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For Immediate Release
November, 20 2015, 12:00pm EDT
Contact:
Dan Byrnes: (202) 495-3039 or daniel.byrnes@sierraclub.org
World Trade Organization Puts Dolphins At Risk
Today, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled against the dolphin-saving U.S. labeling program for tuna, calling it a "technical barrier to trade." Mexico brought the case against the U.S.
GENEVA
Today, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled against the dolphin-saving U.S. labeling program for tuna, calling it a "technical barrier to trade." Mexico brought the case against the U.S.
Since 1990, the United States has maintained a "dolphin-safe" labeling program for tuna that allows consumers to choose to purchase tuna caught in a manner that does not kill dolphins. The "dolphin-safe" label has contributed to a 97-percent reduction in dolphin deaths since the 1980s in Pacific waters where dolphins and tuna cohabitate.
Today's ruling marks the fourth time that the WTO has ruled against the U.S. label in the last four years and means that the U.S. could face WTO-authorized trade sanctions for maintaining the dolphin-saving label.
In response, Ilana Solomon, director of the Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program released the following statement:
"Americans want to know that the food they purchase and serve to their families does not come at the expense of wildlife. Today's WTO decision limits environmentally friendly choices for Americans, puts dolphins at risk, and and opens the door to further trade deal limits on consumer protections and environmental safeguards.
"This should serve as a warning against expansive trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would replicate rules that undermine safeguards for wildlife, clean air, and clean water.
"The U.S. government should not cave to pressure by weakening the dolphin-saving label. Instead, the U.S. should seek a negotiated solution with Mexico that keeps the label intact. After all, the United States government is ultimately accountable to the interests of the public, not to the interests of corporate-friendly trade organizations. Congress should also protect our safeguards by rejecting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would replicate the rules that the WTO used to strike down our dolphin-saving label."
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
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Israel Condemned as Sumud Flotilla Organizers Report 'Harsh Treatment' in Detention
US Rep. Ro Khanna demanded that Israel release American flotilla member David Adler, whose family has not heard from him since October 1.
Oct 05, 2025
US Congressman Ro Khanna on Sunday demanded the Israeli government's release of David Adler, a US citizen who was one of the organizers intercepted by Israeli forces last week after they came close to breaking the country's blockade on Gaza with the Global Sumud Flotilla.
As Marco Sermoneta, Israel's consul general to the Pacific Northwest in the US, dismissed reports that humanitarians who were aboard the flotilla's 50 boats are being deprived of food and water and mistreated in an Israeli detention center, Khanna (D-Calif.) called on the diplomat to confirm that Adler, a California resident, is a safe.
"I am most concerned about David Adler, a Californian and Jewish American, who is in the Ketziot prison," said Khanna. "I spoke to his sister last night and their family is deeply anxious. Can you assure us he will be released and sent home safely?"
Khanna said Saturday that Adler's family has not had contact with him since October 1, the day before a majority of the flotilla's boats were stopped from reaching Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.
The congressman said he plans to lead a delegation letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Leiter on Monday and expressed hope that "every colleague, particularly every California member, will sign."
"Our government must stand up for an American citizen's fair treatment and release," said Khanna.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Saturday that 137 of the rights advocates who were aboard the flotilla had been deported to Turkey; they were from the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States.
More than 400 humanitarians, lawmakers, and lawyers were aboard the vessels, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who told Swedish officials Saturday that she has been "subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody" in recent days.
The Guardian obtained correspondence from Sweden's Foreign Ministry that described Israeli authorities taking photos of the climate campaigner "holding flags," the identity of which was not reported.
“The embassy has been able to meet with Greta,” reads an email sent by the Foreign Ministry to people close to Thunberg and viewed by The Guardian. “She informed of dehydration. She has received insufficient amounts of both water and food. She also stated that she had developed rashes which she suspects were caused by bedbugs. She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.”
