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Right-Wing Influencer Arrested on Human Trafficking Charges After Online Spat With Greta Thunberg
"This is what happens when you don't recycle your pizza boxes," Thunberg quipped.
Dec 30, 2022
Supporters of climate leader Greta Thunberg cheered late Thursday into Friday after Andrew Tate, the latest right-wing influencer to attack Thunberg online, was arrested in Romania after bragging to the activist about owning dozens of emissions-heavy vehicles.
The arrest—on human trafficking, rape, and organized crime charges—came shortly after Tate addressed Thunberg in a video uploaded to Twitter in which he was holding a pizza box from a Romanian pizza chain, although authorities in Romania "said that it was not the case that Tate's arrest had been made as a result of the pizza boxes," according toThe Guardian.
Tate and Thunberg's interactions this week began after Tate addressed her on Twitter Tuesday regarding his "33 cars" and asked her to provide an email address "so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions."
"Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com," replied Thunberg.
\u201cyes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com\u201d— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg) 1672225626
Thunberg's response provoked Tate to post a video in which he, clad in a red bathrobe and smoking a cigar, said the Swedish climate action advocate "doesn't realize she's been programmed" and is "a slave of the matrix" before calling her "hate-filled" and "bitter."
"Please bring me pizza and make sure that the boxes are not recycled," Tate said to someone off-camera, who handed him two boxes labeled "Jerry's Pizza."
Romanian authorities, who have been investigating Tate and his brother, Tristan, since April, said that the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) mobilized to arrest them "after seeing, including on social networks, that they were together in Romania."
"The authorities waited for the right moment to catch the Tate brothers, who were always out of the country," reported the Romanian news agency Gandul.
Although authorities said the pizza boxes were not what tipped them off and didn't confirm whether the video had been part of what they observed when examining Tate's recent social media presence, Thunberg joked, "This is what happens when you don't recycle your pizza boxes."
Earlier this year, Tate was banned from several social media platforms for posting violent and misogynistic content in which he described how he would assault a woman and said women who are raped are partially responsible for their attacks.
Tate and his brother are accused of recruiting victims who they forced to perform pornography "through physical violence and mental coercion." The Romanian investigation into the two brothers began in April when the U.S. embassy received a tip that a 21-year-old American woman was being held at their mansion in Bucharest against her will.
Tate and his brother were reportedly detained for 24 hours after the arrest. Reutersreported Friday that prosecutors asked a court in Bucharest to extend Tate's detention to 30 days.
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Families and Indigenous Youth Vow to 'Not Give Up' After Top EU Court Dismisses 'People's Climate Case'
"We will keep fighting for justice and for the protection of fundamental rights that are threatened by the unequal and diverse impacts of climate change."
Mar 25, 2021
Plaintiffs in the "People's Climate Case" promised to keep fighting for justice after the European Union's top court on Thursday decided to "close its doors to people hit by climate impacts" by upholding a lower court's dismissal of the case on procedural grounds.
"We will continue seeking protection of our rights and demand climate protection until E.U. decision-makers listen to their citizens and take climate change as a priority for Europe."
--Alfredo Sendim, Portuguese farmer
Initiated in 2018 by families from Fiji, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Portugal, Romania, and a Sami youth association in Sweden, the case directed at the European Parliament and the Council of the E.U. challenged the bloc's former goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
The European General Court dismissed the case in 2019, claiming that plaintiffs weren't "individually" impacted by European climate policy. As a statement from Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe--an NGO coalition supporting the case--explained, the higher court also found that "plaintiffs did not have a right to challenge the E.U. for its climate inaction, based on old case law dating back to the 1960s, whereby an individual must be 'uniquely' affected by an E.U. legislative act in order to be allowed to challenge it."
In response to Thursday's ruling, plaintiff attorney Roda Verheyen said that "these families put their trust in the E.U. legal system to protect their rights. But the E.U. courts failed to interpret existing rules in the context of climate change. This judgement is wholly unconvincing and only speaks of the fear of action by citizens. On the contrary: granting access to justice to its citizens would not have hurt the E.U. but made it stronger."
