WASHINGTON — (AP) — The United States is hosting the annual APEC summit of world leaders this week for the first time since 2011. Leaders from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group will gather in San Francisco to talk about how to better spur trade and economic growth across the Pacific region.

But the main summit event will actually be on the sidelines: A face-to-face meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. This year’s conference is happening against the backdrop of the frosty relationship between China and the U.S. and global turmoil from the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The group started with 12 members in 1989, but has since grown to 21 including China, Russia, Japan, the U.S. and Australia. Those member nations pack a lot of punch, accounting for nearly 40% of the global population and almost half the world’s trade.

APEC stands for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. It’s a forum to promote trade, investment and economic development among nations around the Pacific Ocean.

The annual leaders’ conference brings together heads of nations and other top economic and diplomatic leaders. (Don’t expect much of a presence from Russia this year; it’s a pariah as Russian President Vladimir Putin presses his country’s invasion of Ukraine and will have lower-level representation.)

White House aides say the goal for this year’s summit is to try to make APEC economies more resilient, particularly in the face of growing climate issues and following a global pandemic that killed millions of people and strained supply chains.

The main event of this summit is unfolding on the sidelines: a meeting between Biden and Xi. The two leaders haven’t spoken in person since they met last November during the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. A lot has happened since then to ratchet up tensions between the superpowers.

The Biden administration shot down a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the continental U.S. earlier this year. The Chinese government hacked the emails of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The U.S. government restricted the export of advanced computer chips to China, and has pushed to provide development aid to other nations to counter China’s influence.

The differences also have been exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s increasing assertiveness in the Taiwan Strait. But representatives from the U.S. and China have been meeting with increasing frequency lately, working to thaw relations. Still, the Biden-Xi meeting isn’t expected to substantially alter the trajectory of U.S.-China relations.

The forum has limited scope. It is centered on trade and the economy. There is no military component and it wasn’t forged by a world-altering event like a war.

It technically has member “economies” rather than countries. That allows room for participation by both China-ruled Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan.

APEC’s strength lies in its ability to get countries to work together on big initiatives and to ease business relations without binding agreements. Economists point to how APEC contributed to a reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade.

But the trade landscape is different now than when APEC began in a period of increased globalization. The U.S. strategy has been focused on economic competition with China rather than cooperation, even as U.S. leaders continue to stress the importance of cooperation. Biden is seeking partnerships with other nations in the region to develop alternatives to Chinese manufacturing imports such as electronic equipment, machinery, furniture, textiles and other goods.

Biden also is trying to highlight progress on the new Indo-Pacific trade deal, started last year after President Donald Trump withdrew from the more popular Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The conference has had its challenges and moments of drama in recent years.

The group met virtually in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders did gather in Bangkok last year, but Biden skipped the summit because his granddaughter was getting married and he sent Vice President Kamala Harris in his place. That decision was regarded as a snub by some APEC leaders. Then, delegates from the United States and four other nations walked out to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the Russian representative to the conference began to speak.

Chile withdrew as APEC host in 2019 due to mass protests. Last year, when Thailand hosted the summit in Bangkok, pro-democracy protesters challenged the legitimacy of the Thai prime minister, prompting police to fire at the crowd with rubber bullets that injured several protesters and a Reuters journalist.

This year may give rise to friction over the Israel-Hamas war. The variety of nations involved in the summit have strong views on both sides of the conflict. Typically at the close of a summit there is some kind of joint statement by all the nations, but that’s not a given this year, in part because of those differences.

There is also some participation intrigue: Taiwan will once again be represented at the summit by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. founder Morris Chang. The 92-year-old’s lack of a domestic political role allows him to meet with world leaders without fear of repercussions from China.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, will be represented by Financial Secretary Paul Chan. Chief executive John Lee, who is under U.S. sanctions for his role in a political crackdown in Hong Kong, opted out of the summit, citing scheduling issues.

A potential U.S. government shutdown also could loom over the conference: The government will run out of money on Friday without a funding agreement between Congress and the president. It’s a persistent reminder of U.S. political dysfunction just as as Biden seeks to project American reliability. The credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service lowered its outlook on the U.S. government’s debt on Friday to “negative,” citing rising interest rates and political polarization in Congress.

At the end of APEC summits, the leaders typically pose together for a “family photo.” At the first leader-level meeting three decades ago, President Bill Clinton, hosting in Seattle, handed out matching leather bomber jackets similar to those worn by American fighter pilots. He apparently wanted his fellow VIPs to feel relaxed, and a tradition was launched.

Since then, the APEC leaders have posed together in batik shirts (Malaysia, 1998), Chinese jackets (Shanghai, 2001), flowing ponchos (Chile, 2004) and “ao dai” tunics (Vietnam, 2006.) The Philippines’ barong tagalog, a partially see-through, embroidered shirt sewn from pineapple fiber and silk, was featured in the 1996 summit and again in 2015.