Turkish activist Ersin Çelik, who also participated in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu that Israeli authorities "dragged little Greta by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others."
Another humanitarian told reporters that the Sumud flotilla campaigners had been "woken up at 3 in the morning with dogs and snipers walking into our rooms" and prevented from having medicine.
"If Netanyahu's government is treating Greta Thunberg this way, imagine how they are treating women and children in Gaza," said Khanna on Sunday.
Talks on a peace plan between Israel and Hamas, proposed last week by US President Donald Trump, are scheduled to begin Monday in Egypt. Hamas has said it is willing to release the remaining hostages the group has been holding captive in Gaza since October 7, 2023 in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians detained by Israel.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people across Europe marched in solidarity with the flotilla members and with Gaza, where more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel—with the backing of the US and a number of European governments—since October 2023.
Organizers in Rome said 1 million people turned out for the demonstration that was planned after Israel's interception of the flotilla; police said 250,000 people marched. Spanish campaigners said hundreds of thousands of people rallied in every major city in the country, while smaller protests were reported in cities including Paris, Lisbon, Athens, and London.
Families attended a rally in Barcelona—whose former mayor, Ada Colau, was among the participants in the flotilla—and held signs with messages including, "Stop the Genocide,” and “Hands off the flotilla.”
On Sunday, protests in support of the flotilla and Gaza continued in countries including South Africa and Amsterdam.
Aaron Bastani of Novara Media said it was likely not "a coincidence that David Adler remains in prison, has not been in contact with his family, and has reputedly suffered significant ill treatment."
"The biggest problem for [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the Israeli right, long term," said Bastani, "is anti-Zionist Jewish Americans."
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White House Responds With 'Authoritarian Propaganda' as Judge Blocks National Guard in Portland
A federal judge in Oregon found that the White House's claims about "war-ravaged" Portland were "untethered to facts," and that the reality on the ground does not meet the threshold for deploying the National Guard.
Oct 05, 2025
Top Trump administration adviser Stephen Miller was accused of spreading dangerous "propaganda" Saturday night regarding the federal judge who ruled that the White House could not deploy 200 National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon.
The White House deputy chief of staff accused US District Judge Karin Immergut, who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, of "legal insurrection" after she found that the president's claims about violent protests at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland were "untethered to facts," and that residents' expressions of opposition to ICE do not meet the high legal standard for calling the National Guard.
Miller claimed authorities in Oregon and Portland are aiding "an organized terrorist attack on the federal government and its officers" by refusing to aid ICE agents, and claimed Immergut was attempting to assume the role of "commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces" by siding with state officials and issuing a temporary restraining order blocking the National Guard deployment, which was expected to begin this weekend.
Immergut said the state had provided “substantial evidence that the protests at the Portland ICE facility were not significantly violent or disruptive in the days—or even weeks—leading up to the president’s directive.”
Portland residents who oppose Trump's mass deportation agenda began holding nightly demonstrations at the ICE facility over the summer, with some trying to block vehicles from entering and exiting the property. Crowds have dispersed quickly during the daytime, while at night federal officers have sometimes used tear gas and other weapons to move people away from the building. The Portland police have reported 27 arrests since early June at the protests, and at least two dozen people have been arrested by federal officers.
While the president has described Portland as "war-ravaged," Immergut said that the protests fall far below the threshold for ordering federal troops to Portland, which the president has the authority to do only in times of foreign invasion, a rebellion, or when local authorities are unable to maintain order.
"The protests have been such a minor issue that the normal nightlife in downtown Portland has required more police resources than the ICE facility," said Immergut.
The judge added that the US "has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs... This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law. Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of the nation."
Miller's accusation that Immergut was taking part in a "legal insurrection" by rejecting Trump's false claims about the nature of the protests was "reckless," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
"It’s authoritarian propaganda, plain and simple. Stephen Miller should be fired," said the Democrat.
