Donald Trump on Monday moved to withdraw the US, the world’s second biggest emitter of planet-heating pollution, from the Paris climate agreement for a second time, and put the United Nations on notice.

On his first day back as president, Trump signed an executive order on stage in front of supporters at an arena in Washington DC which he said was aimed at quitting what he called the “unfair one-sided Paris climate accord rip off”.

He also signed a letter to the United Nations giving it notice that the US was exiting, which starts the formal process of withdrawal from the world’s main effort to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

It will take about a year for the withdrawal to be formalized.

Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency on the first day of his new presidency, as part of a barrage of pro-fossil fuel actions and efforts to “unleash” already booming US energy production that included also rolling back restrictions in drilling in Alaska and undoing a pause on gas exports.

The emergency declaration, which made good on a campaign-trail promise but could be open to legal challenge, would allow his administration to fast-track permits for new fossil fuel infrastructure.

It comes amid stated concerns about the power grid struggling to handle a projected surge in demand from data centers. “[The declaration] … means you can do whatever you have to do to get out of that problem and we do have that kind of emergency,” he said as he signed the order at the White House late on Monday.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53201664

The thing some US empire managers dislike about him is the only thing I like about him: that he makes the US empire a less effective evil because of how much less hidden he keeps the inner workings of the machine. The hood stays popped open the entire time, showing the whole world how the imperial sausage gets made.

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GAZA, January 20, 2025 (WAFA) - Israeli occupation forces fatally shot a child and injured another on Monday evening in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on Sunday morning.

Local sources confirmed that Zakariya Hameed Yahya Barbakh was killed near the Al-Awda roundabout in central Rafah after being shot by Israeli snipers. Another child was injured while attempting to recover Barbakh's body.

Earlier this evening, one civilian and a child were killed and nine others, including children, were injured by Israeli gunfire in Rafah city.

The ceasefire deal came into effect at 11:15 AM on Sunday; however, violations of the agreement by the occupation forces continue to claim civilian lives in Gaza.

The UK’s Stop Trump Coalition has released a statement on the day of Donald Trump’s second inauguration – 20 January – pledging to “mobilise in our thousands and our millions”. It has been signed by more than a thousand grassroots campaigners, trade unionists, climate activists and others.

Unfortunately, the original Trump baby blimp – whose images were shared around the world – may not feature. It currently resides in the Museum of London

Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli occupation forces, stormed multiple Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank on Sunday evening, expressing outrage over a Gaza ceasefire deal widely perceived as a defeat for the Israeli entity.

The settlers targeted Palestinian vehicles and blocked key roads in areas including Turmus Ayya, ‘Atara, Ein Siniya, Ein Ayoub, Qalqilya, and Jaba’.

In Sinjil, WAFA news agency reported that two Palestinian homes and four vehicles were set on fire. Social media footage captured settlers throwing stones and Molotov cocktails during their attacks.

Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister urged his senior leadership to establish schools for Afghan girls, in one of the sharpest public condemnations of a policy that has contributed to the authorities' worldwide isolation.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai stated in a speech over the weekend that limits on girls and women's education were incompatible with Islamic Shariah law, requesting that "leaders of the Islamic Emirate to open the doors of education," according to Tolo, a local broadcaster.

He asserted that injustice was being done against "twenty million people, out of a forty million people population," and noted that "in the time of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the doors of knowledge were open to both men and women."

The statements were among the harshest public criticisms of the school closures by a Taliban official in recent years. Taliban insiders and diplomats have previously told Reuters that the supreme spiritual leader Hibatullah Akhundzada imposed the closures despite internal dissent.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53111515

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For the past four years, Alan Estevez has been finding new obstacles to place in China’s path as it tries to use US technology to develop cutting-edge chips and artificial intelligence.

“We’re running down the alley throwing garbage cans,” Estevez told the Financial Times on his penultimate day as under-secretary of commerce for industry and security in Joe Biden’s administration.

Estevez conceded that US policy could do no more than slow China since it had smart engineers, money to invest and government support. But he said Washington had been successful, pointing to statements from Chinese AI groups identifying US export controls as their main obstacle.

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A Palestinian teenager was shot and killed during an Israeli raid on the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said a 15-year-old was shot in the chest with live bullets during the Israeli raid.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was later confirmed dead by the Palestinian health ministry.