Thursday, February 11, 2021

RSN: Instagram Removes Anti-Vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr. for False COVID-19 Claims

 

 

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11 February 21


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Instagram Removes Anti-Vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr. for False COVID-19 Claims
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been criticized by members of his family for spreading false information about vaccines. (photo: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock)
Maanvi Singh, Guardian UK
Singh writes: "The prominent anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr has been booted from Instagram for repeatedly sharing false claims about Covid-19 and the safety of vaccines."

Moves comes as platforms attempt to crack down on misinformation and conspiracy theories about Covid vaccines


he prominent anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr has been booted from Instagram for repeatedly sharing false claims about Covid-19 and the safety of vaccines.

Facebook confirmed on Wednesday that it had removed the profile of Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic who chairs the Children’s Health Defense – a group that baselessly ties chronic childhood conditions to a number of factors including vaccines – as part of the social media platform’s efforts to remove vaccine misinformation.

Kennedy’s Instagram account was actioned “for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines”, said a spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram.

Kennedy’s Facebook account, however, remains active, despite promoting false, dangerous claims about the safety of vaccines and Covid-19 treatments. A company spokesperson said that Facebook does not automatically disable users across various platforms.

A 2019 study found that the majority of Facebook ads spreading misinformation about vaccines were funded by two groups: Kennedy’s organization, which was launched in 2016 under the name World Mercury Project, and Stop Mandatory Vaccinations, a project launched by the anti-vaccine crusader Larry Cook.

Facebook and Instagram have struggled to contain a deluge of misinformation and conspiracy theories about Covid-19 vaccines, and vaccines in general. The company pledged in December to remove all debunked claims about Covid-19 vaccines, and this week said it planned to expand that crackdown to include false claims about all vaccines.

The new community guidelines will apply to user-generated posts as well as paid advertisements.

Facebook groups, in particular, have been found to fuel the rise of anti-vaccine communities. Despite its latest policy to combat misinformation, conspiracy theories and false claims about vaccines and the virus remain on the company’s social media platforms.

Kennedy, the son of former US attorney general Bobby Kennedy, has been criticized by members of his family, including his brother, sister and niece for spreading false information about vaccines that they said was “tragically wrong”.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty)
Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty)


Tense Moments Between Bernie Sanders and Neera Tanden Over Her Attacks on Progressives
Oliver O'Connell, Independent
O'Connell writes: "Joe Biden's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget was confronted with her past tweets about Republicans and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party for the second day as part of her confirmation hearing."

Appearing before the Senate Budget Committee, Neera Tanden faced famed progressive Bernie Sanders, Independent Senator for Vermont, with whom she has sparred before.

While the pair have shared goals, and Mr Sanders has said that he would support her nomination, they have a contentious relationship dating back to her support for Hillary Clinton, his challenger for the Democratic nomination in 2016.

In her opening statement to the committee, Ms Tanden said she regrets some of her past social media posts.

Mr Sanders reminded her that her social media remarks include not just snipes at Republicans, but also: “Vicious attacks made against progressives. People whom I have worked with… me personally.”

He continued: “As you come before this committee to assume a very important role in the United States government at a time in which we need serious work on serious issues and not personal attacks on anybody, whether they are on the left or the right, can you reflect on the decisions and personal statements you have made in recent years?”

Ms Tanden acknowledged that her remarks “caused hurt to people” and that she “felt badly about that”, adding: “I apologise to people on the left or right who have been hurt by what I’ve said.”

Moving on to policy matters, where the two share common goals, Mr Sanders asked Ms Tanden if she would commit to supporting a higher minimum wage, negotiating lower drug prices, lowering Medicare eligibility age, instituting free college tuition for the middle class, and taking action on the climate crisis.

Ms Tanden replied yes to all of those policies.

Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan called out Republicans about their newfound concern about mean tweets.

“We've endured four years of the ultimate mean tweets,” Ms Stabenow said. “I don't want to hold you to a higher standard but we certainly want to turn the page.”

