Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Mexico snubs Spanish king as spat over colonial past flares up


Mexico's President-elect Sheinbaum speaks at inauguration of Museo Vivo in Mexico City

By David Alire Garcia and Belén Carreño

Wed 25 September 2024 

MEXICO CITY/MADRID (Reuters) - A fight dating back more than five centuries reemerged on Wednesday as Mexico's incoming president defended a decision to not invite the Spanish king to her inauguration next week after the monarch declined to apologize for colonial-era abuses.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also weighed in earlier in the day, describing the snub as "unacceptable," less than a week before Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum's Oct. 1 swearing-in ceremony.

In a rare rebuke on Tuesday, the Spanish government announced it would not send any representative to the event.

The diplomatic spat threatens to cast a pall over Sheinbaum's inauguration in Mexico City, once the seat of Spain's vast colonial holdings in the Americas after Spanish invaders and their native allies toppled the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Mexico City was built over the ruins of the Aztec metropolis.

In a two-page letter posted to social media on Wednesday, Sheinbaum wrote that only Prime Minister Sanchez had been invited, in part because King Felipe VI did not directly respond to a personal letter that the outgoing Mexican president sent the monarch in 2019.

In that letter, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a close Sheinbaum ally, asked the king to "publicly and officially" recognize the abuses committed during the conquest of Mexico in order to chart a friendlier new course between the countries.

"Unfortunately, that letter did not prompt any direct answer," wrote Sheinbaum, who noted she spoke with Sanchez a few days earlier.

In 2019, Lopez Obrador was seeking to organize an event in 2021 that would mark the anniversaries of the conquest, Mexico's 19th century independence from Spain, as well as the founding of Tenochtitlan in the 1300s.

At the time, he also sought a similar apology from Pope Francis for atrocities committed against Mexico's indigenous population as well as the repatriation of pre-Hispanic books and other artifacts held in European museums and libraries.

Francis did not respond to Lopez Obrador but has previously apologized for the "many grave sins (that) were committed against the native people of America in the name of God."

After Lopez Obrador reiterated his request for a formal apology shortly after his letter was made public, Spain's foreign ministry rejected it, arguing that the conquest should not be "judged in light of contemporary considerations."

The outgoing Mexican president has often invoked the Spanish conquest to rally nationalist sentiment, stressing that Mexico is no longer any country's colony.

On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly annual session in New York on Wednesday, Sanchez was asked by reporters if Spain should apologize, but he sidestepped the question.

"We can't accept this exclusion, and that's why we informed the Mexican government that the absence of any diplomatic representative of the Spanish government is a sign of protest," said Sanchez.

"Not only do we consider it unacceptable, its inexplicable," he added.

(Reporting by David Alire Garcia in Mexico City and Belén Carreño Bravo in Madrid; Editing by Sonali Paul)
Many Americans say immigration is out of control, but 24 hours on the Texas-Mexico border showed a new reality. Will it last?

Berenice Garcia
Wed, September 25, 2024 
PBS/NPR and FRONTLINE, the PBS series, through its Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

LONG READ

As midnight nears, the lights of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, fill the sky on the silent banks of the Rio Grande. A few months ago, hundreds of asylum-seeking families, including crying toddlers, waited for an opening to crawl through razor wire from Juarez into El Paso.

No one is waiting there now.

Nearly 500 miles away, in the border city of Eagle Pass, large groups of migrants that were once commonplace are rarely seen on the riverbanks these days.

In McAllen, at the other end of the Texas border, two Border Patrol agents scan fields for five hours without encountering a single migrant.

It’s a return to relative calm after an unprecedented surge of immigrants through the southern border in recent years. But no one would know that listening to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump talking about border enforcement at dueling presidential campaign events. And no one would know from the rate at which Texas is spending on a border crackdown called Operation Lone Star$11 billion since 2021.

Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other elected officials often refer to the country’s “open border” with Mexico. Immigration is a top election issue in the presidential election, and most American voters say it should be reduced.

But conditions on the border often shift more rapidly than political rhetoric. Arrests for illegal crossings plummeted nearly 80% from December to July. Summer heat typically reduces migration, but on top of that Mexican authorities sharply increased enforcement within their borders in December. Plus, President Joe Biden introduced major asylum restrictions in June.

Crossings are still high by historical standards and record numbers of forcibly displaced people worldwide — more than 117 million at the end of last year, according to the U.N. refugee agency — may make the drop temporary. And some Republican critics say Biden’s new and expanded legal pathways to enter the U.S. are “a shell game” to reduce illegal crossings — along with the chaotic images and headlines they spawn — while still allowing people in.

The Associated Press and The Texas Tribune spent 24 hours in five cities on Texas’ 1,254-mile border with Mexico to compare rhetoric with reality.

An abandoned baby sandal lies on the banks of the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico with the razor wire and border wall of El Paso in the background, late Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Andres Leighton
11 p.m. Thursday Aug. 8

On the riverbanks of Ciudad Juárez, there are no migrants in sight, but evidence of previous crossings still litters the ground. Discarded clothes entangled in razor wire. A toothbrush and a Mexico City train-bus pass littering the riverbed.

A van from Mexico’s immigration agency is parked nearby, the driver keeping an eye on the river. It is a reminder of intensified Mexican enforcement that followed a plea for help by senior U.S. officials in late December.

On the opposite bank in El Paso, Texas National Guard members in unmarked pickup trucks and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers are watching the river too. “You can’t be in this area,” a rifle-toting American soldier shouts in Spanish to journalists across the river.

In the preceding week, the Border Patrol was processing and releasing an average of fewer than 200 migrants a day in El Paso, down from a daily average of nearly 1,000 in December and nearly 1,500 in December 2022. Migrants are no longer sleeping overnight in large numbers on downtown streets, once a common occurrence.

At El Paso International Airport, a shuttle van unloads dozens of migrants at 3:30 a.m. The terminal is quiet but, not long ago, hundreds of migrants slept there nightly, including many who missed their flights because it was their first time flying, and short-staffed airlines were unprepared to answer their questions.

Border Servant Corps, a nonprofit group from nearby Las Cruces, New Mexico, says it has helped more than 130,000 migrants with more than $18 million in shelter and travel support to their final destinations in the U.S. Nearly one of four migrants are from Venezuela, followed by Colombia and Cuba. The leading destinations are cities in Florida, Texas, New York and Illinois.

Ceci Herrera, a retired social worker and Border Servant Corps staffer who helps migrant families navigate the airport, says she knows what it’s like to lack a sense of belonging.

“In immigration, it’s important to say you belong to a country instead of feeling like you’re neither from there nor over there,” she says at the airport after helping migrant families get their boarding passes.

