WASHINGTON — At a panel discussion this past week, David Malpass, the World Bank president, described climate change as an “immense” issue for the globe and talked about the need for nations to transition away from coal.“A lot of countries have coal miners that are dependent on coal, and yet the world knows that there needs to be a way to a better future on that,” Mr. Malpass said during a conversation with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund, at the annual spring meetings of the I.M.F. These days, with the Biden administration seeing climate change as an existential threat, Mr. Malpass has refashioned himself as an environmentalist, giving speeches about “green growth” and a net-zero carbon future. The transformation reflects the changing political winds in Washington — one that could have important consequences if the World Bank can resume its central role in the fight against climate change, which stalled during the Trump years.

These days, one team could use 100 per day, according to Paul Navin, who does massage therapy and other vital tasks as a soigneur for Howes’s team. At the Tour de France this summer, that would be 100 bidons times 23 teams, then times the 21 days of racing. Those bidons now need to be disposed of in specific ways, which include giving them to a team soigneur or throwing them into any team’s car. Navin explained that he now waited at the side of the road with a garbage bag so his team — and any other team — could throw away its bidons.

They also have another problem: It’s not likely that many of them will be in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, the three provinces with the most oil and gas jobs. Canada’s experience with retraining those who lost factory jobs can give the country an example to avoid, Ms. Caranci said. In the report, Ms. Caranci suggests that Canada replace what she describes as a “patchwork” of retraining programs and income support programs with something more like the system Singapore uses. It works with employers to first identify specific jobs and specific skills they are looking for in workers, then sets up training programs to build skills for those jobs.

Ron DeSantis of Florida said on Tuesday that he was allocating more than $15 million to start the process of closing the 79-acre reservoir, which is part of a system of ponds connected to a former phosphate mine in Piney Point, Fla.A leak was detected at the site on March 26, and officials said water was leaking at a rate of two million to three million gallons a day. The reservoir held 480 million gallons of water, and local officials said they feared that if it gave way, a collapse could unleash a 20-foot wall of water.A week later, there were 390 million gallons remaining, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said.

Publicly, the Biden administration has tried to dampen expectations that other countries will make major announcements at the U.S. event. Mr. Kerry, in a statement, declined to specifically address the likelihood of other countries joining the United States in big announcements, saying the summit “will be a chance for major economies and other countries to work together at the highest possible levels to address the climate crisis.”The United States and Japan also have been discussing new restrictions on coal financing, though an announcement on that remains unclear. And Canada, which already has signed a strong bilateral agreement with the United States on climate change, has said it will announce stronger targets at the summit.

President Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, will visit China this week, making him the first Biden administration official to visit the country at a moment of high diplomatic tensions. Mr. Kerry, who will also stop in South Korea, plans to meet in Shanghai with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, according to a senior administration official. In its formal announcement of the trip, the State Department said that Mr. Kerry would “discuss raising global climate ambition” ahead of a virtual climate summit that President Biden plans to host for dozens of world leaders later this month. The trip by Mr. Kerry underscores the Biden administration’s intent to cooperate with China on shared challenges like climate, the coronavirus and nuclear proliferation even as Washington and Beijing are locked in an increasingly fraught political, technological and military competition.

The country also represents a growing threat of cyberattacks against the United States, and the intelligence agencies assess that Beijing “at a minimum, can cause localized, temporary disruptions to critical infrastructure within the United States.”The report said that Russia would seek opportunities for pragmatic cooperation but that it would also press the United States not to interfere in the domestic concerns of Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union. While cyberthreats have traditionally been a separate section of the report, this year’s assessment made more of an effort to weave such attacks into the broader threat picture, examining both China’s and Russia’s record of intrusions against the United States. The intelligence agencies are right to refocus the threat assessment on Russia and China, said Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The international climate talks, an annual affair run by the United Nations, are scheduled to take place in November in Glasgow. Formally known as the Conference of the Parties, to be attended by the countries that signed the United Nations climate change pact, these talks are designed to forge agreements among countries to slow down global warming. At or before the next talks, countries are expected to announce how they plan to strengthen their own climate action targets. Ms. Thunberg announced her misgivings about attending the climate talks first in an interview with the BBC.

And as much as 70 percent of the world’s cobalt supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a substantial proportion in unregulated “artisanal” mines where workers — including many children — dig the metal from the earth using only hand tools at great risk to their health and safety, human rights groups warn. The water required for producing batteries has meant that manufacturing electric vehicles is about 50 percent more water intensive than traditional internal combustion engines. Most of today’s electric vehicles use lithium-ion batteries, which can store more energy in the same space than older, more commonly-used lead-acid battery technology. But while 99 percent of lead-acid batteries are recycled in the United States, estimated recycling rates for lithium-ion batteries are about 5 percent.

Still, investing in the oil and gas industry is not for everyone, especially these days. But these are unusual times for energy investing. The S&P energy index retreated 5 percent from March 17 to March 31, after the International Energy Agency forecast that oil consumption was not likely to return to prepandemic levels in developed economies.“World oil markets are rebalancing after the Covid-19 crisis spurred an unprecedented collapse in demand in 2020, but they may never return to ‘normal,’” the I.E.A.