\u201c\ud83c\udd95#ClimateLitigation update: #PeoplesClimateCase ruling by\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa\u2696\ufe0f@EUCourtPress. \n\ud83d\udd34confirming that we face serious #AccessToJustice (locus standi) issue as Court denies plaintiff's individual interest on ground that climate inaction harms us all\n\ud83d\udcc4Full ruling https://t.co/Mpjf29dPhT\u201d— \ud83d\udd4a S\u00e9bastien Duyck \ud83c\udf0d\u2696\ufe0f (@\ud83d\udd4a S\u00e9bastien Duyck \ud83c\udf0d\u2696\ufe0f) 1616677168
Despite the setback, plaintiffs made clear that they remain dedicated to the fight.
"We started this case to demand climate justice for the people who live on islands like us and for the next generations. We see the impacts of climate change every day on our island," said German plaintiffs Maike and Michael Recktenwald. "The court's decision will not make us stop."
Noting the "dramatic consequences" of consecutive droughts and heatwaves on his family and others across Europe, French lavender farmer Maurice Feschet said that "today, the hope that we put in the legal system to protect us and our co-plaintiffs has failed. But we are not giving up. We will keep fighting for justice and for the protection of fundamental rights that are threatened by the unequal and diverse impacts of climate change. We might have lost today but our voices are getting louder to ensure a viable future for present and next generations."
Portuguese farmer Alfredo Sendim echoed that sentiment: "The court's decision is disappointing, but we will not give up. We will continue seeking protection of our rights and demand climate protection until E.U. decision-makers listen to their citizens and take climate change as a priority for Europe."
Sendim, whose country is also impacted by droughts, said that "it is almost impossible to adapt to the current climate conditions and continue our sustainable agriculture farming that seeks to follow the cycle of nature. We are still in time to change the course of history and have a safer future for next generations, but to do so, we must act now."
\u201cThe @EUCourtPress dismissed the #PeoplesClimateCase on procedural grounds, underlining the EU's #AccesstoJustice problem.\n\nTime to fix the legislations to both increase the EU's climate ambition and to provide #AccesstoJustice! \n\n\ud83d\udc42Message of plaintiffs: \nhttps://t.co/SjkHdPO2jT\u201d— CAN EUROPE (@CAN EUROPE) 1616685060
Sanna Vannar of the Sami youth organization also emphasized the urgency of ambitious climate action.
"The Sami people live in the middle of the climate crisis every day," Vannar said. "We see how the climate crisis affects the reindeer, nature, and our culture. We have been talking about these changes and their impacts for so long now. Unfortunately no one has listened. It makes me so angry and frustrated that the E.U. does not take this problem seriously and addresses it like an emergency--because it is an emergency for Europe's Indigenous peoples."
As the Associated Pressreported:
After the legal effort was initially launched, the European Commission proposed a "European Green Deal" with more ambitious goals toward fighting climate change. European Union leaders reached a deal last year to cut the bloc's net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, more than the previous goal of 40%.
However, Europe's updated plan has still been criticized as not bold enough. Last month, a U.N. report revealed that emissions reduction pledges from parties to the Paris agreement are dangerously insufficient. Oxfam's global climate policy lead, Nafkote Dabi, called the findings "appalling" and blasted various nations for not submitting or revising their plans.
"Even the E.U.'s revised target to reduce emissions from 40% to 55%, is still far below their owed 65% reduction fair share to limit global warming," Dabi said. "This is irresponsible."
CAN Europe director Wendel Trio noted Thursday that "with climate urgency growing day by day, the E.U. needs to step up climate action and E.U. citizens are looking at their courts to help them avoid dangerous climate change."
Last year, citing the "importance and urgency of the issues raised," the European Court of Human Rights decided to fast-track a historic lawsuit led by Portuguese youth that has been described as possibly "the most important case" the body has ever tried. In February, that court dismissed a coordinated attempt by governments to overturn the priority decision.
