Hello! Today's newsletter focuses on the civil rights and environmental justice cuts by U.S. President Donald Trump. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled what it called "the most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history" by rolling back 31 initiatives and eliminating the agency's diversity, equity, and inclusion arm and its 10 regional environmental justice offices, which worked with communities to identify and mitigate local sources of pollution. Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department is reassigning about a dozen senior career attorneys from its civil rights unit, four people familiar with the matter said, as Trump's administration steers the branch away from its historic priorities. First, let's take a look at how the EPA's deregulation and diversity programme cuts work in practice through the eyes of one Louisiana resident. Also on my radar today: |
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Lydia Gerard sits with her eight-month-old great-granddaughter Kylee on the front porch of her home in Reserve, Louisiana, U.S. REUTERS/Kathleen Flynn |
Reuters U.S. National Affairs correspondent Daniel Trotta sat down with Lydia Gerard in her home on Louisiana's "Cancer Alley". Gerard lives along the Mississippi River, just a few blocks from a synthetic rubber plant that the administration of former President Joe Biden sued, claiming it posed an imminent public health hazard. Gerard, like more than 90% of people living within 1 mile (1.6 km) of the plant, is Black. As she looked down at her 8-month-old great-granddaughter, Gerard wondered if she would one day suffer the same fate as her many friends and relatives whose lives were cut short by the disease. "She's not even eight months yet, and has to be subject to breathing all that," said Gerard, referring to the plant's emissions of chloroprene, which in 2010 the EPA classified as a likely human carcinogen. Seven weeks after President Trump took over in January, the new EPA leadership under Lee Zeldin, withdrew the lawsuit against the plant's Japanese owners, Denka Performance Elastomer LLC, siding with company lawyers who disputed the lawsuit's contention that emissions were linked to significant cancer risk. The Trump administration's press release announcing the end of the lawsuit said the dismissal fulfilled the president's Day One executive order to eliminate DEI and that it aligned with the EPA's new pledge to "end the use of 'environmental justice' as a tool for advancing ideological priorities." Click here for the full Reuters deep-dive on the cancellation of 400 grants in the name of eliminating DEI and environmental justice. |
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Speaking of justice, at least three senior career attorneys in the U.S. Justice Department who managed offices that investigated abuse by police and handled violations of voting and disability rights have been ordered to take other assignments, according to sources familiar with the matter. The changes are part of a wave of reassignments and resignations affecting at least another nine attorneys, including people who worked on probes of employment or educational discrimination, abuses inside correctional facilities, and voting rights cases, the people said. "They are going to eliminate the Civil Rights Division as it was built to exist," one former department employee familiar with the changes told Reuters. "The only purpose now will be to victimize the very people it was created to protect." Founded in 1957 following the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the division initially focused on protecting the voting rights of Black Americans, as Congress expanded its responsibilities to include protecting Americans from discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and military status. The recent changes are part of a shakeup by Trump's pick to lead the Civil Rights Division, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. Dhillon, former vice chair of the California Republican Party and the former National Committeewoman of the Republican National Committee for California, served as a legal adviser on the Trump 2020 campaign. Since assuming the role of Assistant Attorney General, Dhillon has steered the division to pause probes of alleged police abuse and followed Trump's lead to change the department's stance on transgender rights while targeting alleged antisemitism at U.S. colleges involving pro-Palestinian protesters. |
A Palestinian man walks at the Great Omari Mosque, which was hit in a previous Israeli strike during the war, in Gaza City. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas |
- Gaza in ruins: From the Great Omari Mosque to Al Qaisariyya Market, centuries-old structures that held cultural significance are now in ruins since Israel launched its assault on the enclave in response to Hamas attacks a year and a half ago. The importance of cultural heritage is highlighted in point 11.4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Click here for a Reuters graphics and images story about some of those landmarks, before and after October 7.
- Big Tech EU fines: Apple was fined 500 million euros ($570 million) and Meta 200 million euros for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and their anti-competitive practices. European Union antitrust regulators handed out the first sanctions under landmark legislation aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech. Alphabet's Google and Elon Musk's X may be the next to face fines from European regulators, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
- School LGBT case: The U.S. Supreme Court appeared inclined to rule in favor of Christian and Muslim parents in Maryland seeking to keep their elementary school children out of certain classes when storybooks with LGBT characters are read in the latest case involving the intersection of religion and LGBT rights. The plaintiffs contend that the school board's policy of prohibiting opt-outs violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections for free exercise of religion. Click here for the full story.
- U.S. climate charity tax: The U.S. administration has no immediate plans to strip climate-focused non-profit organizations of their tax-exempt status, a White House official said. This comes as a political law firm, Sandler Reiff circulated a memo, seen by Reuters, to its non-profit and philanthropy clients advising them not to panic if the administration attempts to revoke their tax-exempt status or freeze international work.
- COP30 goals: Hosts of this year's United Nations COP30 climate summit Brazil, chose as its main goal of urging Europe, China, and other developing economies to commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, three people with knowledge of the country's plans told Reuters. Brazilian diplomats want large economies to file new emissions targets, called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), by September. Most countries missed a February deadline.
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Farmer Moises Schmidt holds a cocoa bean in the middle of the Schmidt Agricola plantation in Riachao das Neves, Bahia state, Brazil. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli |
Today's spotlight offers a glimmer of hope for frustrated chocolate lovers around the world – myself included – who've been hit by shockingly high prices recently. Meet Moises Schmidt, a farmer in the Brazilian state of Bahia who is set on developing the world's largest cocoa farm. He plans to revolutionize the way the main ingredient in chocolate is produced, growing high-yield cocoa trees, fully irrigated and fertilized, in an area bigger than the island of Manhattan that is not currently known for producing the beans. Currently, the global cocoa industry is in crisis. Production is failing in Ivory Coast and neighboring Ghana, which, between them, grow more than 60% of the world's cocoa. A potent mix of plant disease, climate change, and aging plantations has led to three consecutive years of falling output. |
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Sustainable Switch was edited by Tomasz Janowski. |
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