October, 11 2016, 09:45am EDT
Neither Presidential Candidate is Taking Climate Change Seriously
Statement of Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Action Fund
WASHINGTON
"The responses to a question about America's energy future in Sunday's presidential debate were extremely disturbing. As the evidence continues to grow almost daily that we face serious climate chaos, neither candidate is addressing the environmental crisis of our lifetime. Mr. Trump's advocacy for 'clean coal' is patently absurd; it might as well be climate change denial. But Secretary Clinton's characterization of natural gas as a sensible 'bridge' to our energy future shows no awareness that methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas during the first two decades after it is emitted--the period during which we must dramatically reduce emissions. The only adequate response to our current climate crisis is an immediate clean energy revolution. We must keep fossil fuels in the ground right now and transition decisively to a truly clean, safe, renewable energy future."
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
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Trade War Intensifies as Trump Jacks Up Aluminum, Steel Tariffs on Canada to 50%
The next Canadian prime minister has said that "my government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect."
Mar 11, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his North American trade war on Tuesday, announcing that he will double tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada in response to Ontario's retaliatory duties on electricity.
"Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on 'Electricity' coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
The new U.S. tariffs are set to take effect Wednesday, according to Trump, who started the current trade conflict with Canada and Mexico. He also said that he would declare a national emergency on electricity for the region of the United States impacted by Ontario's surcharge, which spans Minnesota, Michigan, and New York.
The U.S. president urged the Canadian government to "immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products," and threatened to impose tariffs next month on cars, which he said "will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada."
The tariff announcement came just a day after U.S. stocks plummeted on Monday, in the wake of Trump being asked on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo" whether he expected a recession this year, to which he responded: "I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big."
Journalist Aaron Rupar noted on X that Tuesday viewers of Fox could "watch the stock market lose over 100 points in real time while Maria Bartiromo talks about Trump's tariffs."
Trump on Tuesday also repeated his call for Canada to join the United States, saying that "the only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear."
"Canadians' taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever—And Canada will be a big part of that," he claimed. "The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World."
After Canada's Liberal Party elected Mark Carney as its next leader on Sunday, the former central banker and prime minister-designate declared that "America is not Canada. And Canada never, ever, will be part of America in any way, shape or form."
Carney also said that Trump—whose name provoked loud boos—has put "unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living. He's attacking Canadian families, workers, and businesses, and we cannot let him succeed—and we won't."
"The Canadian government has rightly retaliated and is rightly retaliating with our own tariffs that will have maximum impact in the United States and minimum impact here in Canada," he added. "My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect."
Trump's trade war seemingly has even some Republican experts baffled—as shown in an exchange that Jeff Stein, White House economics reporter for
The Washington Post, posted to X on Tuesday morning.
Trump's tariffs—expected to reach beyond Canada, China, and Mexico early next month—and other decisions since Inauguration Day, including sweeping efforts to dismantle the federal government, have some experts speculating that the president, his billionaire Cabinet, and his adviser Elon Musk, the richest person on Earth, "are intentionally crashing the economy."
Early last week, Saikat Chakrabarti, a progressive running for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) seat who worked on Wall Street and helped found an online payment processing company, accused Trump of "manufacturing a recession."
"It makes sense when you realize his goal is to create something like Russia where the economy is run by a few oligarchs loyal to him," Chakrabarti said. "Creating that state is hard in a large, dynamic, powerful economy with too many actors who can oppose him. So he's accelerating concentrating money and power into the hands of his loyalists while he crashes the rest out."
While Trump responded to Friday's jobs report by declaring that "the Golden Age of America has just begun," Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the Groundwork Collaborative, said: "Just one month on the job, warning signs are flashing across the Trump economy. Inflation is rising, consumer confidence is plummeting, business investment is pulling back, and now, the labor market is stalling."
Adding to working-class Americans' fears of the future, while Trump—aided by GOP senators—installs billionaires to lead federal departments that Musk is tearing apart, Republicans who narrowly control Congress are working to send legislation that would cut taxes for the ultrarich by robbing programs that help the poor to the president's desk.
Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote Monday that "while a recession may not be fully baked into the cards at this point, the risk is evident and it's almost entirely coming from Donald Trump's policies."
Baker suggested that Americans should call what lies ahead the "Donald J. Trump Recession."
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'Now Do Netanyahu': Philippines' Duterte Arrested Under ICC Warrant for Crimes Against Humanity
"Duterte's arrest on an ICC warrant... shows that suspected perpetrators of the worst crimes, including government leaders, can and will face justice," said one human rights advocate.
Mar 11, 2025
On Tuesday, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by local authorities at Manila's international airport after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity. News of his arrest prompted some observers to urge the arrest of another public figure who faces ICC charges: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Duterte case will pose a test for the court, according to The New York Times. In the past six months, the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military junta in Myanmar.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote "Perhaps Netanyahu and Gallant will be next..." in response to the news. Danny Shaw, a professor at City University of New York, posted a video of Duterte's arrest and wrote: "Why don't they arrest Netanyahu?"
Wim Zwijnenburg, a project leader at the Dutch peace organization PAX, wrote, "now do Netanyahu."
