July, 18 2024, 12:36pm EDT
Sunrise on RNC Convention: "The GOP is silent on the environment because their agenda is politically toxic"
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
In response to the RNC Convention, Sunrise Movement Communications Director, Stevie O’Hanlon, released the following statement:
"It's the last day of the Republican National Convention, and national Republicans have made it clear that they have no plans to address climate change, and don’t even want to talk about it.
The RNC has released a party platform that promises to “DRILL, BABY, DRILL” and increase the production of oil, gas, and coal. Trump has promised to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency and end decades-old protections for our air and water that save lives and protect our health.
However, during the RNC this week, even these plans were missing from prime-time speeches. The absence is glaring. Republicans are dodging talking about the climate because they side with oil and gas billionaires, not the vast majority of Americans who support the U.S. taking steps to reduce climate change.
With heat wave after heat wave this summer, climate change is increasingly on people’s minds. Heading into November, voters will be considering if they want to risk another year of climate disasters.
Make no mistake. Just because Republicans don't want to talk about their climate plans to voters, doesn’t mean that their radical, anti-climate agenda that empowers oil and gas billionaires to destroy our planet won’t be a top priority for a second Trump administration. Another Trump Presidency would cause catastrophic and irreversible damage to our climate."
Sunrise Movement is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
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Caving to Trump, Canada Drops Tax on US Tech Firms
One journalist accused Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of chickening out.
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Acquiescing to pressure from the Trump administration, the Canadian government announced on Sunday that the country will rescind the digital services tax, a levy that would have seen large American tech firms pay billions of dollars to Canada over the next few years.
The Sunday announcement from the Canadian government cited "anticipation of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement" as the reason for the rescission.
"Today's announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025, timeline set out at this month's G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis," said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the statement.
The digital services tax impacts companies that make over $20 million in revenue from Canadian users and customers through digital services like online advertising and shopping. Companies like Uber and Google would have paid a 3% levy on the money they made from Canadian sources, according to CBC News.
The reversal comes after U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday blasted the digital services tax, calling it a "direct and blatant attack on our country" on Truth Social.
Trump said he was suspending trade talks between the two countries because of the tax. "Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period," Trump wrote. The United States is Canada's largest trading partner.
Payments from tech firms subject to the digital services tax were due starting on Monday, though the tax has been in effect since last year.
"The June 30, 2025 collection will be halted," and Canada's Minister of Finance "will soon bring forward legislation to rescind the Digital Services Tax Act," according to the Sunday statement.
"If Mark Carney folds in response to this pressure from Trump on the digital services tax, he proves he can be pushed around," said Canadian journalist Paris Marx on Bluesky, speaking prior to the announcement of the rescission. "The tax must be enforced," he added.
"Carney chickens out too," wrote the author Doug Henwood on Twitter on Monday.
In an opinion piece originally published in Canadian Dimension before the announcement on Sunday, Jared Walker, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Canadians for Tax Fairness, wrote that all the money generated for the tax could mean "more federal money for housing, transit, and healthcare transfers—all from some of the largest and most under-taxed companies in the world."
Walker also wrote that the digital service tax could serve as a counterweight to the so-called "revenge tax" provision in Trump's sprawling domestic tax and spending bill.
Section 899, called "Enforcement of Remedies Against Unfair Foreign Taxes," would "increase withholding taxes for non-resident individuals and companies from countries that the U.S. believes have imposed discriminatory or unfair taxes," according to CBC. The digital services tax is one of the taxes the Trump administration believes is discriminatory.
"If 'elbows up' is going to be more than just a slogan, Canada can't cave to pressure when Donald Trump throws his weight around," wrote Walker, invoking the Canadian rallying cry in the face of American antagonism when it comes to trade.
"But this slogan also means the Carney government has to make sure it is working on behalf of everyday Canadians—not just the ultra-rich and big corporations that are only 'Canadian' when it's convenient," Walker wrote.
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"In my view, nobody in the Senate or the House should vote for this legislation," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
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"Over 50,000 Americans will die unnecessarily every year," said Sanders (I-Vt.), referring to a recent study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale, who examined the likely impacts of Republicans' proposed healthcare cuts.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated over the weekend that the Senate reconciliation package, which could pass as soon as Tuesday, would slash Medicaid by more than $1 trillion and strip health insurance from nearly 12 million Americans over the next decade.
