April 21, 2023

Friday, April 21, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

Biden commits $1B to international climate fund

The financial injection to the Green Climate Fund brings the U.S. contribution to a total of $2 billion.

President Joe Biden pledged $1 billion to a major international climate aid fund on Thursday, a move that seeks to burnish United States credibility after former President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans had zeroed out U.S. contributions for the program.

The news: The financial injection to the Green Climate Fund brings the U.S. contribution to a total of $2 billion, still short of former President Barack Obama’s initial $3 billion promise. But it signals the Biden administration is responding to calls from developing nations to deliver more money to help them cope with the effects of the changing climate.

Context: The Major Economies Forum was first launched in 2009 and now includes more than two dozen countries that produce 80 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and GDP. It is the first such meeting since last November’s U.N. climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where nations agreed to a “loss and damage” fund to pay vulnerable nations for irreparable climate damage.

Poorer nations have ramped up pressure on rich ones to provide more finance for combating climate change. Biden has tried to answer that call with a pledge to deliver $11 billion in climate finance annually by 2024 — but it is unclear how the administration will get House Republicans to approve that spending.

Biden said that nations must work together to reshape multilateral development banks like the World Bank to fight climate change. The Bank concluded its spring meetings last week and laid out an “evolution roadmap” to engage on climate change.

Details: The Biden administration also announced other initiatives, including a new “Methane Finance Sprint” to raise at least $200 million from public and philanthropic sources by the start of the annual U.N. climate talks in November. Biden said the effort would help the U.S. and other countries reach goals to slash methane emissions 30 percent this decade.

Biden also said he would requested $500 million over five years from Congress for the Amazon Fund, an effort to end deforestation.(Politico)

Biden 2024 campaign announcement coming as soon as next week.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will formally announce his 2024 reelection campaign as soon as next week, three people briefed on the discussions said Thursday.

The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said they were not aware that a final decision on timing had been made, but that Biden had been eyeing Tuesday, April 25, four years to the day since the Democrat entered the 2020 race. The upcoming announcement is expected to be in the form of a video released to supporters. (Associated Press).

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Kamala is always busy.

Touch 👇 to see the Vice President address the black mayors of America in her house.

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Yesterday - Another bad legal day for the Trump cult.

Bragg-Jordan subpoena fight on Mark Pomerantz testimony.

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Don’t say gay! Florida and Russia.

DeSantis and Putin. Mouse warriors both.

Florida expands ‘Don’t Say Gay’ restrictions to all grades.

Florida’s Department of Education voted to expand the state’s law banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity through 12th grade, as more anti-LGBTQ+ bills advance through the statehouse.

Florida’s Department of Education voted Wednesday to expand the state’s law banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity, extending the restrictions through 12th grade. The expansion makes real a warning that LGBTQ+ advocates had repeated since the inception of the original law — that older students could be affected too. 

Shari Gawanter, a first grade teacher in Leon County, Florida, has taught for over two decades. She wants LGBTQ+ students to know that she doesn’t plan to go anywhere. 

The amendment that the board approved Wednesday prohibits instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for grades four through 12 unless such instruction is “expressly required by state academic standards.” If such instruction is part of a reproductive health course or health lesson that a student’s parent has consented to, then it is allowed. The expansion should take effect after a procedural period that lasts roughly a month, the AP reports, citing an education department spokesperson. 

The original Parental Rights in Education Act, nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, went into effect in July and banned such instruction from kindergarten to third grade. Equality Florida and the National Center for Lesbian Rights led a legal challenge against the law — a challenge that was dismissed, not for the first time, by a federal judge in February. 

The number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills seen in Florida this year— 22 — is the most ever seen in the state in a single legislative session, as far as Equality Florida has been tracking it, according to Joe Saunders, senior political director at the organization. Eighteen of those bills are currently advancing, he said Wednesday. 

This week, multiple anti-LGBTQ+ bills advanced through Florida’s statehouse,  including one that restricts curriculums in colleges and universities. (19th News).

Bolshoi pulls Nureyev ballet citing ban on LGBT 'propaganda.’

MOSCOW — Russia’s Bolshoi Theater has removed a ballet dedicated to dancer Rudolf Nureyev from its repertoire, citing a new Russian law that expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBT rights, its director said Wednesday.

Bolshoi director Vladimir Urin said the ballet “Nureyev” had been dropped “in connection with the newly signed law, which unambiguously deals with issues related to propaganda of non-traditional values,” the Interfax news agency reported.

The law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December bans advertising, media and online resources, books, films and theater productions deemed to contain “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations,” expanding a 2013 ban on such ”propaganda” aimed at minors.

The ban on any “demonstration of non-traditional relations” contained in the new law apparently prompted the Bolshoi to pull the ballet because it touches on Nureyev’s homosexuality. (Washington Post).

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There is Netanyahu too.

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A dear sweet boy in a crazy country. 👇 The picture made me smile.

Let’s see what is happening in blue states.

What type of world do you want to live in?

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A NYC neighborhood boasts.

Famous People Who Went to LaGuardia High School.

Sample alums.

Jennifer Aniston (Class of 1987)

Al Pacino (Class of 1959).

Liza Minnelli (Class of 1964).

To see and read about other Westside celebrities, click here.