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350.org on State Department's Rejection of TransCanada's Delay: 'That has to hurt'
Activists will launch four days of sit-ins at the Canadian Prime Minister’s office in Ottawa this Thursday to urge him to freeze new tar sands development
WASHINGTON
350.org communications director Jamie Henn issued the following reaction to the news that the State Department had rejected TransCanada's attempt to pause a review of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline:
"That has to hurt. The State Department recognized TransCanada's request for what is: a brazen political attempt to pause a process that long ago should have reached the inevitable conclusion that Keystone XL is a climate disaster and cannot be approved. Now that he's called TransCanada for delay of game, it's time for President Obama to blow the whistle and end this pipeline once and for all.
The tar sands industry is on the ropes. That's why tomorrow morning, 350.org Canada is launching four days of sit-ins at Prime Minister Trudeau's office to demand a freeze on new tar sands development and a just transition to 100% renewable energy. Real climate leadership means keeping fossil fuels in the ground. It's timing politicians in North America start walking the talk on climate."
This Thursday, Climate activists are launching four days of sit-ins at the Canadian Prime Minister's residence to push newly elected Justin Trudeau to freeze the expansion of the tar sands and support a just transition to 100% renewable energy.
Protesters are calling the action the "Climate Welcome," and will attempt to present Trudeau with a "gift" of boxes of millions of signatures from petitions opposing pipeline and tar sands expansion. Dozens are expected to risk arrest each day during a sit-ins in front of the Prime Minister's office.
The Climate Welcome protest, organized by 350.org Canada, is modeled on the 2011 Tar Sands Action sit-ins at the White House that led to the arrests of over 1,200 people and helped elevate the Keystone XL pipeline as the largest environmental fight in a generation.
The sit-ins in Ottawa will continue throughout the weekend, as youth, indigenous leaders, environmentalists, and people from across Canada urge the Prime Minister to support bold climate action ahead of the Paris climate talks this December.
When: November 5-8, 2015; Press conference at Rideau Falls at 9:45 a.m., march begins towards Rideau Hall at 11 a.m., arriving at Rideau Hall and attempting gift presentation at 11:30 a.m.
Where: March begins at Rideau Falls at 11 a.m. each day, arriving at Rideau Hall for sit-in at 11:30 a.m.
Visuals: Large group sit-in at the Prime Minister's residence, youth marching with signs led by First Nations and Indigenous Metis People, large banners, singing and chanting, dozens of reports detailing the scientific, economic and human rights case for freezing tar sands expansion and building a justice-based clean energy economy.
Twitter: @350Canada #ClimateWelcome #AccueilClimat
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
LATEST NEWS
As Billionaires Seethe, Organizers Say Proposed Wealth Tax in California Is 'Not Radical'
"Asking the handful of wealthiest Californians to contribute less than the annual appreciation on their fortunes to mitigate these crises is a small, reasonable, and administrable request," argued a group of experts.
Jan 02, 2026
Billionaire outrage against a proposed one-time wealth tax on the richest Californians reached a fever pitch in recent days as organizers began the process of gathering the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to get the initiative on the November ballot.
Without providing specifics, billionaire Bay Area investor Chamath Palihapitiya claimed in a social media post that he knows people "with a collective net worth of $500 billion" who "scrambled and left California for good yesterday" to avoid the potential 5% wealth tax, which would apply to billionaires living in California as of January 1, 2026. (The evidence for significant billionaire tax avoidance via physical relocation is virtually nonexistent.)
Palihapitiya characterized the proposed ballot initiative, which is aimed at raising revenue to avert a healthcare crisis spurred by federal Medicaid cuts, as an "asset seizure tax."
Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who lives in New York, similarly described the proposed tax as "an expropriation of private property."
The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, meanwhile, published a hostile editorial on Thursday denouncing the proposed tax and mocking its supporters, including Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW).
"Many progressives think of taxation the way teenage boys think about cologne: If some is good, more must be great," the editorial reads. "California, already reeks of overtaxation, but it’s thinking about trying out its most potent scent yet: a wealth tax. Just a whiff has some of the state’s wealthiest residents fleeing."
