Trump's Bully Diplomacy Meets a Burning Planet
As Trump pressures smaller nations to block a pollution pact, leaders in Brazil denounce his climate denialism - exposing a superpower willing to scorch alliances as easily as the as the atmosphere
President Trump’s views on climate change were denounced by several Latin American leaders in Belém, Brazil, on Thursday at the COP30 UN summit. Without naming Trump, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said “extremist forces that fabricate fake news and are condemning future generations to life on a planet altered forever by global warming.” Chile and Colombia’s leaders both specifically singled out the U.S. president in their COP30 speeches. Colombian President Gustavo Petro noted that Trump and high-level U.S. representatives were missing from COP30as it got underway on Thursday, according to a Global News translation. “Mr. Trump is against humanity. His absence here demonstrates that,” said Petro, whose country was hit with U.S. sanctions last month after Trump threatened tariffs and military action against it. Chilean President Gabriel Boric said “the president of the United States at the latest United Nations General Assembly said the climate crisis does not exist. That is a lie,” per the translation. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted in his COP30 speech “sadly that consensus” on tackling the climate crisis “is gone,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said “climate misinformation today poses a threat to our democracies, to the Paris agenda.” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Politico that Trump “will not allow the best interest of the American people to be jeopardized by the Green Energy Scam.” She added: “These Green Dreams are killing other countries, but will not kill ours thanks to President Trump’s common sense energy agenda!” - Axios
As more than 100 nations were poised last month to approve a historic deal to slash pollution from cargo ships, the United States launched a pressure campaign that officials around the world have called extraordinary, even by the standards of the Trump administration’s combativeness, according to nine diplomats on its receiving end. An ambassador from Asia was told that, if he voted in favor of the plan, his country’s sailors would no longer be allowed to disembark at American ports. Caribbean diplomats were told that they could be blacklisted from entering the United States. And Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, personally called officials in several countries to threaten financial penalties and other punishments if they continued to support the agreement to cut ship pollution. These and other threats, including tariffs, sanctions and the revocation of diplomats’ U.S. visas, effectively killed the deal, according to the nine American, European and developing-nation diplomats directly involved in the negotiations. They spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from the Trump administration. The White House, the State Department and the Energy Department strongly denied that American officials made personal threats or intimidated diplomats. In statements and interviews, they acknowledged derailing the deal and repeated their opposition to international efforts to address climate change. They said the shipping fee would have hurt the American economy. But foreign diplomats said they were stunned by what they described as “nasty” and “very personal” threats made by State Department officials, which were mostly aimed at leaders from poorer or small countries that are economically dependent on the United States. Some of the delegations were summoned to the U.S. Embassy in London for these discussions, these people said. Most countries had been ready to vote for the plan, which would have imposed a fee on heavily polluting vessels to push the industry to clean up. It was negotiated over several years by the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency that oversees shipping policy. But the Trump administration was able to block the vote, the nine diplomats said, after numerous countries backed away in the face of the threats from the Americans - NYT
New York is quietly preparing for a Donald Trump takeover of the country’s largest city. A wide range of New York’s most prominent civic leaders have for weeks been meeting behind the scenes to plan for the possibility of Trump sending in the National Guard or any other federal agents into New York City, according to multiple top elected officials. Alarmed at what Trump may do in response to Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City mayor, Gov. Kathy Hochul has devised a virtual war room and convened a series of conversations with law enforcement, business officials and activist groups to stop or at least mitigate any federal incursion. More meetings are being scheduled, including with New York’s leading clergy and veterans groups, some of whom will be gathering around Veterans Day next week. “The goal is to prevent, and if we can’t prevent, then hopefully we can delay,” said Jackie Bray, the state’s homeland security and emergency services director, who’s Hochul’s point person on the preparations. “And if something happens, we then have to manage. All three scenarios have real planning behind them.” The extent of the planning and coalition-building, which has not previously been reported, is meant to deny Trump any pretext to dispatch the National Guard or active-duty troops to the city. New York leaders have for months been watching Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, ICE agents and uniformed military into other cities and braced for similar efforts in the president’s hometown. Hochul has developed an on-and-off rapport with Trump, who takes an