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Ms. Velázquez, 72, a 16-term congresswoman, said it was time for a new generation of Democrats to step forward.
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As we broadcast from the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, calls are growing for stronger protections for refugees and migrants forcibly displaced by climate disasters. The United Nations estimates about 250 million people have been forced from their homes in the last decade due to deadly drought, storms, floods and extreme heat — mainly in the Global South, where many populations have also faced repeated displacement due to war and extreme poverty. Meanwhile, wealthier Global North nations disproportionately responsible for greenhouse emissions that fuel global warming are intensifying their crackdowns on migrants and climate refugees fleeing compounding humanitarian crises.
"The main issue is always poverty, lack of opportunity, and climate change is basically exacerbating this problem," Guatemala's vice minister of natural resources and climate change, Edwin Josué Castellanos López, told Democracy Now!
"This is not abstract," Nikki Reisch, director of climate and energy at the Center for International Environmental Law, says of climate-induced migration. "This is about real lives. It's about survival. It's about human rights and dignity, and, ultimately, about justice."
Reisch also gives an update on the state of the COP30 negotiations, noting the "big-ticket items" on the agenda are providing financing for transition and adaptation, phasing out fossil fuels and preserving forests. "The big polluters need to phase out and pay up," says Reisch.
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(Third column, 11th story, link)
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It is unclear what President Trump will do to end a brutal civil war in which both sides are backed by U.S. allies, but his statement that he will try has raised hopes for peace.
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Sudanese climate diplomacy researcher Lina Yassin is supporting the Least Developed Countries Group at the U.N. climate summit in Belém, Brazil. The group is composed of 44 countries, including Sudan, whose cumulative emissions amount to less than 1% of total global emissions. "They are the countries that have the least amount of resources to respond to the climate crisis," explains Yassin.
Yassin also discusses the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, where the estimated death toll is now at 150,000. "This is a proxy war funded by foreign nationals who have vested interests in Sudan's resources. … The UAE has been using the RSF militia to illegally smuggle gold out to finance the war and finance their own gold reserves. The UAE is also really interested in Sudan's agricultural lands."
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The administration is renewing efforts to end the war, pitching a revised ceasefire proposal and giving a top military official an unusual diplomatic assignment.
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