The Wall Street Journal reported that "the firms of two high-profile California investors issued announcements on New Year’s Eve about establishing new offices out of state, without saying anything about the proposed Golden State tax."
"Tech investor Peter Thiel’s investment firm, Thiel Capital, said it signed a lease in December for office space in Miami," the newspaper added. "The office will 'complement Thiel Capital’s existing operations in Los Angeles,' the company said."
Supporters say the response from billionaires and other opponents of the proposed tax—including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is helping raise money to fight the initiative—badly misses the mark. According to organizers, most billionaires see larger capital gains increases in months than the amount they would pay if California voters approved the tax.
“Asking those who have benefited most from the economy to contribute more—particularly to stabilize healthcare systems under direct threat—is not radical. It is reasonable,” Suzanne Jimenez, the chief of staff of SEIU-UHW, told the Journal.
Earlier this week, as Common Dreams reported, US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) endorsed the proposed wealth tax, which proponents say would raise roughly $100 billion in revenue from around 200 California billionaires. Under the proposal, most of the resulting revenue would be allocated to a Billionaire Tax Health Account, while the rest would go toward an account to fund food assistance and education.
A new expert analysis of the proposal, authored by some of those involved in drafting the initiative, argues that the one-time tax is urgent because "decisions at the federal level have put—and will put—California's healthcare system, education system, and broader economy under severe stress."
"Asking the handful of wealthiest Californians to contribute less than the annual appreciation on their fortunes to mitigate these crises is a small, reasonable, and administrable request," the experts write. "And that is all that this ballot measure does."
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Trump Ends 2025 by Bombing More Boats, Bringing Death Toll to at Least 115
Journalists called out missing details from the latest disclosures, with one outlet saying that "US authorities no longer bother to specify where they're conducting the extrajudicial murders."
Jan 01, 2026
President Donald Trump's administration ended 2025 by driving up the death toll from its boat-bombing spree aimed at alleged drug smugglers, announcing US strikes on five more vessels that brought the total number of people killed to at least 115.
Legal experts and some members of Congress have condemned the dozens of deadly strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since September 2 as "war crimes, murder, or both," but that hasn't stopped the administration from dropping more bombs.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said on social media Wednesday afternoon that the previous day, at the direction of US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, "Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted kinetic strikes against three narco-trafficking vessels traveling as a convoy," which killed three people on the first boat.
"The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels," added SOUTHCOM, which notified the US Coast Guard "to activate the search and rescue system."
The Trump administration has faced particular criticism for its first boat attack, in which the US military killed a pair of survivors of an initial strike who were clinging to debris. Since then, two other survivors have been captured by the United States and returned to their home countries, Colombia and Ecuador. In another case, Mexican authorities searched for but never found a survivor.
The Washington Post's Dan Lamothe on Wednesday called out the "woeful gaps in disclosure in this new statement," noting: "1) No details about where this occurred—not even a body of water. 2) It says a search and rescue effort was initiated, but includes no details about what has happened in the roughly 24 hours since. 3) How many survivors?"
Reuters correspondent Idrees Ali reported: "A US official tells me that eight people abandoned ship and are now being searched for. The Coast Guard says it is working with vessels in the area and a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft has been deployed to the Pacific to help in the search."
Just hours after its first statement, SOUTHCOM said the task force "conducted a lethal kinetic strike" on two more boats Wednesday, killing "three in the first vessel and two in the second."
As with the earlier post, there was a video but SOUTHCOM declined to disclose the location. Venezuelanalysis responded on social media, "US authorities no longer bother to specify where they're conducting the extrajudicial murders."
Although the US Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to declare war, the Trump administration has argued that the strikes are justified because the United States is in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels, which the president has designated as terrorist organizations.