Left: Ceci Herrera, a retired social worker and Border Servant Corps volunteer who helps migrant families navigate the airport, shows the organization's recent statistics at El Paso International Airport in El Paso early in the morning of Aug. 9, 2024. Right: Cuban migrants Yenny Leyva Bornot, center, her husband, Jose Enrique Cespedes, right, and son, John Angel Cespedes, stand together in the El Paso International Airport. Credit: AP Photo/Andres LeightonMore

Many migrants are released with notices to appear in immigration court, where they can request asylum. They can apply for work permits in six months while their cases take years to decide in bottlenecked courts.

Additionally, more than 765,000 have legally entered from January 2023 to July through an online appointment system called CBP One, which allows them to stay for two years with work authorization. The federal government offers 1,450 appointments a day across the southern border, including about 400 in Brownsville, about 200 each in El Paso and Hidalgo, near McAllen, and smaller numbers in Eagle Pass and Laredo.

At the airport, 39-year-old Yenny Leyva Bornot, who fled Cuba with her husband and their 14-year-old son, was still absorbing the fact that they had gotten one of the treasured appointments and made it to the U.S. “We are in a country of freedom,” she said.

The family flew to Nicaragua in November then traveled over land to Mexico, the only country from which migrants can apply online for appointments. They got one in El Paso after seven months of trying, relying on an uncle in Germany, an aunt in Spain and a brother-in-law in Sarasota, Florida, to help cover their expenses.

Now their flight to Florida is delayed.

“What’s two more hours after seven months?” Leyva Bornot said. “This is the dream for most Cubans: Come to the United States to work and help your family back home.”

Christina Smallwood, foreground, and Andrés García, who are Border Patrol agents and public affairs officers, look for migrants underneath the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge in Hidalgo. Credit: Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune
5 a.m. Friday Aug. 9

Hundreds of miles away near McAllen, Border Patrol agents Christina Smallwood and Andrés García leave their station two hours before sunrise. They drive along a levee road near where a towering border wall built during the Trump administration is lit up like a baseball stadium. After years of wall building, the Texas-Mexico border still has only about 175 miles of barriers, covering less than 15% of its length.

The agents peer through overgrown stands of carrizo, searching for makeshift rafts and ladders that are abandoned there by people who make it across the river.

The area near the Hidalgo bridge is a known hot spot for border crossers seeking to elude capture, as opposed to the asylum-seekers who quickly surrender to agents, because it is near a heavily-traveled road. They can easily hop into a car and get lost in the traffic.

It’s quiet now. The agents don’t see a single migrant in nearly five hours.

"Compared with numbers over the last decade, it's insane the difference right now," Garcia said.
10 a.m. Friday

Roughly 150 miles upriver in Laredo, the sound of rumbling motors from tractor-trailers and the smell of diesel and exhaust fill the warm air as vehicles line up on the World Trade Bridge — one of four international bridges in the city.

“It starts getting busy for us, 10 o’clock, 10 or 11. And it'll be pretty constant up until about four or five in the afternoon,” said Alberto Flores, director of the Laredo port of entry.

On the Mexican side of the border, what appear to be tiny white boxes stretch toward the horizon. They are tractor-trailers, filled with goods from warehouses in Nuevo Laredo.

Laredo is by far the busiest entry point for cargo in the United States, funneling more than twice as many tractor-trailers as second-place Detroit over the last year.

About 8,000 tractor-trailers filled with goods from flowers to lettuce to car parts pass each day through 19 lanes at World Trade Bridge, northwest of downtown Laredo. It is a straight shot on Interstate 35 to San Antonio and Dallas.

At a booth for prescreened truckers, a Customs and Border Protection officer opens a sliding window and takes a sheet of paper from the driver. The computer brings up a manifest that says the truck carries 20 pallets of a solution used for dialysis.

Trucks cross into the Port of Laredo on Aug. 9, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay

“We're verifying everything is basically accurate. And if it's accurate and there's no anomalies, anything in the system, then he's good to go,” the officer says.

The next vehicle is a tractor-trailer cab, likely going to pick up an empty container on the U.S. side and bring it back to Mexico. The officer tries to limit each inspection to 45 seconds.

Flores wants to “make sure that cargo is constantly flowing” — a challenge when illegal crossings are unusually high. In December, cargo crossings temporarily closed in Eagle Pass and El Paso — as well as a crossing in Lukeville, Arizona — as officers were diverted from ports of entry to deal with the surge in migrants arriving at the border. Local businesses said the closures sent business plummeting, and a related five-day closure of two border rail crossings cost industries $200 million per day, according to Union Pacific.

Flores visits a small mobile home inside the bridge’s inspection area to congratulate an employee who searches images on a large X-ray machine known as a Multi-Energy Portal. The officer was inspecting a shipment of flowers when he spotted something unusual. It turned out to be more than 700 pounds of methamphetamine.

The rectangular machine produces detailed, black-and-white scans of tractor-trailers and their cargo that look like charcoal drawings. CBP will have four more such machines by October for use on most commercial traffic.

“Can I have the day off?” the officer asks Flores. The room full of CBP officers erupts in laughter.

“I’ll get back to you,” Flores says.

Customs and Border Protection officers process visitors, students and commuters who crossed the pedestrian bridge in Laredo. Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay

The recent decrease in migrant apprehensions has not slowed the flow of drugs across the border. Mexican cartels are at the heart of what the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration calls a crisis of deadly synthetic drugs, with chemicals originating in China being mixed in Mexico and taken across the U.S. border, often by U.S. citizens. Federal statistics show that 46% of drug seizures nationally happened at the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2021-23 fiscal years.

The largest seizures of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine occur at border crossings in Arizona and California, but Flores says methamphetamine and cocaine often come through Laredo. The DEA says a faction of the Sinaloa cartel called “Los Chapitos” favors an El Paso crossing for smuggling narcotics.

The methamphetamine is examined with a small handheld device inside a refrigerated storage facility with loading docks. There were no arrests in the incident, which is under investigation, but the drugs were confiscated, a CBP spokesperson said.

Other trucks called aside for closer inspection include one filled with plastic cups for the popular Texas-based fast food chain Whataburger and another with cans of tuna. A K-9 German Shepherd named Magi inspects one filled with marble tile.

Laredo’s other international bridges funnel visitors, students and commuters in cars and on foot, a lifeblood of the local economy here and in other border cities. But Laredo stands out because it has no border wall, a result of opposition from private landowners. And cartel-related violence in Nuevo Laredo has long made it unattractive for migrants to cross.

Monica Ochoa, who waited with her 5-year-old daughter at the historic San Agustin Plaza for her mother to pick them up, says her living arrangements are “very complicated,” working as a schoolteacher in Mexico while her daughters, both U.S. citizens, attend school in Laredo. Though she says media depictions of Mexican violence are often overblown, she said safety was one reason she wants her children to live in the U.S.

