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350.org Responds to Appointment of Sultan al-Jaber as President of COP28 Climate Conference
NEW YORK
Zeina Khalil Hajj; Head of Global Campaigning & Organising 350.org
“The climate crisis demands urgent and real action, the appointment of Sultan al-Jaber, head of state oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) as President of UNFCCC COP28 is the equivalent of appointing the CEO of a cigarette company to oversee a conference on cancer cures. It risks jeopardising the entire UN climate progress. We are extremely concerned that it will open the floodgates for greenwashing and oil and gas deals to keep exploiting fossil fuels. COP 28 cannot turn into an expo for the fossil fuel industry, this flies in the face of all the robust scientific evidence and data given by industry players like the International Energy Agency that we must phase out fossil fuels for the chance of a liveable future.”
In November 2022, ADNOC announced an accelerated growth strategy to increase oil production from 3 million barrels of oil per day to 5 million by 2030.
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 Trump Slashes Food Aid, Sanders and Omar Lead Bill to ‘End Child Hunger in the United States’
"It is outrageous that, while the billionaire class has never had it so good, one in five children will go hungry in America this year," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
May 14, 2026
As federal food aid cuts enacted by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans wreak havoc across the US, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ilhan Omar on Wednesday led the reintroduction of legislation that would make free school meals available to every student in the country—regardless of family income.
The Universal School Meals Program Act of 2026 would offer free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to every student—including during the summer months—without forcing parents to fill out burdensome applications proving their income level.
The legislation would also reimburse schools for unpaid school meal debt, ending "the harassment of parents and students," according to a fact sheet released by Sanders' (I-Vt.) office. Supporters say the bill, if enacted, would "end child hunger in the United States."
“It is outrageous that, while the billionaire class has never had it so good, one in five children will go hungry in America this year,” the Vermont senator said in a statement Wednesday. “The United States is the richest country in the history of the world. Nobody should be going hungry. And what we learned during the pandemic is that a universal approach to school meals works and helps kids do better in school. States across the country continue to prove this every day. It is time for Congress to reinstate universal school meals at the national level to finally ensure no student goes hungry."
Omar (D-Minn.), a leading congressional champion of universal free school meals, said that "no child should have to sit in a classroom hungry or worried about where their next meal will come from."
"As a former nutrition educator and someone who experienced hunger firsthand, this fight is deeply personal to me," said Omar. "I have always believed you must feed kids’ bellies before you can feed their brains. That is why I am proud to partner again with Bernie Sanders to introduce the Universal School Meals Program Act, which would provide free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to students year-round. Universal school meals are not a luxury—they are a necessity.”
The updated legislation, which is backed by more than 100 lawmakers in the House and Senate, comes as Trump and the GOP's unprecedented cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) take hold nationwide, sending food bank demand surging as tens of thousands of families lose benefits. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has estimated that the SNAP cuts enacted as part of the 2025 Trump-GOP budget law would slash nutrition benefits for around a million children.
The School Nutrition Association said following passage of the Trump-GOP budget package that the law's SNAP cuts would mean that "fewer children are automatically eligible for free school meals as families lose SNAP and Medicaid benefits."
"As this bill is implemented and families lose access to food assistance through SNAP benefits, their children will also lose automatic eligibility for school meals, making access to nutrition more difficult or out of reach completely," SNA warned last summer. "Meanwhile, schools facing staff shortages and budget constraints will struggle to manage increased paperwork and application processing requirements."
Trump and Republicans are also pursuing additional food aid cuts by moving to slash funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in the coming fiscal year. A recent CBPP analysis found that congressional Republicans' proposed WIC cuts would strip "fruit and vegetable benefits from nearly 5.4 million toddlers, preschoolers, and pregnant and postpartum WIC participants."
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'Rotting Fish Around Our Necks': Harris Operative Gives Inside View of Gaza's Impact on 2024 Loss
Democratic insider Rob Flaherty revealed what he told the DNC for its still-unreleased autopsy of the 2024 election.
May 14, 2026
With the Democratic National Committee rejecting demands to release its autopsy of the 2024 presidential election, one Democratic Party insider has gone public with his own take on what went wrong.
In a lengthy analysis published by The Bulwark on Thursday, Rob Flaherty, former deputy campaign manager for Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign, revealed what he told DNC officials when they interviewed him for their post-election report.
Flaherty identified multiple problems with the Democrats' 2024 effort, one of them being President Joe Biden's support for Israel's assault on Gaza that has killed at least 72,000 Palestinians.
While Flaherty didn't say Gaza single-handedly cost Harris the election, he said it cast a dark shadow over the entire campaign.
