Still, Trzaskowski has a lot to worry about.

A beluga whale swims through the Churchill River, Aug. 5, 2024, near Churchill, Manitoba. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Water is central for humans and animals, but it can also take lives and leave a path of destruction. It did both in 2024. The scenes were shocking: students in India using rope to cross a flooded street, a little girl in Cuba floating in a container and Nigerians wading through floodwaters after a dam collapsed in the wake of heavy rains.

Students hold on to a rope as they cross a street flooded after heavy rains, on their way home in Ajmer, India, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Deepak Sharma)Students hold on to a rope as they cross a street flooded after heavy rains, on their way home in Ajmer, India, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Deepak Sharma)A man gazes out from an abandoned house in Melamchi, Nepal, Sept. 15, 2024, damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A man gazes out from an abandoned house in Melamchi, Nepal, Sept. 15, 2024, damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)A resident is evacuated from her flooded house in Jesenik, Czech Republic, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

A resident is evacuated from her flooded house in Jesenik, Czech Republic, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Jesus Hernandez guides his granddaughter Angelina in a container through a flooded street in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Batabano, Cuba, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Chinese leaders have

, saying there are “no political strings attached” to its investment. But China has pressured African governments to shun Taiwan or Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, efforts that Neema says appear to be escalating. Last October,for visiting Taiwan.

Moves like these mirror efforts China has made against governments elsewhere in the past., for example, after the northern European country allowed Taiwan to open a trade office.