Republican Senator Pat Toomey asked Ms Tanden, citing her tweets about Russian meddling, if she thought Donald Trump was legitimately elected. She replied affirmatively.

At a hearing in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday Ms Tanden was also confronted by Republicans regarding her tweets.

Ohio senator Rob Portman, the leading Republican on the committee voiced his concern that personal attacks on specific senators may make it difficult for her to work with them.

He noted that in the past she has criticised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Susan Collins of Maine.

Mr Portman reminded Ms Tanden that she called Senator Collins “the worst”, said that Senator Cotton “is a fraud”, said that “vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz”, and called Senator McConnell “Moscow Mitch” and “Voldemort”.

He added that “there are still nine pages of tweets about Senator Cruz”.

Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma noted that, more generally, she had called Republicans “criminally ignorant”, “corrupt”, and “the worst”.

Ms Tanden described herself as an “impassioned advocate” in her previous role, adding: “I understand, though, that the role of OMB Director calls for bipartisan action, as well as a nonpartisan adherence to facts and evidence.”

While Ms Tanden's confirmation was in doubt when Republicans controlled the Senate, the results of the Georgia runoff elections have made her approval by the upper chamber much more likely with Democrats in control.

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Georgia prosecutors are investigating whether former President Donald Trump's phone call to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Ben Raffensperger to overturn the state's election results in Trump's favor broke state laws. (photo: Jessica McGowan/Getty)
Georgia prosecutors are investigating whether former President Donald Trump's phone call to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Ben Raffensperger to overturn the state's election results in Trump's favor broke state laws. (photo: Jessica McGowan/Getty)


Georgia Opens Criminal Investigation Into Trump's Call to Overturn Election
Stephen Fowler, NPR
Fowler writes: "The Fulton County District Attorney's office has launched a criminal probe into former President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn Georgia's election results, including a call pressuring Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to 'find' enough votes for him."

 The county includes Atlanta, Georgia's capital.

In a letter sent to state officials and obtained by Georgia Public Broadcasting, newly elected Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis said the investigation will look into several potential violations of state law, including "the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election's administration."

Read the letter here.

Joe Biden narrowly won Georgia by about 12,000 votes. In the weeks following the election, Trump became almost singularly focused on overturning the state's results, spreading false allegations of fraud all the way through a crucial Jan. 5 runoff that saw both of the state's U.S. Senate seats flip to Democrats after some of his strongest supporters stayed home.

The letter from prosecutors asked several state officials to preserve all records from administering the 2020 election, with "particular care" given to those that "may be evidence of attempts to influence the actions of persons who were administering the election."

In the hourlong call obtained by Georgia Public Broadcasting, an angry Trump alternately cajoled and castigated Georgia's top elections official, seeking to have him toss out the November election results, which was counted three separate times, and "find 11,780 votes" to declare Trump the winner.

Raffensperger, who was one of the more high-profile GOP figures to push back against Trump's claims of election fraud, held firm.

"Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong," Raffensperger said at one point. "We have to stand by our numbers. We believe our numbers are right."

There were other calls made by Trump as well, including calls to Gov. Brian Kemp imploring him to call a special session for the legislature to select a Trump-aligned slate of electors and another to a lead investigator overseeing an audit of absentee ballot signatures in Cobb County. The GOP-controlled state Senate, led by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, held hearings into alleged voter fraud that featured the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. State Attorney General Christopher Carr's office defended the state in several failed lawsuits seeking to invalidate the state's votes.

News of the investigation comes after the Georgia State Election Board earlier this week initiated an investigation into Trump's actions to undermine Georgia's election results, an administrative step that could eventually see the board refer violations over to the state Attorney General's office.

Trump is also under criminal investigation in New York, where prosecutors are examining the former president's finances in Manhattan and a civil fraud case by the state attorney general.

And in this week's historic impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, the president's attempts to subvert the Georgia's election results were referred to. It is unlikely there are enough votes to convict him or bar him from holding office in the future.