A Customs and Border Protection officer inspects a truck's cargo at the Port of Laredo. Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay
11:30 a.m. Friday

Webb County Judge Leticia L. Martinez is wrapping up a morning session that started on Zoom with 49 tiny screens. Migrants and their lawyers filled the virtual courtroom as Martinez runs through criminal charges filed against the migrants under Operation Lone Star. The state announced that day that it has made more than 45,000 arrests since the crackdown began in 2021 and filed nearly 40,000 felony charges, often for trespassing on private property.

Some defendants dial in from Latin America with spotty connections that interrupt exchanges, showing up for court even though they have already left the country. Some who have been deported are no-shows, their lawyers saying they couldn’t be found. Those who show up are often confused.

One man is lying down as Martinez starts calling names. Another stands in front of lush green trees.

A court interpreter asks one man to remove his baseball cap when his case is called. The man turns the cap backwards, complying only after the interpreter impatiently repeats the command in a raised voice.

As the judge plows through the list, she dismisses the case of another migrant after a prosecutor acknowledges the state has no evidence to charge him.

“Muchas gracias,” a voice says on the other end with a camera just showing the back of a van.

The judge tells two men who appear on camera in orange jumpsuits from a prison in Edinburg that they will be turned over to federal authorities for deportation. One pleads for an urgent transfer, claiming he’s been threatened by violent jail gangs.

“I’m scared,” he says, to no avail. “I want to make it to Mexico to see my kids, my grandkids. They’re little.”

He went on, “I don’t know how to read. I don’t know how to write. I just came not knowing what would happen. Please forgive me. I will never again…”

The judge tells the man that he’ll likely be removed from the jail and turned over to the federal government the next day.

Before adjourning, the judge hears from the attorney of a man who has apparently been kidnapped. Prosecutor Steven Todd says the case should not be continued because the man is a no-show, but Martinez disagrees.

“Well, he’s not absconded. He was kidnapped. Very big difference,” the judge says.

Guatemalan migrant Wilson Juarez, 22, helps set tables for lunch at the Pope Francis migrant shelter in El Paso. Juarez experienced brain injury from smoke inhalation in a Ciudad Juarez, Mexico prison fire the previous year, which impaired his ability to walk and talk and killed dozens of people. Credit: AP Photo/Andres LeightonMore
12:30 p.m. Friday

At an El Paso church kitchen, a woman cooks beef with red chile, beans and rice while a 22-year-old Guatemalan man in a wheelchair sets tables. The man said he experienced brain injury from smoke inhalation in a fire last year at a immigrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez that killed 40 people, impairing his ability to walk and talk.

The church is part of a network of migrant shelters called Annunciation House, a group founded in 1978 by Ruben García, a well-known local Catholic humanitarian who has worked with federal immigration officials to house recently arrived migrants. A state judge recently dismissed a lawsuit against Annunciation House by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused the group of illegally sheltering migrants and refusing to turn over records. Despite the outcome, the charges sent shockwaves throughout the community of migrant advocates along the border. Using similar allegations, Paxton has pursued others, including Catholic Charities of Rio Grande Valley.

Early that morning, García received his daily text message from a Border Patrol agent: The agency would release 25 people in El Paso that day. García said he could take them.

It is the lowest daily number García has seen in four years. The most the Border Patrol has sent to the shelters was 1,100 in a single day; earlier this year García said they took in 600 one day.

“This February, I will have been doing this for 47 years,” he said, sitting on a chair in the church. “My experience tells me this never lasts.”

The attorney general’s office said in court documents that Annunciation House appears “to be engaged in the business of human smuggling,” operating an “illegal stash house” and encouraging immigrants to enter the country illegally because it provides legal orientation. The state sought logs of clients’ names, a grant application the shelter has filed with the federal government, materials it has provided to migrants, and a list of all the shelters Garcia operates.

Paxton’s office has appealed the case to the Texas Supreme Court. Garcia says some volunteers have decided not to help out of concern they could be prosecuted.

“I would hope that instead, it would galvanize people to say, ‘I'm not going to look the other way. I'm going to go and offer myself to work with refugees and to be part of the process of providing what is imminently a humanitarian response,’” he said.

Brayan, 8, and his sister, Linda, 3, sit with their mother at a church-run shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, while waiting for Customs and Border Protection approval to cross into El Paso. Credit: AP Photo/Andres Leighton
1:30 p.m. Friday

Shelby Park in Eagle Pass is ground zero for Operation Lone Star, Texas’ unprecedented challenge to the long-standing principle that immigration policy is the federal government’s sole domain. Texas argues that it has a constitutional right to defend against an “invasion” and that the migrant influx has been a drain on public coffers.

Under Lone Star, Texas has bused about 120,000 migrants to cities including New York, Chicago and Denver. State troopers and the Texas National Guard have become a massive presence in towns on the state’s border with Mexico, which is about two-thirds the length of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, defended the governor’s immigration enforcement efforts — including transporting migrants to other cities — and claimed that illegal crossings have recently dropped because of Operation Lone Star.

Maheleris said in a statement that until Biden and Harris “step up and do their jobs to secure the border, Texas will continue utilizing every tool and strategy to respond to the Biden-Harris border crisis.”

The state has put razor wire in many areas, including a triple-layer barrier in Eagle Pass. The state installed a floating barrier made of buoys and submerged netting near Shelby Park to deter river crossings.

The park, a flat expanse of playing fields and a boat ramp at the end of the downtown business district and next to a golf course, has been closed since Texas seized it from the city in January and made it into a riverfront staging area. U.S. Border Patrol agents are denied entry. Texas authorities did not respond to requests to enter the park on this day.

A member of the Texas Army National Guard patrols the Rio Grande from atop a line of shipping containers in Eagle Pass. Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune

Eagle Pass, a town of 30,000 people filled with warehouses and aging houses, was for much of 2022 the busiest of the Border Patrol’s nine sectors on the Mexican border. Daily arrests for illegal border crossings in the sector averaged 255 in June, down from nearly 2,300 six months earlier.

Shelby Park, once a place where local kids played soccer and the city hosted big events — and more recently a spot where large groups of migrants crossed the border almost daily — is now a dusty makeshift military base. Armed soldiers walk atop shipping containers and stand guard at its entrance with long guns.

Across the street from the park, George Rodriguez, a 72-year-old Eagle Pass native, prepares to beat the afternoon heat and close his stand at a flea market, where he sells pink typing keyboards, a vacuum cleaner and a television mount. He says blocking Border Patrol from part of the border is senseless.

“Once in a while, the governor and his cronies come over here and make a big deal,” Rodriguez said over music crackling on the radio, furniture scraping pavement and clothes hangers pattering in the wind. “It’s just a political stunt.”

Roughly a mile up the Rio Grande, two workers at the city water treatment plant come across a bag filled with socks. There are no fresh footprints on the sand road. A few months ago, they would have found piles of clothing and garbage that could gum up the pumps.