intense interest in New York, but has told people she is concerned about the president using Mamdani’s election as his opening to effectively federalize the city. Last month, the governor invited a broad range of activist and labor groups — including the ACLU, the powerhouse local SEIU and grassroots network Indivisible — to her Manhattan office. At the meeting, she pleaded with them to work constructively with one another and New York officials to avoid the sort of violence or vandalism that could spur Trump to send in federal troops, as he did in Los Angeles this summer, according to officials present. Hochul assured the groups that any protests they staged would be protected by state and city law enforcement, but she said they had to try to maintain control and keep people from provoking police and effectively clearing the way for Trump’s intervention. The groups acknowledged the importance of order and not handing Trump the sort of made-for-TV street chaos he craves, vowing to do their part to maintain what discipline they can with activists - Politico
Ukraine’s armed forces have reportedly struck and damaged Russia’s Volgograd oil refinery overnight into Thursday, as Kyiv intensifies its campaign targeting the Kremlin’s energy infrastructure, which it says funds Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Photos and videos have circulated on the Telegram messaging platform, with residents reporting seeing incoming drones and rockets heading toward the Volgograd refinery and active air defences in the early hours of Thursday. The Volgograd governor also confirmed that a fire broke out in the industrial Krasnoarmeysky district. The refinery is located approximately 450 kilometres from Ukrainian-controlled territory, in Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region. The refinery, operated by Russian oil giant Lukoil, plays a key role in supplying fuel to the Russian military, particularly to active units in Ukraine’s Donbas, the most active frontline in Russia’s almost four-year-long full-scale invasion. The facility has been targeted by Ukrainian forces in the past and was forced to halt production on at least one occasion after sustaining critical damage. Meanwhile, reports have also been circulating about another Ukrainian attack, targeting the thermal energy power plant in Volgorechensk, Kostroma region, which local Russian telegram accounts say was rocked by drone attacks. The plant is roughly 750 kilometres from Ukraine’s easternmost troops, displaying Kyiv’s significant strike range inside Russia. There were also reports of additional strikes against Russian energy institutions, including an oil depot in the annexed Crimean Peninsula - Euronews
A series of high-profile domestic abuse cases in China has sparked outrage, and exposed Beijing’s seemingly contradictory attitude toward violence against women. The New York Times reported that several women repeatedly reached out to police, including one who later died after being beaten by her husband. Authorities have been accused of treating domestic violence “as a private family matter,” the Times reported, even after leader Xi Jinping called for a zero-tolerance approach. Xi’s words contrast with his emphasis on traditional gender roles, which has created a reluctance among officials to break families apart. While the law in theory protects women, it clashes with Beijing’s attempts to raise the birth rate, and police “emphasize staying in the marriage,” one academic said - Semafor
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ‘s unprecedented order to scale back flights nationwide because of the record-long government shutdown is set to take effect Friday morning. The 40 airports selected by the FAA span more than two dozen states and include hubs such as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the order. In some metropolitan areas, including New York, Houston, Chicago and Washington, multiple airports will be impacted, while the ripple effects could reach smaller airports as well. Airlines scrambled to adjust their schedules and began canceling flights Thursday in anticipation of the FAA’s official order, while travelers with plans for the weekend and beyond waited nervously to learn if their flights would take off as scheduled. More than 810 flights have been called off nationwide, according to FlightAware. Delta Air Lines said it would scratch roughly 170 flights Friday, and American Airlines planned to cut 220 a day through Monday - AP
A Moroccan court on Tuesday sentenced a man to five years in prison for human trafficking. It is the African nation’s first ruling against someone for luring people to work in a scam compound in Asia. The case involved several young Moroccans who said they were attracted by an online job offer promising good pay in Thailand. However, they instead found themselves trafficked to Myanmar and forced to work some 15,000 km from home, facilitating online fraud and scams. The defendant, Nabil Moafik, denied the charges and called human trafficking a “crime against humanity” he would never commit. The UN says some 120,000 people are trapped in “scam centres” and prosecutions are underway around the world to combat human trafficking to them. Several of the cases are making their way through Moroccan courts. In Casablanca, victims present in court told the Associated Press they witnessed torture and other degrading treatment in the Myanmar centres. Some said they secured their release after paying ransoms in cryptocurrency, according to court documents provided by attorneys. Local news outlet Hespress reported earlier this year that Morocco’s foreign ministry had secured the release of 34 citizens trafficked to scam centres in Myanmar - The Guardian
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