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A man confronts a National Guard member as they guard the area in the aftermath of a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 29, 2020. (photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)
A man confronts a National Guard member as they guard the area in the aftermath of a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 29, 2020. (photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)


As George Floyd Trial Begins, Minnesota Readies National Guard
Joshua Rhett Miller, New York Post
Miller writes: "Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is prepping for the possibility of widespread civil unrest amid the upcoming trials of four former Minneapolis cops charged in George Floyd's police-custody death."

Walz issued an executive order Friday authorizing the Minnesota National Guard to deploy troops in Minneapolis, St. Paul and other communities to “keep the peace, ensure public safety and allow for peaceful demonstrations” during the trials of the since-fired officers.

The second-degree murder and manslaughter trial of Derek Chauvin — the white Minneapolis officer seen pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as the handcuffed black man repeatedly said “I can’t breathe” — is scheduled to start March 8.

The trials for the other three terminated officers charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — are set to begin in August.

“There are some public safety events for which you cannot plan, and there are some for which you can,” the Democratic governor announced Friday.

Walz’s order did not specify the number of National Guard troops to be deployed. The state’s adjutant general will determine how many are ultimately “needed to coordinate and support public safety and security services” in Minneapolis, St. Paul and elsewhere throughout Minnesota, according to the executive order.

Walz also called on state legislators to approve his plan to use $35 million from an emergency account to ensure there’s enough law enforcement personnel for local agencies to employ the National Guard’s help.

But the proposal was met with pushback from state GOP leaders who don’t want to lose statewide funds from their community and insist Minneapolis should foot the bill, especially following police cuts in the city after Floyd’s May 25 death.

“We are not going to bail out [the] Minneapolis City Council after they have made cuts to the public safety budget,” Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka told Fox News last week. “Actions to defund the police have consequences.”

Walz said Friday that the funding would be a “critical tool” to ensure enough officers can respond to the potential unrest.

Since the National Guard is not a law enforcement agency, its members must partner with police while on the ground, requiring significant aid from neighboring cities and counties at a substantial cost, Walz said.

Violence in the aftermath of Floyd’s death rocked Minneapolis before spreading across the globe and sparking a “Defund the police” movement that led to the public safety cuts in the city of roughly 420,000 people.

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Healthcare worker at Covid 19 testing location. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty)
Healthcare worker at Covid 19 testing location. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty)


40 Percent of US COVID Deaths Could Have Been Averted if It Weren't for Trump: Lancet Report
Jason Lemon, Newsweek
Lemon writes: "A new report highlights the hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths in the U.S. under former President Donald Trump, noting that some 40 percent of COVID-19 pandemic deaths in 2020 would have been averted if America's mortality rate was equivalent to other wealthy peer nations."

The report—published Thursday in one of the world's oldest and best-known medical journals The Lancet—explains that even before the pandemic, the U.S. saw 461,000 unnecessary deaths in 2018 when compared to the death rates in other G7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom). Comparing the U.S. COVID-19 mortality rate to this peer group, the U.S. would have seen 40 percent fewer deaths in 2020 if its mortality rate was comparable.

"The global COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on the USA, with more than 26 million diagnosed cases and over 450000 deaths as of early February, 2021, about 40% of which could have been averted had the U.S. death rate mirrored the weighted average of the other G7 nations," the report explains.

"Many of the cases and deaths were avoidable. Instead of galvanizing the US populace to fight the pandemic, President Trump publicly dismissed its threat (despite privately acknowledging it), discouraged action as infection spread, and eschewed international cooperation," it continues.

While Trump is responsible for his administration's actions in the past four years, the authors of the report point out that many problems in the U.S. date back decades due to neo-liberal policies promoted by both Republican and Democratic leaders. While people are living longer, healthier lives in peer nations—life expectancy in the U.S. is on the decline. The report points to a range of negative factors such as climate change, deregulation, soaring health care costs, lack of health insurance, economic inequality and racism.