Left: Amber Cardenas, 42, sells clothing at a flea market near Shelby Park in Eagle Pass. Right: A golfer approaches the green, surrounded by razor wire, in Eagle Pass. Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune
3:30 p.m. Friday

Stories of why migrants come have changed little in recent years, often a mix of wanting to improve their lives economically and fear of violence in their home countries. What has changed is the numbers — and perhaps nowhere more than in Rio Grande Valley.

The Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector, the nation’s busiest from 2013 to 2022, saw arrests plunge to an average of 133 a day in June from more than 2,600 in July 2021. Many are released with orders to appear in immigration court, where a backlog of 3.7 million cases means it takes several years to decide asylum claims.

In Brownsville, Jose Castro Lopez, 32, sat inside the main bus station more than four hours before an 8 p.m. ride to Florida. His partner and their children arrived following a two-month journey from Honduras that took him to Mexico City, where he applied for entry on the CBP One app.

He said construction work in Honduras didn’t pay enough to support a family.

"I'm sleep deprived and stressed," he said. "But, thank God, we're fine now. God allowed us the privilege to be here."

Another passenger at the bus station, Lilibeth Garcia, 32, said she graduated in 2016 from medical school in Venezuela, where she studied to be a surgeon, but the country's economic tailspin made it difficult to earn a living wage there.

Garcia arrived at the station with her year-old daughter and a cousin, Robert Granado, after a two-month journey from the city of Guarico through the Darién Gap, a 60-mile jungle trek that straddles the Colombia-Panama border. Garcia said she felt guilty about putting her daughter, Cataleya, through the dangerous journey but the toddler remained calm and in good spirits, despite a bout with fever.

"I'm happy," Granado said as they waited for a bus to New York City. "The journey is over."

Guatemalan migrant Gloria Lobos cries while speaking about violence she and her family experienced in southern Mexico during an interview at a church-run shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Andres Leighton

At the other end of the Texas-Mexico border in Ciudad Juárez, a journey that has stretched for five months still isn’t over for Gloria Lobos of Guatemala. Lobos said she fled her physically abusive husband and settled in Chiapas in southern Mexico, where she worked on a farm and cleaned rooms at a hotel. In March, as the family walked to a grocery store, she said two men on a motorcycle attempted to kidnap her daughter.

After she reported the attempt to police, Lobos said the men returned days later with a gun and fired a shot at her daughter — the bullet missed. She said she raced to the bus station with her children and other relatives. Ciudad Juárez was the first ticket available.

Now she and her daughter live at a local shelter run by a Methodist church led by pastor Juan Fierro García, 65, while they wait for a CBP One appointment. The shelter has 63 migrants who will spend the night, down from 180 recently.

Sitting in a metal chair in the church, she said, “I never imagined God would want us to face this type of violence.”
7 p.m. Friday

In Glendale, Arizona, Kamala Harris — making her first visit to a border state since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee — touches on immigration 20 minutes into a 30-minute speech. It’s her fourth day of campaigning in swing states with running mate Gov. Tim Walz. She references her work as attorney general of another border state, California, and then repeats a line that Democrats have been espousing for many years.

“We know our immigration system is broken, and we know what it takes to fix it: Comprehensive reform that includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship,” she says, sparking applause.

Harris jabs her Republican rival for the White House, former President Donald Trump, noting that he opposed a bill this year that would have, among other things, imposed asylum limits, added Border Patrol agents and changed asylum procedures to speed up decisions.

Left: Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, visit the Cocina Adamex Mexican restaurant in Phoenix on Aug. 9. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File) Right: Former President Donald Trump waves after speaking at a campaign rally in Bozeman, Mont. not long after Harris’ event in Arizona. Credit: AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson & Rick BowmerMore

A short time later at a rally in Bozeman, Montana, Trump wastes no time getting to immigration, his signature issue. He uses “border” more than 30 times during his 100-minute speech.

Harris, he tells the crowd, “wants to allow millions of people to pour into our border through an invasion! … Four more years of crazy Kamala Harris means 50, probably it means 50 million illegal aliens pouring into our country.” (The Border Patrol has made about 7.1 million apprehensions from February 2021 through July 2024 — often the same person more than once — while an unknown number have eluded capture.)

Trump, who has promised mass deportations during his campaign, talks for several minutes about “illegal aliens” being sent to the U.S. from other countries’ prisons, a claim that lacks evidence. He connects migration with rising crime and speaks of migrants stampeding, overrunning, destroying, ruining, ravaging, preying.

After 11 p.m., he mentions the border for the last time: “Next year, America's borders will be strong, sealed and secure. Promise.”

Disclosure: Union Pacific Railroad Company has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The moon is seen behind the border wall in Eagle Pass. Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune

France to expel illegal immigrants who have ‘broken in’ to country

FASCIST GOVERNMENT DESPITE LEFT WING ELECTION WIN

Henry Samuel
Tue, September 24, 2024 

Bruno Retailleau has vowed to unveil tough new measures 
to tackle illegal immigrants within weeks 
- DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP

France’s new interior minister has pledged to expel illegal immigrants who have “broken in” to the country amid moves aimed at toughening law and order.

Bruno Retailleau also called for a coalition of willing EU countries to compel the European Commission to tighten its immigration laws.

His pledges for a harsher response to asylum claims, violence against police, radical Islam and drug trafficking were said to reflect the growing influence of Marine Le Pen’s hard-Right National Rally (RN).


After a June election in which president Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government suffered heavy losses, the RN pledged tacit support for Michel Barnier’s new coalition between centrists and conservatives.

However, the RN conditioned its support for his cabinet with meeting the hard-Right party’s concerns over immigration, security and other issues.

Mr Retailleau, 63, a veteran of the mainstream conservative Republicans (LR), led his party in the senate until last Saturday and has been critical of what he describes as lax law enforcement under Mr Macron.

On Monday, he kicked off his tenure at the powerful interior ministry during Barnier’s first cabinet meeting by saying he had three priorities. “The first is to restore order, the second is to restore order and the third is to restore order. The French people want more order. Order in the street, order on the frontiers,” he said.

In more explicit terms, he told Le Figaro on Tuesday that he would unveil new measures within weeks, and that France “must not shy away from strengthening our legislative arsenal”.

A group in Boulogne-sur-Mer preparing to cross the Channel on Saturday highlight France’s immigration problem - SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP

“My objective is to put a stop to illegal entries and to increase exits, particularly for illegal immigrants, because one should not stay in France when one has broken in,” he was quoted as saying by the conservative daily newspaper.

“I will have the opportunity, in the coming weeks, to make specific proposals,” he said, while also leaving open the possibility of using decrees. “The interior minister has significant regulatory powers. I will use them to the maximum,” he added.

In another nod to Le Pen’s demands, Mr Retailleau told CNews on Tuesday that France and other like-minded European nations should strong-arm the European Union to beef up its immigration laws.

