Health care activists gather outside Trump Tower to “declare healthcare a human right,” January 13, 2017, in New York City.
Credit: Drew Angerer

NEW ORLEANS — Taking a harder line on health care, the Trump administration joined a coalition of Republican-led states Wednesdayin asking a federal appeals court to entirely overturn former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law — a decision that could leave millions uninsured.

Congress rendered the Affordable Care Act completely unconstitutional in 2017 by eliminating an unpopular tax penalty for not having insurance, the administration and GOP states told the court.

The Obamacare opponents hope to persuade the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to uphold U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling late last year striking down the law.

If the ruling is allowed to stand, more than 20 million Americans would be at risk of losing their health insurance, re-igniting a winning political issue for Democrats heading into the 2020 elections. President Donald Trump, who never produced a health […]

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Westminster Palace home of the British Parliament

It’s Thursday, May 2, and the U.K. just declared a climate emergency.

Here in the United States, President Trump has declared a “national emergency” over a debatable border crisis, but across the pond, the U.K. is focused on the global emergency: climate change.

On Wednesday, Parliament passed a motion declaring an “environment and climate crisis.” Though the proposal is largely symbolic (it doesn’t require the government to do anything), it’s a history-making move that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says is intended to “set off a wave of action from parliaments and governments around the globe.”

The decision to declare an emergency was prompted, at least in part, by Extinction Rebellion, a climate activist group which has been staging protests across Britain in recent weeks. Declaring a climate emergency was one of the group’s chief demands.

Not one to miss an opportunity to shame the Paris agreement-shirking United States, Corbyn directly rebuked Trump in his statement. “We pledge to work as closely as possible with countries that are serious about ending the climate catastrophe […]

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The sun sets behind two under construction offshore oil platform rigs in Port Fourchon, Louisiana
Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty

The Trump administration on Thursday dismantled safety rules for offshore drilling put in place by the Obama administration after the disastrous BP oil spill fouled the Gulf of Mexico nearly a decade ago.

The rollbacks are a major victory for the oil and gas industry that has criticized the Obama rules as too onerous and costly to comply with, but which supporters say have helped prevent a repeat of the accident that killed 11 workers and spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil in 2010.

“Incorporating the best available science, best practices and technological innovations of the past decade, the rule eliminates unnecessary regulatory burdens while maintaining safety and environmental protection offshore,” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said in a statement.

The final version of the changes to Well Control Rules come shortly after the Interior Department said it was pushing back plans to open up vast new areas of coastline for oil and gas […]

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Extinction rebellion
Credit: C: https://twitter.com/WimmoFreedom201

The warning from the financial community is stark.

A survey of thirty-nine of the most influential fund managers, with over $10 trillion under management, published today found that the vast majority of them believe that fossil fuel companies should align themselves with the Paris goals, or face disinvestment and financial oblivion.

The report found that 86 per cent of respondents want the fossil fuel industry to align themselves with the UN Paris climate goals immediately.

Nearly half responded that the industry should adopt policies consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, while 43% called for the less stringent 2°C target.

But what may alarm the oil industry is that just of a quarter of the fund managers believe that oil companies should “wind down their businesses and return cash to shareholders” right now.

The report entitled, Oil pressure gauge: 2018 survey of fund managers’ attitudes to climate risk and fossil fuel companies, was produced by the Climate Change Collaborative and UKSIF, the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, whose members […]

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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman talks with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The regime executed 37 people on Tuesday.
Credit: Bandar Algaloud/Saudi Royal Court/Reuters

Their crimes were unclear — but their sentences were swift and brutal.

On Tuesday, 37 people were beheaded in Saudi Arabia after being tried on vague charges of terrorism.

According to human rights groups, many of those executed were Shia men who were convicted in sham trials and subjected to torture. Some had allegedly been involved in protests against the Saudi regime.

Many of them were simply young activists and protesters, says Ali Al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident and director of the Gulf Institute think-tank.

Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off.

What do you know about the scene that unfolded yesterday in Saudi Arabia when these executions took place? 

Usually these executions take place in public. But we have no indication they were carried in public. Mostly they were carried inside prisons and by beheadings and dismemberment.

One individual was dismembered and displayed for the […]

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