Associated Press – Efforts to raise hundreds of billions of dollars to preserve the world’s oceans, forests, rivers, lakes and other parts of the natural world have fallen short ahead of a key UN summit on biodiversity.

The yawning gap between the stated ambition of nations to protect biodiversity and what money has been raised will be a central topic in Yerevan, Armenia, when the biodiversity conference, known as COP17, gets started on Monday. The nearly two-week event, scheduled to end October 30, is a chance for nearly 200 countries that are part of the treaty to take stock of their progress on 23 global targets after agreeing to a historic deal crafted in Montreal in 2022. The United States is not a party to the treaty.

Countries in Montreal committed to protect 30 percent of land and water considered important for biodiversity by 2030, a goal known as 30x30.

America’s 250th birthday should have been a simple thing to celebrate. On July 4, 2026, the nation marked two and a half centuries since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Flag-lined streets, fireworks, concerts, parades and patriotic ceremonies marked the occasion. Yet Americans approached the milestone with sharply different ideas about what the anniversary meant.

Writing in First Things, Susannah Seltzer saw renewed national pride in flag-waving families and patriotic crowds. “As the kids say,” she concluded, “it’s cool to love America again.”