Germany’s decision to impose temporary border checks, suspending decades of largely free movement within the EU’s Schengen travel zone, underscored how European views on immigration were shifting to the Right, he said.

“I think we must forge an alliance with the major European countries that want to toughen up and have already toughened up, their legislative arsenal to change European rules.”
‘Expel more’

Mr Retailleau also said he would summon state prefects from the 10 regions with the highest immigration numbers to tell them “to expel more” and “regularise less”.

He also pledged to consult with North African nations about having them stop more undocumented migrants from heading to France and said he wanted harsher prison sentences for criminals.

“To close Islamist mosques or expel hate preachers [in France], my hand will not tremble,” he told Le Figaro.

Asked by CNews if he relied on the political goodwill of the RN, Mr Retailleau said: “I depend on the goodwill of the French.”

However, he conceded that voters had sent a clear message in the first round of this summer’s legislative election, in which the RN came first with around a third of votes.

A Leftist alliance ultimately won the most seats in the second round, thanks to a legislative pact to keep the RN out of power.

“The French, too, have given us their roadmap. We must listen to the message they gave us... They want more security and less immigration. I will apply this roadmap,” he added.

The Left-wing New Popular Front alliance called Mr Retailleau a racist on Monday following past remarks in which he attributed urban riots last year to “third-generation immigrants who have reverted to their ethnic origins”.


Last year, he appeared to praise French colonisation, saying it was “of course, a dark time, but it was also a beautiful time, with hands outstretched”.

After complaints from Ms Le Pen, Mr Retailleau’s rhetoric and the Barnier government’s nods to the RN have reportedly sparked disquiet among Mr Macron’s centrist MPs.

In the latest sign of tension, Mr Barnier was forced on Tuesday to ring Ms Le Pen to smooth over comments from his new finance minister, Antoine Armand, who said her party was not part of the acceptable “Republican arc”.

Mr Armand was later forced to backtrack, saying he would “receive all political forces represented in parliament”, including the RN.

In a sign it is aware of the RN’s newfound power to make or break the government, Ms Le Pen said Mr Barnier better “explain to his ministers the new government’s philosophy because it appears some don’t seem to have fully understood”.

In balder terms, her special advisor Philippe Olivier said: “If this pretentious little man were looking for an immediate vote of no confidence, he couldn’t have done a better job.”



Trudeau Survives Attempt to Force Snap Election by Poilievre

Brian Platt
Wed, September 25, 2024 



(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s main political opponent tried to force a snap election on Wednesday, but the effort failed due to a lack of support from the other opposition parties in Parliament.

It’s a scenario that may play out many times in the coming months, as Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party is keen to trigger an election but the smaller parties are more interested in negotiating deals with Trudeau’s Liberal Party to achieve policy objectives.

The next election is currently scheduled for October 2025, but because the Liberals don’t control a majority of seats in Parliament, the opposition parties can force an early election if they defeat the government on a key vote.

In this case, Poilievre said he was seeking an election focused on the Trudeau government’s national carbon tax, which has been in place since 2019. Poilievre argues the policy has helped create a cost-of-living crisis for Canadians by driving up the price of transport fuel and home heating. Liberals point out most residents receive more money back in rebates than they pay in the tax.

“This will be a carbon tax referendum and a carbon tax election,” Poilievre said in a speech to Parliament when he introduced his motion to bring down the government.

Poilievre’s Conservatives are far ahead in the polls, suggesting he would win a large majority government if an election were held soon. But he has no other allies willing to send voters to the polls now.

“Why the rush to trigger an election? Is this not the perfect opportunity to negotiate and make progress?” said Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, a lawmaker for the Bloc Quebecois, a party that advocates for the French-speaking province of Quebec, in responding to Poilievre’s speech.

Bloc Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet set a deadline of Oct. 29 for the Liberal government to push through measures that are priorities for his party — improvements to pension benefits and protection for some agricultural sectors from trade negotiations. Should Trudeau fail to meet that deadline, Blanchet said he’d begin talks with the Conservatives and other opposition parties on toppling the government.

New Democratic Party lawmakers, meanwhile, accused Poilievre of wanting an election in order to cut health-care programs. The NDP had been in a formal power-sharing deal with Trudeau’s Liberals until earlier this month, and as a condition of that deal the Liberals had brought in new programs to help cover dental care and some drug costs.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Canada's Trudeau survives no-confidence vote in parliament

Nadine Yousif - BBC News, Toronto
Wed, September 25, 2024 

[Reuters]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has survived a motion in parliament aimed at bringing down his government and triggering an election.

Wednesday's no-confidence vote is the first in a series of similar votes expected to be put forward by the opposition Conservative Party amid Trudeau's plummeting approval ratings.

The motion failed after opposition leader Pierre Poilievre fell short in his effort to shore up support from leaders of two other political parties in parliament, the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois.


Trudeau, who has been Canada’s prime minister for nine years, has been leading under a minority government.

Voting was held on Wednesday afternoon, on the same day as Trudeau was set to host French President Emmanuel Macron.

While this motion has failed, the Conservative party plans to bring at least two other similar no-confidence votes on Thursday in hopes of sending Canadians to the polls.

Trudeau has been facing growing pressure to step down in recent months.

His approval rating has plummeted from 63% when he was first elected to 28% in June of this year, according to one poll tracker, amid concerns about housing unaffordability and the rising costs of living. His Liberal party lost two consequential by-elections this summer in Toronto and Montreal.

A deal between his party and the NDP has helped him stay in power since Canada’s last federal election in 2021.

But the deal collapsed early in September after NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pulled out from the coalition, saying that the Liberals are “too weak” and “too selfish” to govern.

Trudeau’s leadership has been under threat since, with Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre stating that he would put forward a no-confidence vote.

The vote would need the approval of the majority of the 338 members of parliament (MPs) in order for it to pass.

The Liberal Party, which holds 153 seats, voted against it, while the Conservative Party, which holds 119 seats, voted in favour.

The bulk of the other seats are held by the NDP and the Bloc Québécois - both of whose members voted to defeat the motion.

In the end, the motion was defeated by 211 votes against it.


Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has been leading in several national polls [Reuters]

Pierre Polievere, who has been leading in various national polls, had urged fellow MPs to vote in favour of the motion by outlining his vision for Canada under a Conservative government.

His plan, he said on Tuesday in parliament, is “to bring home the promise of Canada, of a powerful paycheque that earns affordable food, gas and homes and safe neighbourhoods”.

But Singh, the NDP leader, said he would vote against Poilievre’s motion because he believes the Conservative Party will cut social programmes like dental care and pharmacare if it comes to power.

The Bloc Québécois - a party whose aim is to represent the interests of Quebec, Canada’s French-speaking province - has said it believes it could work with the Liberal government to secure assurances for Quebec-focused social programmes.

