bigger cost would be from lost species as food production relies on dwindling numbers of pollinators, for instance, and disrupted water systems that depend on vulnerable ecosystems.

“If we don’t focus on nature, if we don’t focus on biodiversity, the business that we operate may not even exist in years to come,” said Rishi Kalra, executive director and group chief financial officer of Olam Food Ingredients (OFI), one of the world’s biggest suppliers of food and beverage ingredients.

For example, the company relies on bees to pollinate its almond farms, Kalra said in an interview.

“Food may not be available. People may not have a livelihood if nature is not protected.”

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, for example, has reduced rainfall and shifted weather patterns in critical farming areas that supply a major portion of the world’s soybeans and beef. “Without nature, without water, it’s impossible to have human life, not even thriving, but just existing,” Nestle Latin America Chief Executive Officer Laurent Freixe said.

Because nature-friendly strategies may increase costs in the shorter term, some companies have been reluctant to act unless governments set market-wide rules or offer the incentives needed to compel action.

Voluntary corporate action would not be enough alone, said the letter, coordinated by advocacy group Business For Nature, which has drawn up policy recommendations.

Governments, the letter said, needed to ensure businesses and financial actors protect and restore nature.

Further action must include ensuring sustainable resource use, valuing and embedding nature in decision-making and disclosure and stronger global agreements to address nature loss. — Reuters

SEOUL — A senior North Korean diplomat based in Cuba defected with his wife and child to South Korea in November, South Korean media reports said on Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to escape to the South since 2016.

Before fleeing to the South, Ri Il Kyu, 52, told South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo he was a counselor at the North Korean embassy in Cuba. Yonhap News Agency also reported Mr. Ri had defected to the South, citing an anonymous government source.

The South’s unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, declined to comment on the reports, citing privacy issues.

Among Mr. Ri’s jobs at the embassy was to block North Korea’s rival South Korea and old ally Cuba from forging diplomatic ties, Chosun Ilbo reported. In February, the two countries established diplomatic relations.

Mr. Ri said he flew out of Cuba with his family but he did not elaborate further on how he pulled off the high-risk escape.

“I bought flight tickets and called my wife and kid to tell them about my decision, six hours before the defection. I didn’t say South Korea, but said, let’s live abroad,” he said.

North Koreans caught attempting to defect face severe punishment, including death, according to human rights groups and defectors who have been successful.

Fewer North Korean defectors have been arriving in South Korea in recent years due to strict limits on border crossings into China and hefty broker fees, human rights groups and experts say.

Last year, 196 North Korean defectors came to Seoul, down from as many as 2,700 a decade ago, South Korean government data showed. Most of those North Korean defectors who recently defected to the South have long lived overseas, like the diplomat Mr. Ri, human rights activists say.

Details on North Koreans defections often take months to come to light, with defectors needing to be cleared by authorities and going through a course of education about South Korean society and systems.

DISILLUSIONMENT
Mr. Ri entered North Korea’s foreign ministry in 1999 and received a commendation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for successfully negotiating with Panama to lift the detention of a North Korean ship caught carrying arms from Cuba in 2013, Chosun Ilbo said.

He told the newspaper he had decided to defect over disillusionment with the regime and unfair evaluation of his work.

Mr. Ri said he made a final decision to run when his request to travel to Mexico for a medical treatment was denied last year, adding that his parents and parents-in-law who might face reprisals for his defection had passed away. 

The last such known high-profile defection to the South was that of Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, in 2016.

“I hope that all former North Korean diplomats will join forces and work hard for the unification movement to realize the dream of North Korean officials and people to have their children live freely in South Korea,” Tae said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

“Welcome, Counsellor Ilkyu!” said Tae, adding that Ri was a for mer rival in table tennis games at the foreign ministry.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday promised better financial support for North Korean defectors and tax incentives for companies hiring those defectors, as he attended the ceremony for the inaugural North Korean Defectors’ Day.

North Korea last year shut some embassies in an effort to “rearrange its diplomatic capacity efficiently,” closures that South Korea says indicates the North is struggling under the burden of sanctions.

North Korea maintains an embassy in Cuba, though its ambassador returned home in March, according to media reports. — Reuters

MILWAUKEE — Donald Trump made a triumphant entrance during the first night of the Republican National Convention on Monday, receiving a raucous ovation from the party faithful two days after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his right ear.

Mr. Trump walked into the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee with a thick bandage over the ear as the crowd chanted “Fight! Fight! Fight” and pumped their fists, a reference to his reaction in the moments after he was wounded.

