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For Immediate Release
January, 16 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Email:,coord(at)jubileeusa.org
IMF Chief Warns of Financial Disaster Driven by Inequality
WASHINGTON
IMF Head Kristalina Georgieva warns of a return of the Great Depression driven by inequality and financial sector instability in a speech delivered at the Peterson Institute of International Economics. Georgieva highlighted new IMF research that compares the current economy to the "roaring 1920s" economy that culminated in the great market crash of 1929.
"The IMF delivered a stark message about the potential for another massive financial disaster that we last experienced during the Great Depression," noted United Nations finance expert and Jubilee USA Director Eric LeCompte. "With inequality on the rise and concerns of stability in the markets, we need to take this warning seriously."
In addition to financial sector stability and growing inequality, Georgieva shared that we face additional challenges in the current economy.
"Trade problems and climate-driven weather events pose additional risks at this time," said LeCompte. "It's imperative that we ensure the financial sector is free of risky behavior and corruption if we want to protect ourselves from another global financial crisis."
Read Georgieva's full speech here.
Jubilee USA Network is an interfaith, non-profit alliance of religious, development and advocacy organizations. We are 75 U.S. institutions and more than 750 faith groups working across the United States and around the globe. We address the structural causes of poverty and inequality in our communities and countries around the world.
(202) 783-3566LATEST NEWS
Trump Made Over $82 Million From His Businesses in Scotland, Ireland While President
The former Republican president's repeated promotion of his properties to the media and other world leaders amounted to "diplomatic malpractice," one ethics official said.
Jun 05, 2023
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is now running for a second term in the 2024 election, made $82.5 million from his businesses in Ireland and Scotland during his presidency as he embroiled himself in what one watchdog group called "extraordinary conflicts of interest" stemming from his frequent trips to his properties in the two countries while he was in office.
As Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reported on Monday, Trump repeatedly promoted his properties to the media and other officials as well as charging U.S. government employees to stay there.
Trump stayed at his Doonbeg golf property in Ireland and his Turnberry and Aberdeen golf resorts in Scotland numerous times, in some cases taking detours to stay there while claiming he did so out of "convenience."
\u201cNEW: Donald Trump made $82.5 million from his businesses in the UK and Ireland while serving as President, a @CREWcrew analysis of his tax returns revealed. That created conflicts of interest and reflected use of the presidency to promote his properties.\nhttps://t.co/DGVZiuyo7J\u201d— Noah Bookbinder (@Noah Bookbinder) 1685974512
The president made those trips after making the unprecedented decision not to divest from his real estate empire, the Trump Organization, CREW noted.
That decision led "to four years of egregious conflicts of interest between his business and the government," said CREW in its new report, with some of the worst arising "around his Doonbeg golf course in Ireland, where he made almost $25 million, and his Turnberry and Aberdeen golf properties in Scotland, which helped him make more than $58 million."
While in Europe for a NATO summit and a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Trump went out of his way to spent two nights at Turnberry, later charging his own Secret Service officers $1,300.
A Freedom of Information Act request showed that during former Vice President Mike Pence's 2019 stay at Doonbeg—which was encouraged by Trump, according to Pence's chief of staff—the resort charged the Secret Service more than $15,000.
The then-president and members of his administration mentioned Turnberry, Doonbeg, and Aberdeen at least 50 times during Trump's four years in office, with Trump referring to Turnberry as "magical" at the NATO summit in 2018 and talking to local officials in Ireland about Doonbeg's impact on the economy in 2019.
He reportedly "boasted" about Turnberry frequently in conversations with former U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, and pushed the U.S. ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, to lobby for the British Open golf tournament to be held at the resort.
At the time of the latter incident in 2020, Norman Eisen, former special counsel for ethics for President Barack Obama, called Trump's actions "diplomatic malpractice."
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Palestinian Toddler Muhammad Tamimi Dies Days After Israeli Forces Shot Him in Head
"What accountability will there be for the Israeli soldier(s) who opened fire into a Palestinian community and shot a two-year-old in the head?" asked one journalist. "The track record isn't promising."