Trudeau was at the UN General Assembly earlier this week in New York City, where on Monday he appeared as a guest on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

In his interview with Colbert, Trudeau acknowledged that Canadians were going through “a really tough time” and struggling to afford gas, groceries and rent.

But he defended his leadership, saying that his government had invested in Canadians and would continue to do so.

“I’m going to keep fighting,” he said.


Trudeau survives vote of confidence in Canadian parliament, new threat looms

David Ljunggren
Updated Wed, September 25, 2024





Trudeau survives vote of confidence in Canadian parliament, new threat looms
Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau easily survived a vote of confidence on Wednesday after his main political rival failed to muster enough support to end nine years of Liberal Party rule.

Legislators in the House of Commons voted 211-120 to defeat a motion by the official opposition Conservative party declaring a lack of confidence in Trudeau's minority Liberal government.

Trudeau, whose popularity has slumped amid unhappiness over rising prices and a housing crisis, became more politically vulnerable this month when the smaller New Democratic Party tore up a 2022 deal to keep him in power until an election scheduled for end-October 2025.

"Today was a good day for the country because I don't think Canadians want an election," said Karina Gould, the senior Liberal in charge of government business in the House.

Despite surviving the vote, other challenges loom for Trudeau. Earlier in the day, the leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois said he would work to bring down the government unless it quickly agreed to the Bloc's demands.

Trudeau's Liberals will soon face a second vote on one of its budget measures, which is also a matter of confidence, but are expected to also survive that. Officials said the vote could take place on Wednesday or Thursday.

"We are going to work piece of legislation by piece of legislation, issue by issue, negotiating with the different political parties," Gould told reporters.

The right-of-center Conservatives have a big lead in the opinion polls ahead of an election that must be called by the end of October 2025.

The Conservatives say they want an election as soon as possible on the grounds that Canadians cannot afford a planned increase in the federal carbon tax. They also say federal spending and crime have ballooned under the Liberals.

"Enough is enough. Costs are up, taxes are up, crime is up, and time is up," the Conservatives said in a statement.

Trudeau, while acknowledging public unhappiness, has accused the Conservatives of playing politics rather than focusing on what people need.

Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said he would keep Trudeau in power at least until end-December if he gave more money to seniors and vowed to protect a system of tariffs and quotas that protect dairy farmers, many of whom live in Quebec.

If the government did not formally do this by Oct. 29, the Bloc would talk to opposition parties with a view to bringing down Trudeau, he told reporters.

But to succeed he would need the support of the NDP, which also backed Trudeau on Wednesday. Polls indicate the party would also be in trouble if an election were called now.

(Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Frank McGurty and Deepa Babington)
Ecuador capital 'under attack' from five wildfires

AFP
Wed 25 September 2024 

Smoke from a bushfire is seen over Quito on September 24, 2024 (Galo Paguay) (Galo Paguay/AFP/AFP)


Firefighters battled five blazes on the outskirts of Ecuador's capital Quito on Wednesday, as wildfires continue to rip through South American nations turned into tinderboxes by droughts linked to climate change.

Some 2,000 firefighters, military personnel and rescue workers have been deployed in Quito to try to contain the blazes and bring residents in affected areas to safety.

So far at least six people have been injured including two children and two firefighters, and around 100 families evacuated from their homes.

From Ecuador to Brazil, many Latin American nations are gripped by their worst drought in decades, fueling a blistering fire season that has set residents and governments on edge.

"Quito is under attack," the city's security chief Carolina Andrade told reporters.

Authorities in Ecuador believe that a fire that broke out Tuesday in the east of the city and swathed it in huge plumes of smoke was started by arsonists.

On Wednesday, they announced the arrest of a 19-year-old man caught with a gallon of fuel.

Pablo Munoz, Quito's mayor, vowed Wednesday to hunt down the perpetrators of the "terrorist" fires.

The emergency led President Daniel Noboa to cancel his speech at the UN General Assembly and return home from New York on Tuesday.

-'We lost everything' -

Schools suspended classes and government offices ordered remote work due to poor air quality in the city of around three million people.

"I wanted to save something, but we didn't get anything," said Alexis Condolo, a 23-year-old mechanic whose home burned down.

"We found the house in ashes. We lost everything. We only have a few clothes left."

Because of the smoke, "I had to sleep with a mask and wet wipes on top" of the mask, Claudio Otalima, an 82-year-old retiree, told AFP.

Quito has been battling forest fires for three weeks.

In Brazil, fires have consumed millions of acres (hectares) of forest and farmland in recent weeks, and smoke has clouded major cities such as Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, with fumes at times wafting across the border to Argentina and Uruguay.

The Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service said Monday that fires in the Amazon and Pantanal wetlands were the worst in almost two decades.

The dry spell -- which scientists have linked to climate change -- has also sent fires burning out of control in Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Peru.

The situation across the continent on Monday saw Amnesty International urge leaders to do more to abandon fossil fuels and transform the industrial agricultural model.

"South American leaders must, more than ever, take urgent action to prevent climate catastrophe that could have irreversible consequences for humanity and for the planet," Amnesty International said.

- Power crisis -

Ecuador is facing its worst drought in six decades.

As a result, the country, which depends on hydroelectric power, is facing severe energy shortages and has implemented rolling blackouts and put 20 of its 24 provinces on red alert.

Over the past year, 3,302 forest fires have been recorded, burning 37,808 hectares (93,400 acres) of vegetation.

Fourteen people have been injured and 44,742 livestock have died, according to a report published Tuesday by the Risk Secretariat.

bur-fb/cb/bfm
Sotheby's puts up for auction rare diamond necklace of XVIII century

25 September 2024 



By Alimat Aliyeva

Sotheby's is going to make history in November with the auction of an extraordinary diamond jewelry, a masterpiece of the European aristocracy, which not only survived the passage of time, but also played a role in the history of the British royal family, Azernews reports.

The jewelry of the XVIII century weighing 300 carats, made ten years before the French Revolution of 1789, will be put up for auction at a price of up to 2.8 million dollars.

It is speculated that some of his diamonds may have been part of the infamous "diamond necklace case" that cast a shadow over the reputation of Marie Antoinette, the unpopular last Queen consort of France.

This piece of jewelry, consisting of three rows of diamonds with diamond tassels at each end, was put on public display for the first time in almost half a century at Sotheby's London showroom.

The chairman and head of sales at Royal and Noble Sotheby's in Europe and the Middle East noted: "It is so rare because diamonds have always been reused, and the Golconda mines in India ceased to exist at the end of the XVIII century. Only members of the royal family or the highest aristocracy could wear such a thing, because it is in itself a fortune consisting of diamonds. Then, as is usually the case, you will find out who owned it last, but not the first."