On Tuesday night, Duterte was placed on a plane that was bound for The Hague, where the court is headquartered, per the Times, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
The ICC has accused Duterte of crimes against humanity during his time as president and when he was the mayor of the city of Davao. During his tenure as president, from 2016 to 2022, Duterte's security forces carried out thousands of killings that his government cast as drug-related cases. In a 2017 report, Human Rights Watch described his "war on drugs" as effectively "a campaign of extrajudicial execution in impoverished areas of Manila and other urban areas." Philippine National Police officers and unidentified "vigilantes" killed over 7,000 people between the start of his term and the release of that Human Rights Watch report, according to the group.
In 2017, Duterte earned praise from U.S. President Donald Trump, who told him in a phone call that he was doing "an unbelievable job on the drug problem," according to reporting at the time.
"Duterte's arrest on an ICC warrant is a hopeful sign for victims in the Philippines and beyond. It shows that suspected perpetrators of the worst crimes, including government leaders, can and will face justice, wherever they are in the world," said Agnes Callamard, secretary general of the human rights group Amnesty International, in a statement Tuesday. "At a time when too many governments renege on their ICC obligations while others attack or sanction international courts, Duterte's arrest is a huge moment for the power of international law."
Duterte's former chief legal counsel and presidential spokesperson, Salvador Panelo, said that the "ICC has no jurisdiction in the Philippines," in part because "the country withdrew as an ICC member state in 2018," according to a post on social media.
According to the Times, the court says the case only considers alleged crimes from the time when the country was still part of the court.
According to a copy of he warrant, which was obtained by the Times, three judges of the ICC said they believed Duterte "was responsible for the drug war killings that took place when he was president and mayor of Davao, and that there were reasonable grounds to believe that these attacks were 'both widespread and systematic.'"
The government itself, in 2022, said that over 6,200 "drug suspects" were killed during Duterte's war on drugs starting in 2016. Rights groups put the total number of people who died much higher, in the tens of thousands, according to PBS.
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After Khalil Abduction by ICE, Jeffries and Schumer 'Not the Men for This Moment In History'
Democratic leaders "helped create the conditions for this framing anti-genocide speech as antisemitic/terrorism," said one journalist.
Mar 11, 2025
The two highest-ranking Democratic members of Congress both call New York City home, but even with their personal connection to the city where immigration agents abducted a recent Columbia University graduate for his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have had little to say about Saturday night's arrest.
Amid mounting calls from House progressives and advocacy groups for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil on Monday evening, Jeffries released a statement that one local rights group derided as "word salad," starting by accepting the Trump administration's narrative about the former student who helped organize last year's Palestinian solidarity encampment.
"To the extent his actions were inconsistent with Columbia University policy and created an unacceptable hostile academic environment for Jewish students and others, there is a serious university disciplinary process that can handle the matter," said Jeffries, calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to "produce facts and evidence of criminal activity... such as providing material support for a terrorist organization."
Jeffries noted that the Trump administration's arrest and detention of Khalil—which were carried out under the State Department's "catch and revoke" program—"are wildly inconsistent with the United States Constitution." His statement contrasted starkly with those of his progressive colleagues including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who warned that the Trump administration is signaling "they can disappear US citizens too," and demanded Khalil's release.
The House leader's statement came after a federal judge blocked the administration from removing Khalil from the U.S. and reviewed a petition saying his detention is unlawful. Khalil is a legal resident with a green card and a citizen of Algeria.
The statement from Jeffries—who has faced condemnation for suggesting Democrats are powerless to stop President Donald Trump from imposing his agenda and has privately complained about demands for action from advocacy groups—offered the latest evidence that "he is impressively unsuited to the moment," as writer Noah Kulwin said.
Schumer, who is "the most powerful politician in New York State, and the highest ranking American Jewish elected official—locally famous for his retail politics and shaking everyone's hands at local events," had not released a statement on Khalil's detention at press time, noted local historian and community organizer Asad Dandia.
"Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are not the men for this moment in history," saidNew Yorker staff writer Jay Caspian Kang. "So obvious and gets more obvious by the day."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) abduction of Khalil and efforts to have him deported—with Trump warning his arrest will be the "first of many"—came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that under the "catch and revoke" program, the administration "will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported." On Sunday, DHS said the arrest was carried out "in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting antisemitism."
Supporters of Trump's actions have pointed to videos of Khalil being interviewed last year about the Columbia encampment and organizers' negotiations with Columbia officials to push for divestment from companies that have profited from Israel's policies in Gaza and the West Bank.
"Our demands are clear, our demands are regarding divestment from the Israeli occupation, the companies that are profiting and contributing to the genocide of our people," said Khalil in one video.
Adalah-NY, which supports calls for a boycott of Israel to protest its oppression and violence against Palestinians, said it was "no coincidence" that Jeffries offered tacit approval of the accusations against Khalil, considering his longtime vocal support for Israel.
"Fire Hakeem Jeffries," said Track AIPAC, which keeps track of donations lawmakers receive from the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Jeffries has taken $1.6 million from the lobbying group.
Musician Soul Khan asked whether Jeffries and Schumer are "trying to get Mahmoud Khalil out of ICE detention and ensure the security of his green card status," calling his abduction "the most urgent domestic crisis happening right now."
Journalist Kylie Cheung called Khalil's abduction, along with the order to "single out, detain, persecute someone for their political speech" coming directly from the president, "the purest distillation of fascism."
But with Democratic leaders, including former President Joe Biden, joining Republicans in claiming that student-led protests against Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza were endangering Jewish students, said Cheung, the party "helped create the conditions for this framing [of] anti-genocide speech as antisemitic/terrorism."
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