Pelosi says she hasn’t spoken to Biden since pressuring him to drop out | First Thing

Good morning.

Nancy Pelosi has said she has not yet spoken to Joe Biden since she urged him to drop out of the presidential race following his calamitous performance in a debate against Donald Trump in June.

The former House speaker told the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast that despite respecting Biden as a longtime political ally and a friend, she felt the need to intervene. “Elections are decisions,” she said. “You decide to win. I decided a while ago that Donald Trump will never set foot in the White House again as president of the United States or in any other capacity.”

Asked if she had spoken to Biden since her intervention, she said: “Not since then, no. But I’m prayerful about it.”

Kamala Harris has described Trump as “increasingly unstable and unhinged” and said re-electing him would be “a huge risk for America” after her opponent threatened to use US armed forces against those he has termed “the enemy within”.

At a Harris rally in the swing state of Pennsylvania, the US vice-president showed a montage of Trump videos, including of him saying “those people are more dangerous – the enemy from within – than Russia” to paint him as a threat to democracy. The Trump quote came from a speech at a California rally on Saturday.

Her campaign has also released a new campaign advert focused on Trump’s increasingly authoritarian rhetoric, featuring warnings from two former members of his presidential administration about the danger Trump would pose if re-elected.

• What did the former Trump administration members say? Olivia Troye, a one-time national security adviser to Mike Pence, said: “I do remember the day that he suggested that we shoot people on the streets.” Kevin Carroll, a former senior counsel, added: “There will be no stopping his worst instincts … If we elect Trump again, we’re in terrible danger.”

About 80% of countries fail to submit plans to preserve nature ahead of global summit

With just a week to go until the biodiversity summit in Colombia, more than 80% of countries have not submitted plans to meet a UN agreement to prevent the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems.

The historic deal, struck nearly two years ago in Montreal, Canada, included targets to ringfence 30% of land and sea for nature, reform environmentally harmful subsidies worth billions of dollars and cut pesticide usage. But with Cop16 beginning on 21 October, only 25 countries have submitted their plans for action.

• Who has submitted plans? Only five of the 17 megadiverse countries – which host about 70% of the planet’s biodiversity – produced plans: Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico. Suriname was the only Amazon rainforest nation to submit a plan, and no Congo Basin nation did so.

• And the G7? Canada, Italy, France and Japan were the only G7 nations to meet the deadline.

In other news …

• Canadian police on Monday accused Indian diplomats and consular staff of “criminal” activities including homicides in the country, hours after senior diplomats were expelled from both countries.

• Israeli strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, while another Israeli strike killed more than 20 people in northern Lebanon.

• Google will buy nuclear energy to power the datacenters used for artificial intelligence in a “world first” deal.

• Dozens of human rights groups have urged the Polish prime minister against temporarily suspending the right to asylum in the country.

Stat of the day: new cervical cancer treatment plan ‘cuts risk of dying from disease by 40%’

A new way of treating cervical cancer – the fourth most common cancer in women globally – slashes the chance of dying from the disease by 40%. It’s being hailed as the biggest advancement in treatment this century, after patients in a 10-year trial were given the short course of chemotherapy before chemoradiation (combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy).

Don’t miss this: the exhausting rise of sleep perfectionism

If you ask people who sleep through the night how they do it, usually the answer is simple: they do nothing. But try telling that to those caught up in the world of orthosomnia – the term for an obsession with getting the perfect night’s rest, usually while wearing a tracking device. It’s a growing industry that experts warn could be counterproductive, with some feeling anxious about not achieving a good enough “performance” while misunderstanding the science behind sleep.

Climate check: what happens to the world if forests stop absorbing carbon? Ask Finland

Scientists are warning that last year the ability of the planet’s land and trees to absorb CO₂ was dramatically reduced, almost to zero. Land sinks are a huge part of the path to net zero, and most climate modeling has not accounted for this, meaning global heating could be more extreme than expected if this continues. Patrick Greenfield looks at the consequences in Finland, where the country’s forest sink has declined rapidly over a decade – meaning its land is now a net contributor to global heating.

Last Thing: cheating alleged after men’s world conker champion found with steel chestnut

Swirling rumors and vicious allegations are dividing … the World Conker Championships. An investigation has been launched after the 82-year-old winner of the game – in which opponents strike each other’s horse chestnut until one breaks – was found with a metal replica in his pocket. He has denied foul play.

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