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Surging Weather Extremes Fuel Fresh Demands for Biden to Declare Climate Emergency
One campaignersaid political leaders must "use every tool in their power to abate the emergency that's no longer at our doorstep anymore, but that has a foot in the door and is already affecting people right now."
Jul 10, 2023
As record temperatures, deadly flooding, and other extreme weather driven by human-caused global heating hammer at least millions of people around the world, activists this week are once again imploring U.S. President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency.
Over the past week, the planet endured record-breaking average global temperatures, prompting United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to declare that "climate change is out of control."
Devastating monsoons in India, deadly downpours in Japan, flash floods in Spain, and torrential rains and flooding in the northeastern United States also underscored what climate scientists have long warned are the increasingly severe consequences of a warming planet.
"Now would be another perfect moment for President Biden to declare a climate emergency."
Meanwhile, tens of millions of people in the United States are bracing for an imminent heat dome expected to bring triple-digit temperatures to much of the southern part of the country this week.
The extreme weather chaos around the world has activists sounding the alarm and demanding the Biden administration issue a climate emergency declaration.
"It's terrifying to think that we're already here," John Paul Mejia, national spokesperson for the youth-led Sunrise Movement, toldSupercreator Daily on Monday.
"And I think that that puts a lot of urgency to the political leaders of this moment who are endowed with a responsibility to use every tool in their power to abate the emergency that's no longer at our doorstep anymore, but that has a foot in the door and is already affecting people right now," Mejia added.
Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media, tweeted Monday that "now would be another perfect moment for President Biden to declare a climate emergency."
Noting the current chaos, Henn added that "we need political leaders to speak to the urgency of this crisis."
The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is asking Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act and the Trade Expansion Act to boost domestic production of affordable renewable power and clean energy exports. The CPC also calls on the president to reinstate the ban on crude oil exports that was lifted by Congress and then-President Barack Obama in 2015.
A year ago, amid a previous record-shattering heatwave, Biden—who during his 2020 presidential campaign said that climate change was the "number one issue facing humanity"—reportedly considered making a historic declaration.
"This is an emergency, and I will look at it that way," the president said last July.
Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to preemptively block Biden from declaring a climate emergency. Late last month, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)—a fossil fuel investor who has received more than $1.4 million in industry campaign contributions—introduced legislation that would "prohibit the president from using the three primary statutory authorities available (the National Emergencies Act, the Stafford Act, and section 319 of the Public Health Service Act) to declare a national emergency solely on the basis of climate change."
According to Climate Mobilization, an environmental advocacy coalition, nearly 200 U.S. cities, counties, and other jurisdictions have declared climate emergencies over the past five years.
On Monday, Biden met with U.K. King Charles III in London's Windsor Castle, where they reportedly discussed the climate emergency and "engaged with a group of leading philanthropists and investors focused on mobilizing finance to address the climate crisis," according to the White House.
The renewed demands for Biden to declare a climate emergency come as new research published Monday revealed that last year's historically hot summer killed more than 61,000 people across Europe.
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Brazilian President Lula da Silva Calls For Freedom For Julian Assange
'The press, which defends freedom of the press, does nothing to free this citizen.'
May 07, 2023
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva has called for freedom for Julian Assange and denounced the lack of concerted efforts to free the journalist.
Lula spoke to a group of reporters in London Saturday while in town to attend the coronation of King Charles III.
Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has spent four years in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison while fighting extradition to the United States.
“It is an embarrassment that a journalist who denounced trickery by one state against another is arrested, condemned to die in jail and we do nothing to free him. It’s a crazy thing,” Lula told reporters. “We talk about freedom of expression; the guy is in prison because he denounced wrongdoing. And the press doesn’t do anything in defense of this journalist. I can’t understand it.”
“I think there must be a movement of world press in his defense. Not in regard to his person, but to defend the right to denounce,” Lula told the reporters. “The guy didn’t denounce anything vulgar. He denounced that a state was spying on others, and that became a crime against the journalist. The press, which defends freedom of the press, does nothing to free this citizen. It’s sad, but it’s true.”
Also, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday he too was frustrated over the continued detention of Julian Assange: "enough is enough."
"I know it's frustrating, I share the frustration," Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. from London for the coronation of King Charles III.
"I can't do more than make very clear what my position is, and the U.S. administration is certainly very aware of what the Australian government's position is. There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration."
"Enough is enough, this needs to be brought to a conclusion, it needs to be worked through," said Albanese.
Assange has battled for years to avoid being sent to the U.S., where the journalist faces 17 charges of espionage because of WikiLeaks’ publication of a trove of classified documents in 2010.
US prosecutors allege he published 700,000 secret classified documents which exposed the United States government and its wrongdoings in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wikileaks received the documents from Chelsea Manning.
Albanese said Australians cannot understand why the US would free the source who leaked the documents, Chelsea Manning, while Assange still faces life in prison.
President Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists around the world, while he actively seeks the extradition of Assange to face American espionage charges.
Assange faces a sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum security prison if extradited to the United States.