"It is a shame the European Court of Justice distances itself from other courts by refusing to take up the matter and hiding itself beyond outdated procedural rules," said Trio. "If the E.U. is to make sense to its citizens, it will need to recognize that accountability is key to ensure a well functioning democracy. The E.U. urgently needs to step up the protection of its citizens, by both increasing climate action and providing access to justice to all its citizens."
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Federal Judge Blocks Trump Order Targeting Lawyers Supporting ICC Afghan War Crimes Probe
"National security concerns must not become a talisman used to ward off inconvenient claims, a 'label' used to 'cover a multitude of sins.'"
Jan 04, 2021
A federal judge in New York on Monday issued an injunction against President Donald Trump's June executive order sanctioning human rights lawyers cooperating with an International Criminal Court investigtion of alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla in Manhattan issued a preliminary injunction (pdf) barring the Trump administration from targeting four law professors with criminal or civil penalties for supporting the work of the ICC in its investigation of alleged extrajudicial killing, torture, rape, and other potential war crimes committed by military and CIA personnel and allied forces during the ongoing 19-year war in Afghanistan--the longest campaign of the so-called War on Terror.
"The executive order is misguided and unconstitutional, violating our fundamental rights to free speech."
--James Goldston,
Open Society Justice Initiative
"The court is mindful of the government's interest in defending its foreign policy prerogatives and maximizing the efficacy of its policy tools," Failla wrote. "Nevertheless, national security concerns must not become a talisman used to ward off inconvenient claims, a 'label' used to 'cover a multitude of sins.'"
The ruling came in a case filed last October by the Open Society Justice Initiative and professors Diane Marie Amann, Margaret deGuzman, Gabor Rona, and Milena Sterio, who argued that Trump's order violates their constitutional rights.
Failla determined that Trump's order unconstitutionally prohibits free speech "so as to induce [ICC officials] to desist from their investigation of U.S. and allied personnel."
James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, welcomed Failla's decision, saying in a statement that the injunction "affirms what we have said from the start: the executive order is misguided and unconstitutional, violating our fundamental rights to free speech."
\u201c\ud83d\udce2 Win! Thanks to @OSFJustice for leading challenge to Trump admin's dangerous effort to interfere with #ICC work. Now, @Transition46 @JoeBiden must rescind the Executive Order, which still threatens a broad swathe of HR lawyers, ICC staff, advocates, victims- & int'l justice.\u201d— Katherine Gallagher (@Katherine Gallagher) 1609818622
The lawsuit came a month after Trump imposed sanctions targeting Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko, the ICC's chief prosecutor and prosecution jurisdiction division director, respectively, in retaliation for their scrutinty of U.S. wartime conduct.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared at the time that "the United States has never ratified the Rome Statute that created the court, and we will not tolerate its illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction."
In April 2019, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II announced it would not grant a request by Bensouda to open an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including deliberate attacks on civilians and child soldier conscription by Taliban militants, torture and sexual violence by members of Afghan National Security Forces, and torture of prisoners held in U.S. military and secret CIA prisons in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania, and Lithuania.
The decision was condemned by human rights advocates, many of whom accused the ICC of bowing to intense pressure from the Trump administration after it barred Bensouda, a Gambian national, from entering the United States. The administration threatened further retaliation, including travel bans and economic sanctions, against the ICC.
In December 2019, the ICC convened a three-day hearing in The Hague, Netherlands at which prosecutors and Afghan victims of alleged U.S. and Afghan government torture pleaded with court officials to reverse their April decision and conduct a war crimes probe. The ICC unanimously ruled in March 2020 that the investigation could proceed. Pompeo condemned the decision, calling the ICC "an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body."
In July 2020, top Trump officials were further incensed after prominent Canadian jurist William Schabas submitted a request to the ICC to investigate senior U.S. and Israeli officials for alleged war crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
Looking ahead to Trump's January 20 departure from the White House, Goldston asserted that "rather than spending time defending an order in direct conflict with Washington's historic support for international justice, the incoming administration should rescind it on day one."
According toReuters, the incoming Biden administration may consider lifting sanctions against the ICC officials, pending an evaluation of the role of sanctions in U.S. foreign policy.
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