Jun 05, 2023
A two-and-a-half-year-old Palestinian boy shot in the head last week by Israeli forces—who initially denied shooting the toddler—succumbed to his wounds on Monday.
Muhammad Tamimi and his father, Haytham Tamimi, were in their parked car outside their home in Nabi Saleh village near Ramallah in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine last Thursday when they came under fire from Israeli troops.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that a preliminary investigation found that two Palestinian resistance fighters fired on the illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish—located in the southwestern Samarian Hills north of Ramallah—around 7:30 pm and that IDF troops stationed nearby returned fire, hitting Muhammad Tamimi in the head and his father in the chest.
\u201cAs news was breaking of the father and son having been shot, a claim that Palestinian gunmen were to blame - rather than Israeli soldiers - was quickly shared by army sources, Israeli journalists, & other social media accounts.\u201d— Ben White (@Ben White) 1685781244
Israeli officials initially claimed the Tamimis were shot by "terrorists" before admitting the pair was likely hit by mistake, expressing "regret" over the incident, and stating that the shootings were "being investigated in depth," according toThe Times of Israel.
"The question is," said British journalist and Palestinian rights advocate Ben White, "what accountability will there be for the Israeli soldier(s) who opened fire into a Palestinian community and shot a two-year-old in the head? The track record isn't promising."
About half an hour after the father and son were shot, an IDF jeep "stormed the village and started firing live bullets directly at the houses," according to the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
ISM said 17-year-old Wissam Tamimi, who was standing on the roof of his family's home, was struck in the head with a sponge-tipped round and suffered a fractured skull.
\u201cPhotojournalist Bilal Tamimi was directly shot at by Israeli forces during an incursion in Nabi Saleh last night, despite identifying himself as a journalist to the soldiers.\n\nThis happened following the shooting of a 2 year old toddler and his father by Israeli soldiers.\u201d— Jalal (@Jalal) 1685694273
ISM continued:
After that, three snipers positioned themselves on the roof of one of the shops opposite the citizens' homes and fired live bullets and sponge bombs at anyone who moved, whether inside the houses or on the rooftops. The journalist and volunteer at B'Tselem, Bilal Tamimi, who was wearing a press uniform, helmet, and shield, was wounded after a soldier fired a sponge bomb directly and from a close range which broke his wrist and required surgery for a platinum implant. The house of journalist Bilal Tamimi continued to be targeted with live bullets, gas canisters, and sponge bombs, as a result of which his mother, who had kidney failure, suffocated.
Palestinian medics took Haytham Tamimi to a hospital in Ramallah, while an Israeli military helicopter rushed the critically injured toddler to Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel. The child was placed on life support until he was pronounced dead on Monday morning.
\u201cPalestinians bid farewell to the child Mohammed Tamimi (2) who died today after Isr*eli forces shot him in the head with live ammunition with his father on June 1 in Nabi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. #FreePalestine\u201d— Sarah Hassan (@Sarah Hassan) 1685984917
On Friday, Israeli occupation forces returned to Nabi Saleh and forced many of the village's residents out of their homes, not allowing them to return until they withdrew at dawn on Saturday. At approximately 4:30 pm, Israeli troops shot Noura Tamimi in the stomach with a sponge-tipped round, causing severe convulsions that required hospitalization. Kafa Tamimi, who is seven months pregnant, choked on tear gas after Israeli troops fired a canister of the chemical agent through her window.
On Saturday night, occupation forces invaded the village yet again, storming homes, beating residents, and terrorizing the community.
"The incitement for this attack stems from the settlers' repeated attempts to intimidate the villagers, with the most recent incident occurring just last week," resident Manal Tamimi told ISM, referring to Jewish residents of the apartheid colony of Halamish, also known as Neve Tzuf.
"In light of these distressing events, we urgently call upon the international community to ensure the protection of this small village, with a population not exceeding 650 people," Tamimi added. "It is imperative that international humanitarian law and international treaties are upheld, and immediate action is taken to halt the repeated attacks by both the occupation forces and settlers. Over the past decade alone, these aggressions have tragically resulted in the martyrdom of five young individuals from the village."
