The U.S. national debt on 17 June 2019. Trump’s budget estimates show that Republican policies will increase the U.S. debt to $29 trillion. Graphic: U.S. Debt Clock

Instead of eliminating the U.S. debt, Trump will add $8.3 trillion

By Kimberly Amadeo 3 June 2019 (The Balance) – During the 2016 presidential campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump promised he would eliminate the nation’s debt in eight years. Instead, his budgets would add $9.1 trillion during that time. It would increase the U.S. debt to $29 trillion according to Trump’s budget estimates. […] Trump has a cavalier attitude about the […]

Trump participates in a roundtable discussion on the administration's efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on 12 June 2019 in Washington, DC. Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Trump directs agencies to cut science advisory boards by “at least” one-third – “It’s no longer death by a thousand cuts. It’s taking a knife to the jugular.”

By Miranda Green and Rebecca Beitsch 14 June 19 (The Hill) – President Trump is directing all agencies to cut their advisory boards by “at least” one third. The executive order issued Friday evening directs all federal agencies to “evaluate the need” for each of their current advisory committees. The order gives agencies until 30 […]

New York State Attorney General Letitia James holds a press conference at the Office of the Attorney General in New York, 28 March 2019. The New York attorney general's office did not engage in prosecutorial misconduct in investigating Exxon for climate fraud, a judge ruled on Wednesday 12 June 2019. Photo: Timothy A. Clary / Getty Images

Judge rejects Exxon challenges to New York’s climate fraud suit – No prosecutorial misconduct in Exxon climate fraud investigation

By Karen Savage 12 June 2019 (Climate Liability News) – A judge dismissed several claims by Exxon to stop New York State’s lawsuit against the oil giant for alleged climate fraud, including charges of prosecutorial misconduct and conflict of interest. New York Supreme Court Judge Barry Ostrager on Wednesday rejected claims by Exxon that the New York attorney general’s […]

List environmental regulations rolled back by the Trump administration, updated on 7 June 2019. Graphic: The New York Times

83 environmental rules being rolled back under Trump

By Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-ripka, and Kendra Pierre-Louis 7 June 2019 (The New York Times) – President Trump has made eliminating federal regulations a priority. His administration, with help from Republicans in Congress, has often targeted environmental rules it sees as burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other big businesses. [cf. Trump regulation rollbacks will […]

Environmentalist José Luis Álvarez Flores, an activist who fought to conserve wildlife, was found murdered between the borders of Tabasco and Chiapas on 11 June 2019. Photo: Reforma

Environmental activist who fought illegal mining murdered in Chiapas – “This is abominable, he was a nice person, his fault was to fight against the illegal extraction of sand”

11 June 2019 (Mexico News Daily) — An environmental activist from Tabasco who worked to preserve the habitat of howler monkeys was found dead yesterday in Chiapas. The body of José Luis Álvarez Flores was found in Calatraba, a community in the municipality of Palenque. The 64-year-old was reportedly shot at least five times. Álvarez […]

William Happer, who serves on the National Security Council, is pushing to create a climate review panel that would question the overwhelming scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming. Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones

White House tried to stop climate science testimony, documents show – “I have never heard of basic facts being deleted from or blocked from testimony”

By Lisa Friedman 8 June 2019 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – The White House tried to stop a State Department senior intelligence analyst from discussing climate science in congressional testimony this week, internal emails and documents show. The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research declined to make changes to the proposed testimony and […]

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro talks to journalists. Photo: Brazil’s Presidency / Flickr Commons

Brazil guts environmental agencies, clears way for unchecked deforestation – “If before, staff were already being attacked by loggers, imagine what it is like with the president’s endorsement of the criminals”

By Sue Branford and Thais Borges 10 June 2019 (Mongabay) – The Brazilian government’s environmental agency, IBAMA, has so far this year imposed the lowest number of fines for illegal deforestation in at least 11 years, while the country’s other leading environmental agency and its federal parks’ protector, ICMBio (the Chico Mendes Institute), did not […]

Ninth Circuit judges appear skeptical of role in kids’ climate suit vs. U.S. government – “It may even rise to the level of criminal neglect. But the tough question for me is do we get to act because of that.”

By Karen Savage 4 June 2019 (Climate Liability News) – A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday appeared skeptical of the court’s role in dealing with climate change in the landmark constitutional climate case brought by 21 young people against the U.S. government. But the kids’ attorneys argued in a […]

After the Tiananmen Square massacre on 3 June 1989, protesters display photos of bodies at a morgue. Photo: Jeff Widener / AP

Tiananmen Square’s haunted silence, 30 years later

By Ishaan Tharoor 3 June 2019 (The Washington Post) – China’s democratic dream was snuffed out as night fell on 3 June 1989. In mid-April, thousands of idealistic university students had gathered in the heart of Beijing to mourn the passing of an admired Communist Party official who had championed liberalizing reforms. In the weeks […]

Student mows green message for Trump visit to UK: “Climate change is real”

3 June 2019 (BBC News) – A student has attempted to catch the eye of Donald Trump by mowing an environmental message into grass under the flight path of Air Force One. Ollie Nancarrow, 18, cut an image of a giant penis, a polar bear and a climate change message on his family’s land close […]

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