News Wrap: COP27 nations near deal for climate disaster fund

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Good evening. It's good to be with you. We start tonight in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt where global climate talks are on the verge of a breakthrough deal. The U.N. talks were extended into the weekend. And now a draft agreement that would create a disaster fund for vulnerable countries is on the table. The deal would urge developed nations to contribute to the fund but not mandated. European officials threatened to walk away from the talks if the agreement doesn't keep temperature limits on global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. That's what experts say is needed to avoid the most extreme effects of climate change.

• Frans Timmermans, Vice President, European Commission:

  We want a good decision. But it's better to have no decision than a bad decision. And a good decision means that we remain on track to keep 1.5 alive. We do not want 1.5 Celsius to die here and today. That to us is completely unacceptable.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Meantime, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry tested positive for COVID-19 while at the summit. He's still participating but via phone.

  It's the eve of the World Cups opening soccer match in Qatar. Before Sunday's kickoff, the head of soccer's governing body FIFA scolded critics of the host country and accused the Western world of hypocrisy. The Government of Qatar is facing international scrutiny for its human rights abuses and treatment of migrant workers who helped build the facilities for the World Cup. And a news conference that lasted nearly two hours in Doha, FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, who was Italian pointed his criticism at Europeans.

• Gianni Infantino, President, FIFA:

  I think for what, we, Europeans have been doing in the last 3000 years around the world, we should be apologizing for next 3000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Infantino also defended the last-minute decision to ban beer from World Cup stadiums, saying that fans "will survive for three hours without it.

  Leaders from some of the world's leading economies, including Vice President Kamala Harris, wrapped up their meetings in Bangkok today. The APEC summits economic focus was sidelined at times by other global issues, including the war in Ukraine. The group issued a declaration that said most members strongly condemned Russia's war in Ukraine, acknowledging others saw the conflict differently. Russia is a member of APEC.

  And back in this country, the snow kept on falling in western New York today. In the Buffalo area, some places were under six feet of heavy wet snow as a blizzard moved in from Lake Erie. Residents dug themselves out between lulls in the snow squalls. The Lake effect snow is unpredictable and dangerous. At least two people have died already from cardiac events suffered during shoveling and nearly 300 people had to be rescued.

  And former President Trump is reacting to yesterday's appointment of a special counsel and probes focused on the former president. He spoke last night while attending a gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate, denouncing the Justice Department investigations involving the January 6 insurrection, and a separate one into classified documents found at his Florida property.

  Donald Trump, (R) Former U.S. President: This horrendous abuse of power is the latest in a long series of witch hunts. Start started a long time ago. I thought the investigation with the document hoax was dying or dead or over, especially after the record setting 40-point loss of Liz Cheney in the great state of Wyoming, I thought it was dead. I thought that put the final nail in the coffin.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Despite Trump's characterization, as we've reported federal investigators recovered hundreds of classified records and properly retained at his Mar-a-Lago resort. We'll have more on the investigations into Donald Trump later in the program.

  And President Biden spent the day at the White House after a lengthy trip to Egypt and Asia to attend his granddaughter's wedding. In a ceremony on the South Lawn this morning. Naomi, the eldest daughter of Hunter Biden married Peter Neal, you see them there. The wedding is the 19th in White House history and comes just a day before President Biden's 80th birthday.

  And still to come on "PBS News Weekend," we get the latest from Kyiv as the war in Ukraine enters its 10th month. And a conversation with bluegrass legend, Alice Gerrard.