Under Trump, an additional 2.3 million people became uninsured on top of the 28 million Americans who were already uninsured when he came into office. That 2.3 million included 726,000 children. Furthermore, the mortality gap between white and Black Americans has grown by 50 percent during the pandemic, while the life expectancy of Latinx Americans has declined by 3.5 years.

"Trump exploited low and middle-income white people's anger over their deteriorating life prospects to mobilise racial animus and xenophobia and enlist their support for policies that benefit high-income people and corporations and threaten health. His signature legislative achievement, a trillion-dollar tax cut for corporations and high-income individuals, opened a budget hole that he used to justify cutting food subsidies and health care," the report says.

The authors of the report are part of The Lancet Commission and include prominent doctors and researchers. Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, one of the authors who works as primary care physician and as a distinguished professor of public health and health policy in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, told Newsweek that President Joe Biden has "moved swiftly" to address some of the worst of Trump's policies, but said the new administration should do more.

"Reversing Americans' decades of lagging health will require much larger reforms, including: Medicare for All; reparations to compensate Native and Black Americans for wealth and labor confiscated from them; passage of the Green New Deal; and added federal support for nutrition, housing, education and other programs that are essential for good health," Woolhandler said in an email. "These social needs should be funded by reductions in defense spending and increased taxes on the wealthy."

Woolhandler noted that "Trump's stoking of racism and his dropping of regulations on polluters have probably had the gravest short term effects."

Dr. Mary Bassett, a commission member and director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, said in a press release that the report "highlights how racial disparities in health have grown in the last four years, especially as COVID-19 has taken its grim and unequal toll in Black, Latinx and Indigenous people."

Bassett said that "the disastrous, bungled response to the pandemic made clear how existing, long-standing racial inequities simply have not been addressed. It's time to stop saying these preventable gaps cannot be eliminated."


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Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul is best known for leading the campaign to legalize driving for women in Saudi Arabia. (photo: Marieke Wjntjes/Reuters)
Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul is best known for leading the campaign to legalize driving for women in Saudi Arabia. (photo: Marieke Wjntjes/Reuters)


Saudi Arabia Releases Prominent Women's Rights Activist From Prison as Biden Presses Kingdom on Human Rights
Sarah Dadouch and Kareem Fahim, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Saudi Arabia released Loujain al-Hathloul, one of the country's most prominent women's rights activists, from prison on Wednesday in the clearest sign yet that the kingdom's leaders were taking steps to assuage President Biden's complaints about human rights violations."

Hathloul, 31, has been among the most visible faces of an unrelenting Saudi crackdown on human rights advocates, dissidents and civil society activists. Her imprisonment, which lasted 1,001 days, and her allegations that she had been tortured, sparked an international outcry.

Her release from prison comes at a time when Saudi Arabia faces increased skepticism, if not hostility, in Washington after the election of a new president and after the Democrats won control of the Senate.

In recent weeks, the kingdom has taken several steps that could enhance its brand, including a reconciliation with its neighbor Qatar and the release of activists jailed on what human rights groups say were bogus terrorism-related charges. The most prominent of these is Hathloul, who is well known for campaigning for women’s right to drive and for the abolition of Saudi guardianship laws, which require women to obtain a male relative’s consent for major decisions, including education and travel.

On Wednesday, President Biden welcomed Hathloul’s release. “She was a powerful advocate for women’s rights, and releasing her was the right thing to do,” Biden said during remarks at the Pentagon.

A Saudi appeals court in January reduced the prison term of Walid Fitaihi, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen who founded a prominent hospital in the kingdom. Earlier this month, two other dual citizens were released from custody, pending trial.

Despite these steps, Hathloul and others have not been acquitted by Saudi courts and remain under tight restrictions that prevent them from leaving the kingdom. Human rights activists are pressing for these constraints to be lifted entirely.