New York Times columnist David French added that Miller's claims put Immergut in potential danger, as right-wing counterprotesters have arrived in Portland in recent days.
Immergut's temporary order is set to expire in two weeks, but she is expected to rule on the state's request for a more permanent injunction barring the deployment of the National Guard.
The Trump administration on Saturday night appealed Immergut's ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which previously ruled that Trump could send the National Guard to Los Angeles to stop anti-ICE protests after a federal judge had decided that deployment should be halted.
In addition to seeking the National Guard deployment, the administration has reportedly discussed sending the Army's 82nd Airborne division, which is typically deployed in hostile foreign territory, into Portland.
On Saturday, Miller repeated claims that "there is a large and growing movement of left-wing terrorism in this country" that is "well organized and funded" and "shielded by far-left Democrat judges." Immergut is a Republican.
"The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks," said Miller.
Since the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk last month, the president and his allies have insisted that left-wing groups are fomenting violence, with Trump signing an executive order falsely claiming he has the authority to designate "antifa" as a "domestic terrorist organization"—despite the fact that no "antifa" organization exists.
The president also signed National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), which mandates a “national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.”
On Saturday, Miller said on Newsmax that the administration intends to apply NSPM-7 in Portland, initiating investigations into what he called a "domestic terrorist network" whenever federal agents make an arrest at a protest.
Miller, said investigative reporter Jim Stewartson, "collapsed Democrats, 'far-left Democrat judges', and 'antifa' into a single domestic terror threat as a pretext for mass arrests."
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Pritzker Condemns Trump Plan to Send National Guard to Chicago as 'Outrageous and Un-American'
"They will pull hardworking Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance—not a serious effort the protect public safety," said the governor.
Oct 04, 2025
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Saturday said the US Department of Defense had given him an ultimatum.
"Call up your troops, or we will," Pritzker, a Democrat, said the Trump administration had told him, signaling that President Donald Trump plans to move forward with federalizing Illinois' National Guard and deploying the forces to crack down on crime in Chicago—where, like other cities that Trump has sent federal troops to in recent months, crime is on the decline.
“It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will," said Pritzker.
Federal law prohibits the deployment of military forces for domestic law enforcement, but the president has sent troops into cities including Los Angeles; Washington, DC; and Portland to crack down on protests against his mass deportation agenda, unhoused people, and what he claims, despite all evidence, is a nationwide crime wave.
Pritzker said the Department of Defense, which the administration has attempted to rebrand as the "Department of War," had threatened to federalize 300 National Guard troops in Chicago.
The announcement comes days after Trump said in a speech at Quantico, Virginia, where generals and admirals were called from US bases all over the world to attend an event with the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, that the government aims to "use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds” for the military.
“We’re going into Chicago very soon,” Trump said.
The president has deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago and the surrounding area in recent weeks to carry out his mass deportation campaign. ICE operations in the city has so far resulted in a raid on an apartment complex in which US citizens were detained for hours outside in the cold; the fatal shooting of a man by an ICE agent; the firing of a chemical agent at a reporter near an ICE facility; and an agent slamming congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh at a protest, among other violent incidents.
Pritzker said the deployment of the National Guard is expected in "the coming hours."
"They will pull hardworking Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance—not a serious effort the protect public safety," said the governor. "For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control."
"I want to be clear: There is no need for military troops on the ground in the state of Illinois," said Pritzker. "In Illinois, we will do everything within our power to look out for our neighbors, uphold the Constitution, and defend the rule of law."
Also on Saturday, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that a top deputy to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller accidentally leaked plans to sent the Army's 82nd Airborne Division—an elite unit accustomed to fighting in hostile territory—into Portland as part of Trump's plan to "fight Antifa," which is not an organized group but rather an anti-fascist ideology.
Anthony Salisbury was observed using Signal in a public area to talk with an aide to Hegseth about the plans last weekend.
Portland and Oregon sued Trump this week to stop him from federalizing the state's National Guard.
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