All of that "to give tax breaks to billionaires who don't need them," Sanders said Sunday, calling the Republican legislation "a death sentence for low-income and working-class people."
"This legislation is the most significant attack on the healthcare needs of the American people in our country's history," the senator added.
Sanders' remarks came hours before the Senate was set to begin the notorious vote-a-rama process whereby senators can offer an unlimited number of amendments to the reconciliation package, which, if passed, would trigger what analysts have described as the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich under a single law in U.S. history.
The Vermont senator said Sunday that he intends to offer amendments aimed at slashing prescription drug costs, removing an estate tax break from the GOP legislation, and eliminating a provision that would give the Pentagon another $150 billion.
"We don't have enough money to feed hungry children," Sanders said sardonically. "We don't have enough money to make sure that people continue to have the healthcare that they need. Don't have enough money to make sure the kids can get a decent education. But somehow, the military-industrial complex is going to get another $150 billion."
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The U.S. president's comments came as Israel's military continued to kill Palestinians and order evacuations in the besieged enclave.
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"MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!" U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media early Sunday, as Israeli forces—armed with billions of dollars in military support from the United States—continued their nearly 21-month annihilation of the Palestinian territory.
Trump's Truth Social post came after he suggested on Friday that there could be a cease-fire deal between the Israeli government and Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that governed Gaza for nearly two decades and led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, "within the next week."
As The Associated Pressreported Sunday:
Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was set to travel to Washington this week for talks on a cease-fire, an Israeli official said, and plans were being made for Netanyahu to travel there in the coming weeks, a sign there may be movement on a deal.
Netanyahu was meeting with his Security Cabinet on Sunday evening, the official said on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that hadn't been finalized.
Trump's post calling for a deal also came just hours after he took to his Truth Social network to criticize the corruption trial that Netanyahu faces in Israel. Some critics of the prime minister have accused him of continuing the assault on Gaza to avoid his legal issues at home.
Saturday evening, Trump wrote:
It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu. He is a War Hero, and a Prime Minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran. Importantly, he is right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back. How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.). It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure. This travesty of “Justice” will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations. In other words, it is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu. The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this. We just had a Great Victory with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu at the helm—And this greatly tarnishes our Victory. LET BIBI GO, HE’S GOT A BIG JOB TO DO!
Then, Reutersrevealed Sunday that the Jerusalem District Court canceled this week's hearings for Netanyahu's trial, "accepting a request the Israeli leader made citing classified diplomatic and security grounds."
The news agency noted that "it was unclear whether a social media post by... Trump influenced the court's decision."
Meanwhile, Netanyahu's military kept slaughtering Palestinians in Gaza this weekend. In addition to the warrant for the prime minister issued last year by the International Criminal Court—which sparked retaliation from Trump—Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Gaza health officials said that as of midday Sunday, Israeli attacks had killed at least 86 people in the previous 24 hours, and put the death toll since October 2023 at 56,500, with 133,419 others wounded.
With thousands more Palestinians missing in the destroyed enclave, researchers have warned that the true toll could be far higher, particularly when accounting for deaths from causes such as disease, hunger, and exposure to cold temperatures.
The Israeli military on Sunday issued evacuation orders for neighborhoods in Gaza City and other northern areas of the strip.
According to the BBC:
Medics said five people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent housing displaced people in al-Mawasi near the southern city of Khan Younis—an area where people in the north had been told to evacuate to.
Five members of the Maarouf family, including three children, were killed.
"They bombed us while we were sleeping on the ground," their mother Iman Abu Maarouf said. "We didn't do anything wrong. My children were killed, and the rest are in intensive care."
Israel's attacks have crippled Gaza's healthcare system, and its blockade has limited the flow of essentials, from medical supplies to food. Israeli troops have also killed Palestinians seeking aid from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
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"The four distribution sites, all located in areas under the full control of Israeli forces after people had been forcibly displaced from there, are the size of football fields surrounded by watch points, mounds of earth, and barbed wire. The fenced entrance gives only one access point in or out," he said. "GHF workers drop the pallets and the boxes of food and open the fences, allowing thousands in all at once to fight down to the last grain of rice."
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