DOJ announces new office to enforce laws around climate crisis, toxic pollution
CNN
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that the Justice Department is opening a new office aimed at addressing the department's environmental justice efforts.
Low-income communities and communities of color face larger risks from pollution and the impacts of the climate crisis, scientists and health experts have reported. More than 40% of Americans live in areas with unhealthy air quality, according to the American Lung Association, and people of color are the most harmed by it.
The DOJ's Office of Environmental Justice is part of the Biden administration's strategy to prioritize environmental justice -- specifically as it relates to the climate crisis -- after the issue was largely ignored during the Trump administration.
Hours after President Joe Biden touted its success during his commencement speech at West Point last Saturday, White House staffers learned that the temporary pier the military had just constructed into Gaza was falling apart. Four Army vessels had been beached, two in Gaza and two along the coast of Israel.
President Joe Biden asserted Friday that Hamas has been degraded to a point where it can no longer carry out the type of attack that launched the current 8-month conflict in Gaza, laying out a three-phase proposal Israel has submitted to wind down the grinding crisis as he declared, “It’s time for this war to end.