It’s not clear if the matching outfits will be back this year. The last time the U.S. hosted the conference, in Hawaii in 2011, President Barack Obama nixed the idea. A reporter asked whether it was scrapped because the tradition felt too light-hearted amid ongoing concerns about the economy.

No. Obama just thought they looked embarrassing.

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Roger Craig, a veteran pitcher who later led the San Francisco Giants to the 1989 World Series, died Sunday. He was 93.

Craig, whose catchphrase “Humm Baby” embodied his positive behavior as he encouraged his pitching batons over the years, died after a short illness, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Craig, a right-handed pitcher who won a World Series game with the Brooklyn Dodgers in his 1955 rookie season, led the 1962 National League with 24 losses at the original New York Mets. As manager, he popularized the Giants in the 1980s, winning two division titles and earning a place in the World Series. The 1989 roster secured San Francisco’s first World Series berth since 1962.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, in addition to helping the Dodgers win the World Series in 1955, Craig was on the team’s championship roster in Los Angeles in 1959 and played for the St. Louis Cardinals when they won the 1964 World Series .

Craig started the Mets opening day of the inaugural season with a 15-46 record in two years. He lost 18 straight decisions en route to a record 5:22 in 1963, leading coach Casey Stengel to say, “You have to be good to lose that many.”

According to Baseball-Reference.com, he ended his 12-year major league career with a record of 74-98.

“We have lost a legendary member of our Giants family,” Giants CEO Larry Baer said in a statement. “Roger was popular with players, coaches, front office staff and fans. He was a father figure to many, and his optimism and wisdom led to some of the most memorable seasons in our history.”

Craig’s 586 victories as San Francisco manager is the sixth-most in Giants history and the third-most since the team moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, KRON-TV reported. Only Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker have more wins.

According to MLB.com, Craig became synonymous with the split-fingered fastball he taught as a pitching coach. One of his top students was Jack Morris, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018.

Craig was the first pitching coach when the San Diego Padres entered the National League and was the team’s manager in 1978. He led the team to a record of 152-171 in 1978 and 1979.

Craig moved to Detroit, became the Tigers’ pitching coach, and helped Detroit win the World Series under Hall of Famer Manager Sparky Anderson, according to MLB.com.

In 1989, the Giants lost the World Series in four games to the Oakland Athletics, a postseason series best known for a massive earthquake that shook the Bay Area and delayed the postseason series by ten days, according to the Chronicle.

“The best manager I’ve ever had. One of the best men I’ve ever met,” Giants broadcaster and former pitcher Mike Krukow, whose last season as a player was with the Giants in 1989, told the newspaper. “He made us all better. He taught us how to win. What more precious gift can you give an athlete? It’s funny, he was the man at the top in September 1985, but he was an incredibly positive influence on me and made me a better person, a better man, an incredible influence on all of our lives, which he taught us over and over again has field. He was our GOAT.”

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DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Some residents say it’s taking days and weeks in some cases to get an HVAC company to fix broken air conditioning units, leaving hundreds of Georgia residents living in the heat.

“It feels like, basically, I’m living outside,” said Derrick Pitts, who is living without air conditioning.

Pitts says his family, including a 1-year-old, has been living like this during the hottest week on record for 2022.

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“This fan right here, and this is where I have to put my daughter at when she’s sleeping,” Pitts said.

He’s one of thousands of metro Atlanta residents living without air conditioning.

“I’ve put in work orders,” he said.

“Anytime we get a heat wave, we always have a massive influx in calls,” said Andrew Navarro, HVAC manager at RS Andrews.

Navarro said since the start of this heat wave, they’ve been inundated with “anywhere between 700 and 900 calls a day,” he said.

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The increase for air conditioning repairs is typical during hot periods, but pandemic-related understaffing plays a part in mechanical part delays.

“A lot of this stuff is still on back order for months,” he said.

Navarro said the call volume this heat wave has brought, has resulted in longer wait times.

“Right now we’re looking at about a week,” he said.

ChanneI 2 spoke with several metro area HVAC companies, and all said because of the demand it can take anywhere between three to ten days to respond to a request.

“Anytime we have an opening in the schedule, we do move them up forward,” Navarro said.

Pitts says he’s been waiting for more than a week to have his air conditioning fixed at the Clarkston Station Apartments.

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Channel 2 reached out to management to get a status on the fix, but they said no comment.

“That’s not acceptable,” Pitts said.

Navarro says most home air conditioning systems aren’t designed to keep up with temperatures that reach above 92 degrees, and with triple-digit temps on the way, it definitely puts a strain on units.

“When it starts getting hotter than that, systems are not going to keep up,” Navarro said. “Whenever we have a heat wave like this, there’s no company in Atlanta that’s going to be able to staff for the short time frame that we have.”

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Mom left 3-month-old, 5-year-old in hot car as she shopped at Roswell Dollar Tree, police say Officers responded to reports of two children in a car outside a Dollar Tree on Holcomb Bridge Road. The temperature at the time was around 93 degrees.

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