"For many voters watching the horrific, painful footage out of Gaza, it became a moral question—one we didn’t have a good answer for," Flaherty said. "In ways that may not be reflected in a poll, it meaningfully reduced enthusiasm."
The Democratic insider then quoted another campaign official who told him that Biden's Gaza policy was "a giant, rotting fish around our necks" throughout the entire election.
Flaherty put the blame for this squarely on Biden, whom he said "misread the nation’s support for Israel as an endless, fixed object, and missed how much the ongoing visuals were seeping into the public consciousness."
He also predicted that Israeli brutality in the Gaza assault would permanently change the Democratic Party's stance toward Israel, even among traditionally pro-Israel Democrats.
"Senators who would never have considered it in years past are now signing on to the [Sen. Bernie] Sanders (I-Vt.) resolution to block offensive military aid to Israel," Flaherty noted. "Rahm Emanuel of all people is raising doubts about funding the Iron Dome. But we were seeing this emerge on the ground during the campaign. My hot take is that the eventual Democratic nominee in 2028 will support conditions on aid to Israel in one way or another."
While Gaza certainly cost Democrats in 2024, Flaherty argued an even bigger issue was the party's economic message, as voters simply did not believe that Harris would deliver meaningful change from the status quo overseen by Biden.
"In a country fervently pissed off at the status quo and with Biden’s numbers being what they were," he contended, "anyone from the Biden administration would have lost."
In contrast, Flaherty said, "Trump’s message was much clearer: 'The economy feels bad and Harris says it’s good,'" which he noted was "tough to argue with."
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California Officials Accuse Trump Admin of 'Political Retribution' as Vance Suspends Medicaid Payments
"Withholding reimbursements only further hurts patients, strains providers, and drives up costs," said one Democratic congresswoman. "We will fight this with everything we’ve got."
May 14, 2026
"Political retribution, plain and simple," was how US Sen. Alex Padilla described an announcement by Vice President JD Vance late Wednesday regarding the White House's decision to withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursement payments to California.
Vance and Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, claimed the state's Medicaid records have generated "red flags" and demanded officials clarify $630 million in billing, $500 million that's been spent on home health services, and $200 million in what Oz called "questionable expenditures," which he claimed had been used to provide coverage for undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible for Medicaid.
The announcement came a month after Vance's federal anti-fraud task force suspended the licenses of nearly 450 hospice care facilities and 23 home health agencies in the Los Angeles area, accusing them of fraud.
Vance also warned that all 50 states could soon see federal funding for their Medicaid Fraud Control Units frozen if they fail to "aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud."
"We can turn off other resources within their state Medicaid programs as well," said the vice president.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has frequently sparred with the Trump administration, said Vance and Oz were "attacking programs that keep seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes," which are far more expensive to run than home healthcare agencies.
Newsom said the growth of the state's In-Home Supportive Services program has saved taxpayers "$107,000 per person" by reducing reliance on nursing homes.
"MAGA hates in-home support programs—which help people stay out of costly institutional settings like nursing homes and get the care they deserve, typically from loved ones," said Newsom.
Newsom also said the Trump administration had informed state officials that the deadline to review California's Medicaid records "before deciding whether to defer funding" would be later in the month.
Democratic members of Congress warned that their constituents rely heavily on Medicaid, with seven out of 10 of the congressional districts with the highest Medicaid enrollment located in California.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) said that 56% of her constituents rely on "this lifesaving program," and many have already been harmed by the Republican Party's slashing of Medicaid funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
"Withholding reimbursements only further hurts patients, strains providers, and drives up costs," said Kamlager-Dove. "We will fight this with everything we’ve got."
Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) said more than 120,000 people in his district depend on the federal healthcare program for low-income households and people with disabilities.
"This administration needs to stop playing politics with people’s health and lives," said Panetta. "When people commit fraud, they should be punished accordingly. However, this administration continues to punish California for political purposes, including penalizing innocent people by taking their healthcare away."
State Attorney General Rob Bonta noted that California has "not hesitated to challenge unlawful actions by the Trump administration," and suggested the state could file a legal challenge against the withholding of Medicaid funds.
He also accused the administration of targeting the heavily Democratic state "for political reasons."
The anti-fraud task force led by Vance has so far exclusively focused on rooting out alleged fraud in federal programs in blue states. The White House suspended $259 million in federal payments to Minnesota earlier this year after a scandal regarding the state's social services system.
"The Trump administration is attacking California over claims that they can't back up," said Padilla. "Let's be real, this isn't about fraud—it's about punishing a state that didn't vote for" President Donald Trump.
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