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France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
Justice Dept sues California over transgender athletes
Female student athletes in California are being subjected to "unfair competition and reckless endangerment by male participation on female high-school sports teams," the department said. The lawsuit accuses California of violating Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding. The Justice Department suit is the latest salvo in a showdown between the administration of Republican President Donald Trump and the Democratic-ruled state. Trump sent thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles last month to quell protests against roundups of undocumented migrants by federal agents. California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the troops were not necessary to address the mostly peaceful protests, but his legal efforts to have them removed have failed so far. Trump threatened last month to impose "large scale" fines against California after a transgender high school athlete's victory at the state track and field championships. The Justice Department suit accuses the California Department of Education and California Interscholastic Federation of engaging in "illegal sex discrimination against female student athletes by allowing males to compete against them." "The Governor of California has previously admitted that it is 'deeply unfair' to force women and girls to compete with men and boys in competitive sports," Attorney General Pam Bondi said. "But not only is it 'deeply unfair,' it is also illegal under federal law." The Justice Department sued Maine in April for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports, and the Trump administration has moved to cut the northeastern state's federal funding for public schools. The Supreme Court agreed earlier this month to hear cases next term challenging state laws in Idaho and West Virginia banning transgender athletes from female competitions. More than two dozen US states have passed laws in recent years barring athletes who were assigned male at birth from taking part in girls or women's sports.
France 24
7 hours ago
- France 24
US senator warns of fossil fuel coup, economic reckoning
In an interview, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island blamed the sweeping rollback of environmental protections on a flood of unlimited, anonymous corporate political spending, and said exposing the scale of this "fraud" is key to breaking its grip. His remarks came as the death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas linked by scientists to climate change threatened to surge further. "This isn't even government any longer," the 69-year-old told a small group of reporters ahead of an address to Congress Wednesday -- his 300th so-called "Time to Wake Up" speech, delivered as activists reel from Trump's actions. "This is an occupying force from the fossil fuel industry that has injected itself into the key positions of responsibility," said the lawmaker. "It has the appearance of being government -- they ride around in the black cars... they have the offices, they have the titles," he said. But in reality, "they're fossil fuel flunkies... and they care not a whit for public opinion or public safety." Big Oil spent at least $445 million to help elect Trump, according to a recent analysis by Climate Power, which said its figure was likely a vast underestimate because of undisclosed donations. - Dark money takeover - In his second term, Republican Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, gutted science agencies, fired researchers and forecasters, scrapped his predecessor Joe Biden's clean energy tax cuts and rolled back powerplant and vehicle efficiency standards. Whitehouse calls it the oil, coal and gas industry's "most sordid dreams come true" and says the stage was set by the 2010 Supreme Court "Citizens United" ruling, which unleashed an era of unchecked corporate political spending. A former state attorney general who battled corporate polluters, he recalled that when he first joined the Senate, climate bipartisanship flourished: John McCain, the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee, had "a perfectly respectable climate platform," while Republican senators proposed bills. "These weren't little tiddlywinks, nibble-at-the-edges bills," he recalled, but would have genuinely changed the trajectory of climate emissions. Citizens United reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and opened the floodgates to dark money. "They were able to come into the Republican Party and say, 'We will give you unlimited amounts of money. You will have more money in your elections than you've ever seen before.'" - The way forward - Despite the bleak landscape, Whitehouse still sees a narrow path to climate safety — and points to several potential game changers. First, he cites the possible emergence of a global carbon pricing effort, spearheaded by the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which taxes importers based on their climate footprint. Countries like the UK, Canada, Mexico and Australia could join this movement, creating a de facto global price on carbon, enforced through trade -- without US legislation. Second, he says, Democrats can and must expose fossil fuel's stranglehold on the Republican party, a phenomenon he calls one of the "most grave incidents of political corruption and fraud that the country has ever seen," and pass a bill forcing donor transparency. Third, what was once framed as a crisis for polar bears -- and later as an opportunity for green jobs -- is today directly hitting Americans where it hurts most: their wallets. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has warned that climate change will shrink mortgage availability across swaths of the United States in the coming years as banks and insurers retreat from fire- and flood-prone regions. Risks could cascade from an insurance crunch into a broader mortgage collapse -- potentially triggering a 2008-style crash. Whitehouse predicts the fossil fuel industry's hold on Republicans won't last forever. "When it becomes clear what has been done here, then there's going to be a dramatic reset," he said. "A reckoning will come for this. There's no doubt about it -- it's just the nature of human affairs." Trump himself, he added, was merely swept along by the dominant current of the post-2010 Republican Party, with no ideological stake in the issue. As recently as 2009, he co-signed a full-page advertisement in the New York Times demanding stronger climate action from then president Barack Obama.
France 24
8 hours ago
- France 24
US sanctions UN rights expert for Palestinian territories
"Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (International Criminal Court) action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives," Rubio said on social media. In a subsequent statement he slammed the UN expert's strident criticism of the United States and said she recommended to the ICC that arrest warrants be issued targeting Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Rubio also attacked her for "biased and malicious activities," and accused her of having "spewed unabashed antisemitism (and) support for terrorism." He said she escalated her contempt for the United States by writing "threatening letters" to several US companies, making what Rubio called unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue prosecutions of the companies and their executives. "We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty," Rubio said. While Albanese was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, she does not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself. The Italy-born expert released a damning report earlier this month denouncing companies she said "profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide" in the occupied Palestinian territories. The report provoked a furious response from Israel, while some of the named companies also raised objections. Albanese has leveled broadsides against the policies of Israel in Gaza, and of US President Donald Trump, particularly the plan he announced in February to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle its residents elsewhere. That proposal faced a rejection from Palestinians, Middle East leaders and the United Nations. Albanese dismissed it as "utter nonsense" and an "international crime" that will sow panic. "It's unlawful, immoral and... completely irresponsible because it will make the regional crisis even worse," she said on February 5 during a visit to Copenhagen. US ally Israel on Wednesday commended Rubio's action against the rapporteur. "Albanese has consistently undermined the credibility of the UN Human Rights Council by promoting false narratives and pushing for illegitimate legal actions that ignore the realities on the ground," Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said. © 2025 AFP