Despite lawmakers in both major parties rejecting that argument, both Republican-controlled chambers of Congress have so far failed to advance various war powers resolutions aimed at ending the boat bombings and reining in Trump's march toward war with Venezuela—which he also attacked in December, according to Monday reporting.
After SOUTHCOM on Monday announced a Sunday boat strike that killed two people in the Pacific, Amnesty International USA declared on social media: "Once again, this is murder, plain and simple. Tell Congress to put a stop to it."
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Tax the Rich, Say Mamdani, Sanders, and NYC Inauguration Crowd
"For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it," said the new mayor. "Our City Hall will change that."
Jan 01, 2026
"Tax the rich. Tax the rich. Tax the rich."
The chants broke out at City Hall in New York on Thursday as US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) addressed the crowd before swearing in Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who campaigned on a platform that prioritized NYC's working class.
"Demanding that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes is not radical. It is exactly the right thing to do," declared Sanders—who endorsed Mamdani even before his June primary victory over former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and "the billionaire-backed status quo."
The 34-year-old mayor on Thursday described Brooklyn-born Sanders—50 years his senior—as "the man whose leadership I seek most to emulate, who I am so grateful to be sworn in by today."
During the afternoon inauguration ceremony—which followed an early morning swearing-in at the abandoned subway station beneath City Hall—Mamdani also called for taxing the rich as he reiterated the agenda that secured him over 1.1 million votes in November.
"Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try," he said. "To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers' lives."
"Here, where the language of the New Deal was born, we will return the vast resources of this city to the workers who call it home," Mamdani vowed. "Not only will we make it possible for every New Yorker to afford a life they love once again, we will overcome the isolation that too many feel, and connect the people of this city to one another."
The mayor said that "the cost of childcare will no longer discourage young adults from starting a family, because we will deliver universal childcare for the many by taxing the wealthiest few. Those in rent-stabilized homes will no longer dread the latest rent hike, because we will freeze the rent."
"Getting on a bus without worrying about a fare hike or whether you'll be late to your destination will no longer be deemed a small miracle, because we will make buses fast and free," he continued. "These policies are not simply about the costs we make free, but the lives we fill with freedom. For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it. Our City Hall will change that."
The ceremony also featured remarks from another early Mamdani supporter, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), as well as the swearing-in of Jumaane Williams for a third term as New York City's public advocate and Mark Levine, the new comptroller.
"New York, we have chosen courage over fear," said Ocasio-Cortez, whose district spans the Bronx and Queens. "We have chosen prosperity for the many over spoils for the few. And when the entrenched ways would rather have us dig in our feet and seek refuge in the past, we have chosen instead to turn towards making a new future for all of us."
AOC: New York City has chosen the ambitious pursuit of universal childcare, affordable rents and housing and clean and dignified public transit for all. We have chosen that over the distractions of bigotry and the barbarism of extreme income inequality
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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 1, 2026 at 1:47 PM
As NYC kicked off the new year with progressive city leadership, 2025 findings from the Bloomberg Billionaire Index sparked fresh wealth tax demands. According to the tracker, the world's 500 richest people added a record $2.2 trillion to their collective fortunes last year. About a quarter of that went to just eight Big Tech billionaires: Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg.
In New York, Mamdani has proposed raising the state corporate tax rate from 8.85% to 11.5% and hiking taxes for individuals who make more than $1 million a year. Achieving those goals would require cooperation from state legislators.
Mamdani acknowledged Thursday that for much of history, the response from City Hall to the question of who New York belongs to has been, "It belongs only to the wealthy and well-connected, those who never strain to capture the attention of those in power."
In the years ahead, he pledged, "City Hall will deliver an agenda of safety, affordability, and abundance, where government looks and lives like the people it represents, never flinches in the fight against corporate greed, and refuses to cower before challenges that others have deemed too complicated."
"Together, we will tell a new story of our city," the mayor said. "This will not be a tale of one city, governed only by the 1%. Nor will it be a tale of two cities, the rich versus the poor. It will be a tale of 8.5 million cities, each of them a New Yorker with hopes and fears, each a universe, each of them woven together."
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