\u201cWhile in London, President Lula calls for a movement in defense of Julian Assange.\u201d— Kawsachun News (@Kawsachun News) 1683409472
\u201c"Enough is enough."\n\nAustralian PM Anthony Albanese has expressed frustration at the US\u2019s continuing efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on charges including espionage https://t.co/BFNtvAnUbR\u201d— Al Jazeera English (@Al Jazeera English) 1683272705
\u201c'Julian Assange Writes Letter to King Charles III Inviting Him to Visit Belmarsh Prison "Kingdom"' | via @firstpost\u201d— WikiLeaks (@WikiLeaks) 1683460894
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'Incredibly Alarming': Peaceful Protests Not Fit For a King
'We're now living in a dystopian nightmare'
May 06, 2023
Thousands of King Charles III's subjects protested against the monarchy Saturday in London — and heavy-handed police detained many of them for "suspicion of breaching the peace."
Earlier this week, the Metropolitan Police tweeted that they would have an “extremely low tolerance” of those seeking to “undermine” King Charles III's coronation day.
“A significant police operation is underway in central London,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement Saturday. “The individuals have been held on suspicion of breaching the peace.”
At around 7 a.m. police stopped six of the anti-monarchy group Republic’s organizers and told them they were detaining and searching them, Republic director Harry Stratton told CNN at the protest. The group had been walking behind a rental van containing hundreds of placards. “They didn’t say why they were arresting them. They didn’t tell them or us where they were taking them. It really is like something out of a police state,” Stratton said.
Among those arrested ahead of a protest in London’s Trafalgar Square was Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic.
“This morning, Graham Smith and five members of our team were arrested. Hundreds of placards were seized,” Republic tweeted. “Is this democracy?”
Protesters say police warned them not to chant ‘anything that may be deemed offensive.’
The Metropolitan Police said those arrested were being “held on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance.”
Just Stop Oil reported that around 20 of its climate demonstrators had been arrested, with photos showing a man wearing a T-shirt with the group’s name being detained in Whitehall. “He was arrested along with 20 others,” Just Stop Oil tweeted. “Free speech is a core British value – and we have just lost it. No supporters of Just Stop Oil arrested in the crowd had glue, paint or any plans to disrupt the coronation. We are living in a dystopian nightmare.”
\u201cNo supporters of Just Stop Oil arrested in the crowd had glue, paint or any plans to disrupt the Coronation.\n\nNew policing laws mean we're now living in a dystopian nightmare \u2013 this disgraceful overreach is what you'd expect in Pyongyang, North Korea, not Westminster.\u201d— Just Stop Oil (@Just Stop Oil) 1683364744
Human Rights Watch's UK director Yasmine Ahmed said in a statement: "The reports of people being arrested for peacefully protesting the coronation are incredibly alarming. This is something you would expect to see in Moscow not London.
"Peaceful protests allow individuals to hold those in power to account, something the UK government seems increasingly averse to.”
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said: “We need to see what details emerge around these incidents but merely being in possession of a megaphone or carrying placards should never be grounds for a police arrest.
“Peaceful protest is clearly protected under international human rights law and it’s been worrying to see the police this week making numerous statements about their ‘low tolerance’ for disruption at the coronation. The coronation shouldn’t become yet another excuse for undermining people’s basic human rights in this country and we’re awaiting more details over these concerning reports of arrests.”
“We’ve recently had the introduction of extremely draconian legislation outlawing ‘disruptive’ or ‘noisy’ protests, which has given the police excessive – and highly subjective – powers and seriously damaged people’s right of free speech and public assembly.
“The coronation shouldn’t become yet another excuse for undermining people’s basic human rights in this country.”
\u201cAbolish the monarchy, not the right to protest\n\nAs we speak the whole core team of Republic is still being detained. We are not given a reason. They will probably be released when the whole monarchy pr-show is over.\n\n#NotMyKing #AbolishTheMonarchy\u201d— Republic (@Republic) 1683377655
\u201cOutrageous scenes of cops arresting anti-monarchy protestors and stealing their placards\n\nSo we are not allowed to show public opposition to a bloke being crowned head of state for having been born into unimaginable wealth while ppl line up at food banks and schools fall apart\u201d— Shelly Asquith (@Shelly Asquith) 1683355250
\u201cRemember the rules folks\n\nShutting down the whole of central London to celebrate a man "chosen by God" to wear a fancy hat - your patriotic duty\n\nHolding up a sign expressing your dissent - ARREST THEM ALL\u201d— Extinction Rebellion UK \ud83c\udf0d (@Extinction Rebellion UK \ud83c\udf0d) 1683358784
\u201cChants of \u201cshove the coronation up your arse\u201d and \u201cnot my King\u201d as thousands of Scottish independence supporters march through Glasgow city centre. @SkyNews\u201d— Connor Gillies (@Connor Gillies) 1683372888
\u201cFirst, "Lizzie's in a Box" now "Shove Your Coronation Up Your Arse." Irish and Scottish football supporters are so based.\u201d— Alejandra Caraballo (@Alejandra Caraballo) 1683379052
\u201cHow many men in glittery dresses will it take before @GBNEWS calls the coronation a drag show and campaigns for it to be banned?\u201d— Ed MB (@Ed MB) 1683373489
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