The global tour of this historic diamond jewel begins in London and will continue at Sotheby's locations in Hong Kong, New York, Singapore, Taipei and Dubai. Each stop will allow collectors and connoisseurs to see this dazzling symbol of European history with their o
Draconian curbs on protest are dangerous

The Guardian
Wed 25 September 2024 

‘Silencing protest does not make the problem disappear
 – quite the opposite.’
Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Shutterstock

The UK’s repression of peaceful protest is far from a well‑intentioned yet misguided attempt to balance the rights of its citizens (Britain now stifles peaceful dissent like a repressive regime. It’s time to roll back our anti-protest laws, 10 September). This country is only wedded to the rule of law and freedom of expression as long as there is no serious challenge to the ruling class.

Draconian steps to curb protest show where the interests of the powerful really lie – in protecting their own status at all costs. I say this as someone currently in prison for engaging in non‑violent direct action.

The ruling class will never legitimise civilian actions that challenge their dominance, not in the name of “freedom of expression”, not even in the name of “democracy”. However, it is a dangerous game to play. It only takes a glance at global history to see that suppressing dissent is like compressing gas. It eventually explodes.

Silencing protest does not make the problem disappear – quite the opposite. It creates a breeding ground for the far right to exploit neglected communities and unleash their discontent through violence.
Cressida Gethin
HMP Send, Surrey

Roman-era artifacts found in southeastern Türkiye



ADIYAMAN, 24 September (BelTA - Anadolu) - Historical artifacts from the Roman period, which had gone missing after their initial discovery, have been found during field research in an ancient city in southeastern Türkiye.

Pottery, columns, relics, and various architectural pieces found in the ancient city of Perre in Adiyaman province have been put on display.

Adiyaman Museum Director Mehmet Alkan told Anadolu that the artifacts were discovered during field research 1 kilometers (0.62 miles) south of the ancient city.

"Previously, it was reported that these pieces were unearthed next to the Roman fountain of Perre in 1980. We brought these artifacts back to Perre after 40 years, making them ready for visitors."

According to Alkan, these architectural pieces are approximately 1,800 years old.


Iron Age, Roman and medieval jewels discovered after Stonham Aspal excavation at housing project site

By Ross Waldron
ross.waldron@iliffepublishing.co.uk

 20 September 2024

Jewels from the Iron Age, Roman and medieval times have been discovered at the site of a new housing development.

Archaeologists from Pre-Construct Archaeology made the finds during pre-construction excavations for the 46-property Homestead Park project in Stonham Aspal.

The artefacts included a medieval gold ring, silver coins from the same era and over 40 Iron Age and Roman brooches. A rare first century copper-alloy vessel was also recovered.

Iron Age and Roman brooches were found after the excavation in Stonham Aspal, at Orbit Homes' Homestead Park site. Picture: Submitted

It is believed the site once houses 11 late Iron Age to Roman roundhouses, with the earliest occupation suggested to be around 50BC.

Andy Georgiou, sales and marketing director at Orbit Homes, said: “It has been amazing to learn more about the history of Stonham Aspal from the discoveries at Homestead Park.

“We enlisted PCA as part of the pre-construction programme we undertake at every site and we were delighted to see the archaeologists unearth such fascinating finds, which could have otherwise been left undiscovered for many more years.”
A series of Iron Age, Roman and medieval jewels were found in Stonham Aspal as Orbit Homes under took a pre-construction excavation at its Homestead Park site. Picture: Submitted

With the excavation now complete, works are under way on the collection of two and three bedroom houses and bungalows planned at Homestead Park.

Pharmacy closures in England threaten plan to use them instead of GPs for some care

Denis Campbell Health policy editor
Wed 25 September 2024 

A total of 436 community pharmacies in England shut permanently in 2023.Photograph: Julien Behal/PA

High street pharmacies are closing at such an alarming rate that it threatens the drive to use them instead of GPs to care for millions of people, the NHS’s patient champion warns today.

A total of 436 community pharmacies in England shut permanently last year and there were also 13,863 temporary closures, which stopped patients from obtaining health advice and medication.

What appears to be a growing trend of permanent closures is hitting rural areas, those with larger numbers of older people and deprived communities hardest, according to Healthwatch England.

Its findings, which were based on figures supplied by NHS bodies, prompted fears that closures are leaving some parts of England as “pharmacy deserts” where patients struggle to access care.

The watchdog received responses to freedom of information requests it submitted from all but one of the 42 NHS integrated care boards (ICBs), regional bodies that commission and pay for NHS services.

They showed that 436 pharmacies closed down between 1 January and 31 December 2023 – an average of more than one a day. In addition, pharmacies also closed temporarily 13,863 times, for a total of 46,823 hours and for an average of almost 18 hours at a time in some places, the data from ICBs showed.

“Staff shortages, the key driver of permanent and temporary closures, call into doubt the potential of Pharmacy First, meaning people can’t get the advice, care and medications they need and when they need them”, said Louise Ansari, Healthwatch’s chief executive.

Pharmacy First is the government’s drive to reduce the strain on overworked GPs through pharmacists treating what it hopes will be millions of patients a year for seven minor ailments such as a sore throat, earache, infected insect bite or sinusitis.

“It’s clear that rising levels of closures are risking leaving some areas of the country as pharmacy deserts, with people having to travel much further to get access to vital services”, said Paul Rees, the chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association.

“Community pharmacies act as the front door to the NHS. If people lose access to them it will force more patients into the eight o’clock scramble at their GP surgery, putting pressure on the rest of our NHS system.”

Responses from ICBs show that staff shortages, including the difficulty in finding locum pharmacists, lie behind many of the temporary closures, Healthwatch added.

Temporary closures “are adding to the deepening crisis in the sector”. It also acknowledged longstanding complaints from pharmacy organisations that lack of government funding is hampering their activities by asking ministers to “evaluate” the money the sector receives.

Healthwatch’s findings showed that:

  • Cheshire and Merseyside ICB saw the most permanent closures last year – 51

  • The North East and North Cumbria ICB had the highest number of temporary closures – 1,438

  • The same area also saw the highest number of hours lost to temporary closures – 4,054

  • And pharmacies in the Norfolk and Waveney ICB area shut temporarily for the longest number of hours on average – 17.48

The Department of Health and Social Care said that it plans to review the funding that goes to a sector that had been “neglected for years” under the Conservatives.

“This government inherited a broken NHS where pharmacies have been neglected for years”, a spokesperson said.

“Pharmacies are key to making healthcare fit for the future as we shift the focus of the NHS out of hospitals and into the community.

“We will make better use of their skills by increasing the number of pharmacists able to prescribe medication themselves and launch a review of community pharmacy funding.”

ECO-RADICAL PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE

Theresa May denounces Trump, Farage and Le Pen over climate change ‘hoax’ claims


Far-right leaders in Europe and the US are trying to wreck measures to save the planet, Theresa May warns. They want to ‘stir up a culture war’ to win votes, says the former PM, who criticises Trump for calling climate change ‘a hoax’ – and accuses Nigel Farage of ‘politicising’ the issue.

