United Nations

Climate change denier Donald Trump expected to pull U.S. out of Paris climate accord

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carbon-emissionsLast week director of the White House National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, said aboard Air Force One: “Coal doesn’t even make that much sense anymore as a feedstock,” he instead praised natural gas as “such a cleaner fuel” — and one that America has become an “abundant producer of.” Top Trump aide: Coal doesn’t make ‘much sense anymore’.

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres had a warning yesterday for nations that choose not to rapidly shift away from fossil fuels: ‘Get on board the climate train or get left behind’.

Our Dear Leader and climate change denier Donald Trump, who abdicated the U.S. role of “leader of the free world” last week in his first foreign trip, apparently has decided that the U.S. should be left behind.

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The New York Times reports, Trump Poised to Pull U.S. From Paris Climate Accord:

President Trump is expected to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, three officials with knowledge of the decision said, making good on a campaign pledge but severely weakening the landmark 2015 climate change accord that committed nearly every nation to take action to curb the warming of the planet.

A senior White House official cautioned that the specific language of the president’s expected announcement was still in flux Wednesday morning. The official said the withdrawal might be accompanied by legal caveats that will shape the impact of Mr. Trump’s decision.

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Syrian war crimes, Russian complicity, and the U.S. response

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Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, announced a major shift in U.S. Policy towards Syria: U.S. priority on Syria no longer focused on ‘getting Assad out’:

The United States’ diplomatic policy on Syria for now is no longer focused on making the war-torn country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, leave power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday, in a departure from the Obama administration’s initial and public stance on Assad’s fate.

The view of the Trump administration is also at odds with European powers, who insist Assad must step down. The shift drew a strong rebuke from at least two Republican senators.

“You pick and choose your battles and when we’re looking at this, it’s about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out,” U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told a small group of reporters.

“Do we think he’s a hindrance? Yes. Are we going to sit there and focus on getting him out? No,” she said. “What we are going to focus on is putting the pressure in there so that we can start to make a change in Syria.”

In Ankara on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Assad’s longer-term status “will be decided by the Syrian people.

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Rep. Andy Biggs is a John Bircher?

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Longtime residents of Arizona will remember billboards similar to this one below that dotted our highways back in the 1960s and 1970s. Arizona’s newest congressman, former state senate president Andy Biggs, is a wingnut and apparent John Bircher. He is a co-sponsor of a bill that would force the United States to quit its membership … Read more

Pope Francis: Coming to America

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popeAll the TV networks are promising wall-to-wall coverage of Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba and the United States, but I do not recall seeing the Pope’s itinerary and schedule of events in our local newspapers yet, so here you go (subject to change). Full schedule of Pope’s visit to Cuba and the US released:

Pope Francis will take his vision of a Catholic’s approach to family life, economics, immigration and good governance to Cuba and the United States during a September 19-27 visit.

The Vatican published the detailed schedule of Pope Francis’ September 19-22 visit to Cuba and his September 22-27 visit to the United States.

Full schedule of the Pope’s visit to Cuba and the US (September 19-27):

September 19 (Rome, Havana)

10.15am Departure from Rome’s Fiumicino airport for Havana.
4.05pm Arrival ceremony at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport. Speech by pope.

September 20 (Havana)

9am Mass in Havana’s Revolution Square. Homily by Pope. Recitation of the Angelus.
4pm Courtesy visit with Cuba’s President Raul Castro in Havana’s Palace of the Revolution.
5.15pm Celebration of vespers with priests, religious and seminarians in Havana’s cathedral. Homily by Pope.
6.30pm Greeting to young people at the Father Felix Varela cultural center in Havana. Remarks by Pope.

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