The former president mouthed the words “Thank you” and settled into a box with some of his children and US Senator J.D. Vance, Mr. Trump’s choice for running mate announced earlier in the day.

Mr. Trump is due to formally accept the party’s nomination in a prime-time speech on Thursday and will face Democratic President Joseph R. Biden in the Nov. 5 election.

The four-day convention began less than 48 hours after a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one supporter. The gunman was shot dead and his motive remains unclear.

During Monday’s session, the party gave speaking slots to six everyday Americans who highlighted the impact inflation has had on lower and middle-income families, while Republican leaders assailed the Biden administration as being out of touch.

Senator Tim Scott, who briefly ran against Trump for the nomination, said divine intervention spared Mr. Trump’s life.

“Our God still saves,” Mr. Scott said. “He still delivers and he still sets free. Because on Saturday the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but an American lion got back up on his feet and he roared!”

Mr. Vance, 39, was a fierce Trump critic in 2016 but has since become one of the former president’s staunchest defenders, embracing his false claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud.

Mr. Vance is deeply popular with Mr. Trump’s core supporters, but it remains to be seen whether he can broaden the ticket’s appeal. He shares Mr. Trump’s aggressive approach to politics, and his conservative statements on issues such as abortion could turn off moderate voters.

Soon after Mr. Trump’s afternoon announcement, Mr. Vance emerged on the convention floor with his wife Usha, shaking hands with and hugging delegates who swarmed the couple. He is scheduled to address the convention on Wednesday.

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AT ISSUE
Mr. Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland that Mr. Vance is “a clone of Trump on the issues,” while other Democrats criticized Mr. Vance’s record on reproductive rights.

In an interview on Fox News on Monday night, Mr. Vance said he backed Mr. Trump’s position that each state should decide for itself whether to permit abortion.

Opinion polls show a close race between Mr. Trump, 78, and Mr. Biden, 81, though Mr. Trump leads in several swing states that are likely to decide the election. Mr. Trump has not committed to accepting the results of the election if he loses.

The head of the main fundraising super PAC supporting Mr. Trump’s campaign, Taylor Budowich, said on X that MAGA, Inc. had raised more than $50 million on Monday.

Billionaire Elon Musk is planning to donate around $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump super PAC, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with his intentions. Mr. Musk endorsed Mr. Trump after the assassination attempt on Saturday.

Following the shooting, Mr. Trump said he was revising his acceptance speech to emphasize national unity, rather than highlight his differences with Mr. Biden.

“The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner.

The day began with yet another in a string of recent legal victories for Mr. Trump, when US District Judge Aileen Cannon threw out federal charges accusing him of retaining classified documents after leaving the White House.

Mr. Trump is due to be sentenced in New York in September for trying to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before his 2016 election victory.

But his other two indictments on federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia — both related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat — are mired in delays and could be significantly limited after the US Supreme Court ruled in July that he had immunity for many of his official acts as president.

“This dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social on Monday, also referencing the prosecutions of hundreds of his supporters who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

NO PLACE FOR VIOLENCE
The shooting attempt on Trump’s life immediately altered the dynamics of the presidential campaign, which had been focused on whether Mr. Biden should drop out due to concerns about his age and acuity following a halting June 27 debate performance.

Nearly two dozen of Mr. Biden’s fellow Democrats in Congress have called on him to end his reelection bid and allow the party to pick another standard bearer.

The focus this week will be squarely on Mr. Trump.

Having consolidated party control, Mr. Trump could seize on the opportunity to deliver a unifying message or paint a dark portrait of a nation under siege by a corrupt leftist elite, as he has done at times on the campaign trail.

Mr. Trump has frequently turned to violent rhetoric in campaign speeches, labeling his perceived enemies as “vermin” and “fascists.”

Mr. Biden has cast Mr. Trump as a threat to US democracy, comments that some Republicans say helped foster an atmosphere that prompted the shooting even though authorities have yet to determine the motive for the assassination attempt.

Following Saturday’s shooting, Mr. Biden sought to lower the temperature after months of heated political rhetoric.

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Mr. Biden said in an address from the White House on Sunday.

In an interview with NBC News on Monday, Mr. Biden said it was a “mistake” to tell donors last week it was “time to put Trump in the bullseye” but noted that Trump has often used incendiary words.

Mr. Biden ordered an independent review of how the gunman could have come so close to killing Mr. Trump. Congressional investigators also sought to question the head of the US Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the former president. — Reuters