Trump’s Climate Repeal Called 'Un-American' and 'Orwellian' by Kerry
Welcome to the live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose, bringing you the latest updates over the coming hours.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revoked a fundamental scientific determination that empowered the government to regulate pollution contributing to climate change. This action has been criticized as a benefit to “billionaire polluters” at the expense of public health in the United States.
The endangerment finding, established in 2009, states that the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere poses a threat to public health and welfare. This finding has enabled the EPA to regulate heat-trapping emissions from vehicles, power plants, and other industrial sources.
Donald Trump described the repeal as “the single largest deregulatory action in American history.”
“This is a big one if you’re into environment,”he told reporters on Thursday.
“This is about as big as it gets.”
This repeal is part of Trump’s broader agenda to reduce environmental regulations while promoting oil and gas industries.
On social media, former Secretary of State John Kerry criticized the repeal, stating it will leave Americans “less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change – all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.” Kerry labeled the new rule as “un-American.”
“Repealing the Endangerment Finding takes Orwellian governance to new heights and invites enormous damage to people and property around the world,”Kerry, who also serves as Joe Biden’s climate envoy, said.
“Ignoring warning signs will not stop the storm. It puts more Americans directly in its path.”
Other US Political and Legal Developments
Daniel Rosen, the Trump-appointed US attorney in Minnesota, stated in court that charges should be dropped against an immigrant who was shot by a federal immigration officer last month. He cited “newly discovered evidence” that contradicts the federal officers’ account of the incident.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times revealed that a whistleblower accused Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, of mishandling sensitive intelligence. The intelligence concerned a National Security Agency report on an intercepted phone call last year between two foreign intelligence members discussing Jared Kushner and Iran.
When asked if he had fired or disciplined the staffer who posted a video from his account depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as cartoon apes, Donald Trump replied that he had not and then proceeded to share the video.
A federal judge denied a request on Thursday from the government to pause her order maintaining temporary legal protections for Haitian immigrants. The judge also stated she would not be intimidated by death threats, which she read aloud in court.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, claimed that US Customs and Border Protection in the San Diego area have saved 1.7 billion lives by seizing drugs.
FDA and Moderna Flu Vaccine Trial Controversy
A senior official at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) described Moderna’s clinical trial for a new, potentially more effective flu vaccine as a “brazen failure.” The FDA has called the trial into question and unexpectedly refused to consider Moderna’s application for a flu shot based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Experts say this decision is already having a chilling effect on vaccine development.
The FDA’s concern centers on the study design, where control group participants over 65 should have received a high-dose flu shot instead of a standard dose. However, outside experts suggest the reasons may be more complex.
“It’s all pretext and obfuscation when the real agenda is rejecting conventional science and serving a predetermined anti-vaccine agenda,”said Richard Hughes IV, a partner at Epstein Becker Green and law professor at George Washington University.
Dorit Reiss, a law professor at UC Law San Francisco, stated that
“personally humiliating a company is not a legitimate reason to refuse to review a submission,”and that the refusal must
“address substantive reasons.”American virologist Angela Rasmussen from the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan commented,
“they’re just coming up with reasons to not approve mRNA anything, and they’re going to eventually do it to all these vaccines.”
Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services, dismissed concerns that mRNA and other vaccines are being targeted by officials as
“baseless.”
US-China Relations at Munich Security Conference
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, according to an AFP journalist. This meeting occurred amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The meeting followed US President Joe Biden’s announcement that he plans to host Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House later this year, as the two largest economies seek to reset relations strained by a trade war.
Rubio arrived late Friday in Munich and is scheduled to deliver a speech on Saturday at the annual conference focused on international security and defense.