In pictures posted by her sisters Wednesday, Hathloul looked gaunt, with a thick streak of silver in her hair. Her family had previously said that she had been transferred to a secret prison and subjected to abuse, including torture, beatings, sexual harassment and electric shocks — some supervised by Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to the crown prince. Saudi officials have denied reports of torturing prisoners.

A Saudi court in December had sentenced Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison but suspended a portion of her sentence and included time served, ensuring a relatively speedy release from custody — widely interpreted as a gesture to the incoming Biden administration.

For four years, Saudi Arabia benefited from having a close ally in President Donald Trump, who staunchly defended the kingdom as it was criticized for abuses. But Biden has vowed to reassess the relationship, with human rights a key component.

“For years, there has been constant pressure” on Saudi Arabia, said Taha al-Hajji, a Saudi lawyer and legal consultant for the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR). “Pressure on the government, pressure from [international] media, but it was relying on the Trump administration to have its back.”

“I am sure the change in the U.S. administration increased the pressure a lot,” he said.

Some of the most notable demands that Biden raised during his presidential campaign have so far gone unaddressed — including accountability for the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and for the high number of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen.

But even before Biden was inaugurated, Saudi Arabia had taken some steps welcomed internationally.

Last month, for example, Saudi Arabia agreed to reopen its borders and its airspace to Qatar after sealing them in 2017 as part of a blockade imposed by the kingdom and three other Arab countries. The rift had been the most serious in decades among the Persian Gulf monarchies, and it divided U.S. allies in the region considered crucial for confronting Iran.

As the result of negotiations, Saudi Arabia had dropped a list of 13 demands, including that Qatar cool its relations with Iran and close the popular news channel Al Jazeera, and Qatar agreed to freeze legal action it was pursuing against the kingdom, according to a person familiar with the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

Saudi Arabia has also tightened rules governing when it applies the death penalty, a step welcomed by human rights advocates. Before the changes, the kingdom had faced international criticism for its status as a world leader in capital punishment, lagging only behind China and Iran, and because of the manner in which the punishment was meted out. Saudi Arabia generally beheads prisoners, in ceremonies performed by sword-wielding executioners. Until recently, beheadings were carried out in public squares.

Beginning in early 2020, the judiciary imposed a moratorium on the use of the death penalty for nonviolent offenses, including for drug-related crimes, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of the roughly 800 executions carried out in the kingdom over the last five years. In April, the government announced that minors would no longer face the death penalty in certain cases.

Saudi Arabia has undergone a transformation under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who became heir to the throne in 2017, and is also defense minister.

Mohammed spoke of a new Saudi Arabia, and took steps to bring that vision to life. He removed a ban on women driving, promoted job creation for Saudi nationals and began to wean the country off its dependence on oil. But throughout his tenure as the kingdom’s de facto ruler, he has also made clear that the only reforms permitted are those bequeathed by the government and that political activism of any kind would not be tolerated.

The crown prince enjoyed a warm relationship with Trump and even more so with his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and critics of Saudi policies said that relationship earned Mohammed a pass.

During Trump’s administration, Saudi Arabia not only led an effort to blockade Qatar but also detained female activists and rounded up business executives and held them in the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh. In October 2018, after Saudi agents killed Khashoggi — the CIA concluded that Mohammed was responsible for ordering the operation — Trump argued that the slaying should not intrude on bilateral commercial and diplomatic ties.

During a presidential debate in 2019, Biden answered yes when asked if he would punish Saudi leaders for Khashoggi’s murder, as well as for executing nonviolent offenders. “Khashoggi was in fact murdered and dismembered, and I believe [on] the order of the crown prince,” Biden said. He then said he would halt sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia.

“We were going to in fact make them pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are.”

Biden added: “They’re going in and murdering children, and they’re murdering innocent people. And so they have to be held accountable.”

Last week, Biden announced an end to U.S. support for offensive operations in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemeni rebels has been criticized for repeatedly striking Yemeni civilians.