David Maddox
Political editor
Wednesday 25 September 2024 

Theresa May has launched a blistering attack on those who call climate change a hoax 

Theresa May has launched a blistering attack on Donald Trump and other leading right-wing politicians including Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen over their climate-change denial.

In a wide-ranging speech in New York, Baroness May also warned that the climate crisis is now fuelling the cruelty and criminality of the modern slave trade.


The former prime minister was giving the keynote speech at The Independent’s Climate 100 event, as world leaders including British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly

Baroness May’s anger at those like Trump and Mr Farage who describe climate change as a “hoax” or a “scam” echoes warnings made ahead of the Climate 100 event in a powerful intervention by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.


Theresa May is the keynote speaker at The Independent’s Climate 100 event in New York (Getty)

As Tory chair in 2002, after a second humiliating defeat to Tony Blair, Ms May famously delivered a warning to the Conservatives that they had “become the nasty party” by turning their backs on the issues that resonated with ordinary voters.

Her attack on Trump and Mr Farage also includes an implied criticism of her own party, where the four leadership candidates have all moved towards Reform, pulling away from green policies like those she championed in government.

She made a passionate appeal for leaders to take the climate crisis seriously, not just to save the planet but also for the sake of humanity.


She raged against “those who pit ‘the people’ against an out-of-touch elite”, accusing them of using the climate change debate “to fight a culture war”.


open image in galleryDonald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax (AP)

Turning her fire on Trump, whom she met at the White House as prime minister and held hands with as she walked down the stairs, Baroness May said: “Here in the United States, action on climate change is already a feature of the upcoming presidential election, with one of the two main candidates promising to repeal recent climate legislation and ramp up drilling for fossil fuels.


“It’s a position arising partly from a long-held conspiracy theory that climate change is a ‘hoax’.”

The intervention comes just weeks away from the US election, in which Trump will stand against current vice-president Kamala Harris as he attempts to return to the White House.


The Independent’s Climate 100 event marks the launch of the Climate 100 List, a roll call of leading climate activists, innovators, scientists, business leaders, creators, policymakers and entrepreneurs from around the world, selected by The Independent.

At a time when Sir Keir is focused on delivering economic growth, Baroness May reminded her audience and the wider political class that green policies are positive forces for economic growth and job creation, not a cost imposed on the taxpayer.

“Despite the opportunities ahead of us, our aspirations of transitioning our economies towards sustainability are increasingly under attack – particularly in Western democracies.”


Nigel Farage has said that climate-change measures drain money from taxpayers (AFP via Getty)

Baroness May cited the type of rhetoric used by Marine Le Pen, who narrowly failed to win in France’s recent parliamentary elections, and Alternative for Germany (AfD), who could end up sharing power in the German parliament after next year’s general election.

“Those of us who advocate accelerating our progress towards net zero emissions are labelled fanatics and zealots. Ironically, the name-calling often emanates from ideologues at the political extremes or from populists who offer only easy answers to complex questions.

“Those who drive wedge issues that seek to divide us. Who crave deeper polarisation in our societies in order to rally support for their cause.”

But her ire was also focused on Britain and the rise of Mr Farage’s Reform UK, with its intent to undermine attempts to tackle climate change.

“In my own country, climate change has become politicised by some on the right of British politics. We saw in the recent general election how the Reform party campaigned on a platform of opposing the UK’s climate objectives.


Jenrick, pictured speaking at a Conservative Party leadership campaign event, has questioned the importance of net zero policies (PA Wire)

“It framed net zero as a cost imposed from on high that threatens livelihoods and will send jobs abroad.”

Baroness May highlighted how important the Climate 100 event is in terms of making the case for action.

“Well done to The Independent for its leadership in this area, not just today, but for placing climate change and environmental concerns at the core of its journalism for many years,” she said.

But she warned: “Let’s face it: we have been talking about this for years, and still we are not achieving the change we need. In many ways, the term ‘climate change’ has just become another part of the everyday language of politicians, used so often that people forget what it really means. Dismiss it from their thinking, get on with life, think: ‘It doesn’t mean anything to me – and in any case, someone else will have to sort it out.’

“The onus is on those in the political centre ground to provide due challenge.

“When the sceptics say that the green transition will cripple business, we say they could not be more wrong. Study after study shows that the transition to renewable energy will unlock global market opportunities worth trillions of dollars over the next decade alone – with businesses in every world region able to capitalise.”

She added: “When the critics say transitioning to renewables costs too much, we say it’s wrong to see it as a cost. It’s an enormous investment opportunity for the private sector, where, over time, the economic returns far outstrip the investment required.”

But more than the economics and the need to save the planet, Baroness May was concerned about the immediate impact on humanity. She noted that she had witnessed climate change on her holidays to Switzerland with her husband Sir Philip.

“When we stand at Rotenboden above Zermatt, we see the retreat of the glaciers. And this year, there was so much rainfall in June that it caused flooding in the village, and brought about landslips that closed the railway down the valley.

“I’m told that the replacement buses alone cost 1 million Swiss francs, let alone the cost of the repair work to this vital transport artery.”

But the most troubling stories come from the way in which the climate crisis is fuelling modern slavery.

As home secretary and prime minister, Ms May was responsible for taking on the scourge of modern slavery, which affects millions around the globe. She also brought in some of the most far-reaching reforms on clean air, and instigated a 25-year environment plan.

Her stark warning to those gathered in the audience and beyond was that the evil trade in human beings is being fuelled by the climate crisis and the despair it creates.

“Climate change has and will lead some to poverty and desperation.

“Some of the most dire outcomes of climate change are humanitarian. When extreme weather events destroy homes and livelihoods, when harvests fail, when water supplies dry up, when sea levels destroy communities, and when political instability and conflict take hold, people are often left destitute – with no roof over their head, no economic security, no reliable means to feed their families, and no support network.

“Life becomes a matter of survival from one day to the next, and into that picture come the criminal gangs making money out of human suffering. Because these situations make people more vulnerable to being trafficked and taken into slavery.”

She told of the harrowing tales that had crossed her desk – of a 53-year-old Romanian electrician, a girl she called Jane who was forced into the sex industry, and a seven-year-old girl used as a slave and forced to sleep with the dogs.

She said: “These are stories from the UK and the USA, but slavery is worldwide. In nine years, one safe house in London has taken in women from 50 different countries.”

Baroness May founded and chairs the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, which brings together influential figures from politics, civil society, business and academia to restore lost political momentum in addressing this issue.

She said: “The World Bank estimates that, by 2050, a further 143 million people will have been forced from their homes in Africa, south Asia and Latin America because of climate change. It will contribute to a global migration phenomenon that far surpasses anything we are experiencing today.

“So the window of opportunity is closing to act on climate change, to preserve our planet, and to alleviate human suffering.”