10 things you need to know today: September 3, 2016

Obama, China ratify Paris climate change deal, FBI releases notes from interview with Hillary Clinton over email server, and more

President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with US President Barack Obama (L)
(Image credit: Wang Zhao/Getty Images)

1. Obama, China ratify Paris climate change deal

President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping together signed documents committing their nations to the Paris climate change pact on Saturday while meeting in Hangzhou, China. This marks a major step toward the deal's required approval from 55 countries and 55 percent of the world's carbon emitters (China and the United States together are responsible for 38 percent of carbon emissions). Because the agreement is not considered a treaty, it does not need the approval of the U.S. Senate; and it will require the U.S. to cut emissions levels by 26 percent over the next nine years. "I believe that history will judge today's efforts as pivotal," Obama said at the signing ceremony.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.