The change in U.S. administration has come as Saudi Arabia is facing economic challenges because of the coronavirus outbreak and plummeting oil prices.

Kristin Smith Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said the recent shifts in Saudi policy, such as reconciliation with Qatar, are caused by two things: “the shift in the political environment because of the new Biden administration, but also coronavirus.”

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Former San Carlos Apache Tribe chairman Wendsler Noise Sr. Speaks to activists opposing Resolution Copper's mining project at Oak Flat. (photo: Eli Imadali/The Republic)
Former San Carlos Apache Tribe chairman Wendsler Noise Sr. Speaks to activists opposing Resolution Copper's mining project at Oak Flat. (photo: Eli Imadali/The Republic)


San Carlos Apache Tribe Sues US Forest Service to Stop Resolution Copper Mine
San Carlos Apache Tribe, PR Newswire
Excerpt: "The San Carlos Apache Tribe filed a federal lawsuit late Thursday seeking to stop the U.S. Forest Service from transferring sacred tribal land at Chich'il Bildagoteel, or Oak Flat, to two foreign multi-national mining companies planning to construct the Resolution Copper Mine."

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court of Arizona one day before the Forest Service released its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) earlier today. The publication of the FEIS triggers a 60-day window where 2,422 acres of Tonto National Forest, including 760 acres at Oak Flat, must be exchanged with land owned by Rio Tinto PLC and BHP Copper Inc. Oak Flat is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property.

The land exchange mandate was included in a rider attached to the FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act. The Resolution Copper Mine could not be built without the transfer of Oak Flat from public ownership where federal laws would prohibit its destruction into private ownership where these laws would not apply.

"The Trump Administration rushed to publish a seriously-flawed FEIS just five days before President Trump leaves office," San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Terry Rambler said today. "This callous, immoral and illegal action is being done to enrich wealthy foreign mining interests while knowing that mining will destroy Oak Flat that for many generations has been the heart of Apache religious and cultural practices. We were left with no choice but to file this lawsuit to prevent the transfer of Oak Flat after release of the FEIS."

The Forest Service informed the Tribe that legally required appraisals of the federal and private land to be exchanged were not completed nor subject to public review prior to the publication of the FEIS.

"The Forest Service is grossly derelict in its duty to assure the American people that the appraisals are legitimate and reflect the actual value of the lands rather than just another one-sided government give-away of public land to benefit wealthy foreign mining conglomerates at the expense of the American people," Chairman Rambler said. "The land exchange must not go forward prior to publication of the appraisals and an opportunity for public review and comment."

The lawsuit documents that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to conduct a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. The suit states that the Forest Service ignored significant and technically substantial new information consisting of at least a dozen new studies and reports totaling thousands of pages that are relevant to the environmental impact of Resolution's proposed massive mine tailings dump that threatens regional groundwater supplies.

"A Supplemental DEIS must be prepared and made subject to full public review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)," Chairman Rambler said. "This is the only way to ensure full compliance with NEPA by the Tonto National Forest."

The suit also states that the Forest Service violated the National Historic Preservation Act by failing to adequately consult with the Tribe about ancestral land with great historic, cultural, and religious importance to the Tribe and its members.

Rio Tinto and BHP are the world's two largest transnational mining companies with operations based in Australia and Britain. The companies have a notorious record of destroying sacred indigenous sites around the world.

Last year, Rio Tinto blew up the 46,000-year-old sacred Aboriginal Juukan Gorge site in Western Australia, leading to the resignation of its chief executive officer. BHP ignored Australian Aboriginal groups' concerns about the future of dozens of heritage sites when it obtained government approval last year to destroy them as part of a mine expansion project.

"The United States must not provide rubber-stamp approvals for these companies to destroy sacred sites on our homeland in Arizona," Chairman Rambler said.

[Editors' Note: The Court filing can be downloaded here. The Tribe's lawsuit is separate from a federal lawsuit filed earlier this week by the nonprofit Apache Stronghold.]

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