October, 23 2020, 12:00am EDT
350 Action Responds to the Final Presidential Debate
WASHINGTON
The final presidential debate took place tonight in Nashville, Tennessee. With less than two weeks until voting finishes, candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden took the stage to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, race, climate change, national security, and leadership. Due to pressure from our movement, debate moderators have asked presidential candidates questions about climate change and environmental justice for thefirst time in 20 years.
350 Action North America Director Tamara Toles O'Laughlin gave the following response:
"It's undeniable that climate is a top issue for voters. At tonight's final debate, Joe Biden demonstrated the capacity for leadership our country needs and deserves, including tackling the climate crisis at scale. He doubled down on stopping fossil fuel subsidies, re-joining the Paris agreement, and creating millions of good, green jobs. We are committed to holding a Biden administration accountable to stop fracking and protect our communities. Black, Indigenous, and communities of color continue to bear the brunt of Donald Trump and his fossil fuel lies. It's time for a just transition for workers across the industry. The planet can't take four more years of Trump's deadly mismanagement and plain incompetence.
"Trump's latest performance demonstrated that he is terrified of losing. His panic was a steady drum beat of disinformation, white supremacist signaling, and pivoting from his pitiful record. His desperate tactics won't work on voters. In our homes and backyards, in the streets and virtually, we're getting out the polls to vote, and won't stop until sure that every vote is counted."
Nearly 30 million early voters have cast their ballots for this election -- staggering compared to the 6 million at this point in 2016. 350 Action endorsed the Biden/Harris ticket last month, and is committed to holding a Biden administration accountable to stop fracking, support a Green New Deal, and hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the climate crisis.
350 Action is the independent political action arm of the non-profit, non-partisan climate justice group 350.org.
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Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has illegally occupied it ever since, annexing the seized lands in 1981.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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