For years, Nabi Saleh was the site of weekly Friday demonstrations against Israeli settler colonization, land theft, and seizure of the village's spring.
This year alone, around 150 Palestinians—both resistance fighters and civilians—have been killed by Israeli occupation forces and settlers. This figure includes 28 children. Palestinian militants, meanwhile, have killed about 20 Israelis so far this year.
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US Supreme Court Rejects Big Oil Challenge to Offshore Fracking Ban in California
"As the climate crisis escalates," said one advocate, "ending these destructive extraction practices is a matter of survival—not just for the whales, otters, and other animals in the channel, but for all life on earth."
Jun 05, 2023
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a call from several fossil fuel companies to hear their challenge to a lower court ruling handed down a year ago, which prohibited fracking in federal waters off the coast of California.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last June upheld a decision to bar the issuing of permits for offshore fracking, finding that the U.S. Department of the Interior had violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Coastal Zone Management Act when it allowed fracking in offshore gas and oil wells in the Pacific.
In the original case, the ruling was the result of three separate lawsuits filed by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Wishtoyo Foundation, the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, and the state of California, challenging the federal government.
Earlier this year, fossil fuel companies ExxonMobil and DCOR, LLC were joined by the American Petroleum Institute in intervening in the case, filing a petition for certiorari in an effort to overturn the 9th Circuit ruling.
Despite the history of the case, the Biden administration opposed the fossil fuel companies' move, with Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar writing in a Supreme Court brief last week that "the court of appeals' decision does not warrant this court's review."
"California's amazing coast and vulnerable marine life deserve this victory, which will protect the ecosystem from the many dangers of offshore fracking," said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at CBD. "The fracking ban will help prevent more toxic chemicals from poisoning fish, sea otters, and other marine life."
EDC filed its lawsuit after finding in 2014 through several Freedom of Information Act requests that the federal government had issued more than 50 permits without conducting environmental reviews or a public comment process.
\u201cBig news in our Supreme Court case upholding a ban on offshore fracking. EDC discovered the federal government had approved 50 permits off the coast without proper review, and we filed our original lawsuit in 2014.\u201d— Environmental Defense Center (@Environmental Defense Center) 1685986264
CBD published a report that same year showing that offshore fracking near Los Angeles and Santa Barbara posed a serious risk to marine species that could be exposed to toxic chemicals as well as increasing air pollution and the chance of an earthquake.
At least 10 chemicals that were routinely used in fracking operations off the California coast before the 9th Circuit ruling was handed down were found to be harmful and even deadly to marine animals including sea otters and fish.
"The Supreme Court was right to reject the oil industry's latest attempt to allow fracking and acidizing in our waters with zero meaningful environmental review," said Maggie Hall, senior attorney at EDC, on Monday. "The Santa Barbara Channel is one of the most ecologically rich and important regions in the world. As the climate crisis escalates, ending these destructive extraction practices is a matter of survival—not just for the whales, otters, and other animals in the channel, but for all life on earth."
The decision upheld by the Supreme Court forbids the Interior Department from issuing fracking permits without completing an assessment of the practice's adherence to the ESA and files an environmental impact statement that analyzes "the environmental impacts of extensive offshore fracking" and evaluates alternatives.
"Protecting the health of the ocean is essential to conserving the ecosystem upon which Chumash people have thrived for more than 10,000 years," said Mati Waiya, executive director of the Wishtoyo Foundation, which works to protect Chumash heritage and the environment. "We celebrate the appellate court's decision, which by upholding environmental laws, honors the rights of our people and protects our precious, coastal resources."
Monsell expressed hope that the Supreme Court's decision marks "the beginning of the end of drilling off California's coast" but noted that the Biden administration has welcomed fossil fuel extraction in federal waters, including in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Our ocean won't be truly protected," she said, "until offshore drilling stops once and for all."
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