A federal judge overseeing a closely watched climate case on Wednesday pressed the lawyer representing young Americans suing President Donald Trump on whether courts have constitutional authority to rein in his fossil-fuel agenda.On the second and last day of hearings in Missoula, Montana, attorneys delivered final arguments in Lighthiser v. Trump, part of a growing global wave of lawsuits seeking to force climate action amid political inertia or hostility.The 22 plaintiffs, represented by the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, want a preliminary injunction against three executive orders they say trample their inalieanable rights by seeking to “unleash” fossil fuel development while sidelining renewable energy. They also accuse the administration of eroding federal climate science, leaving the public less informed about mounting dangers.The government counters that the lawsuit is undemocratic and echoes Juliana v. United States, a similar youth-led case that wound through the courts for nearly a decade before the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal last year — and should be similarly dismissed.”This case asks whether the United States Constitution guards against executive abuses of power by executive orders that deprive children and youth of their fundamental rights to life and liberties,” said Julia Olson, director of Our Children’s Trust and the lead lawyer.”And now that the court has had the opportunity to hear from some of the youth plaintiffs and their expert witnesses, the answer to that question is clear, and it’s yes,” she said.But Judge Dana Christensen, who has issued favorable environmental rulings in the past, pressed Olson on whether precedent tied his hands, and asked if granting relief would require him to oversee every subsequent climate action taken by the executive branch.”What exactly does that look like?” he asked. “I’d be required to continue to monitor the actions of this administration to determine whether or not they are acting in a manner that contravenes my injunction.”- Decision awaited -Olson argued the case fundamentally differs from Juliana, which sought to upend decades of federal energy policy, while Lighthiser targets only three orders. She urged the court to take inspiration from Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 ruling that dismantled racial segregation in schools.Government attorney Michael Sawyer questioned whether the plaintiffs’ own choices undermined their claims of injury, pointing to the flights college student Avery McRae takes from her home state Oregon to Florida.”If she’s injured by every additional ton of emissions, why are those emissions allowed to proceed,” Sawyer said, “but the emissions that put dinner on the table of a coal miner’s family not allowed?”The fate of the case — whether it moves toward trial following a preliminary injunction or is tossed out entirely — may not be clear for weeks or longer.Michael Gerrard, an environmental law professor at Columbia Law School, told AFP the plaintiffs had made “a strong factual case about the causes and dangers of climate change.”But he added: “It would be plowing new ground for a court to say that there is a substantive due process right under the US Constitution to a stable climate system.”- ‘Shouldn’t have to miss school’ -Throughout the hearings, plaintiffs presented experts and firsthand accounts of intensifying heat and ever more destructive climate disasters. The government called no witnesses of its own.Lori Byron, a pediatrician and co-author of government reports, testified children are “uniquely and disproportionately” harmed by climate change because of their developing bodies and dependence on adults.Energy economist Geoffrey Heal of Columbia University rejected the administration’s claim that the country faces an “energy emergency,” the legal justification for Trump’s orders. “The evidence of that is when you go to a light switch and flick it the light comes on,” he said.And 17-year-old Isaiah H. of Missoula, an aspiring cross-country runner, described how worsening fires and shrinking snowpack are reducing his ability to ski, run, and spend time outside.Isaiah recalled how he and his brother once evacuated their house “because the smoke was too bad.””I shouldn’t be having to step in like this, and shouldn’t have to miss school and make up tests and assignments just to advocate for my health and safety.”

Natalia fled Russia fearing imminent arrest for her family’s opposition activism and sought political asylum in the United States. But instead of refuge, she found herself locked in jail for over a year, separated from her husband and children and dreading deportation.With the Trump administration stepping up removals as part of its sweeping anti-immigration crackdown, rights activists warn that deporting Russian dissidents puts them at risk of prison and persecution back home.”I supported the opposition, I supported opposition activists who were against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s regime,” Natalia told AFP in a phone interview from an immigration detention center in the southern state of Louisiana. “If I return to Russia, I will be arrested.”Clad in an orange prison uniform, Natalia shares a dormitory with about 60 other women sleeping in bunk beds. Showers and toilets are in the same room, behind curtains that don’t offer privacy or respite from the foul smell.Tens of thousands of Russians have applied for political asylum in the United States, many by crossing the border from Mexico, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Moscow’s ensuing suppression of dissent.About 85 percent of Russian asylum claims adjudicated last year were approved, according to official data, but detainees, lawyers and rights groups say denials have increased in recent months, while detainees are subjected to arbitrary detention and not given a fair chance to defend themselves in court.Nearly 900 Russians, many of them asylum seekers, have been deported back home since 2022, official data shows.They include some 100 who were sent back under convoy over the summer on two specially chartered flights, precluding them from seeking refuge in a third country, according to the Russian America for Democracy in Russia (RADR) group and the Russian Antiwar Committee.The deportees faced lengthy interrogations on arrival and at least two of them were arrested, including a serviceman who deserted following the Ukraine invasion and an opposition activist, the groups said.”It’s a catastrophe,” said Dmitry Valuev, RADR’s president. “It cannot be done. They are deporting people who face real danger in Russia.”- ‘Deep sense of disappointment’ – Long-time political activists, Natalia and her husband campaigned for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose organization has since been outlawed and declared “extremist” in Russia, while his supporters were persecuted.After police searched their apartment outside Moscow in 2023, Natalia’s husband and their pre-teen son flew to Mexico and crossed the US border. In the United States, they surrendered themselves to immigration authorities and were released on parole to await their political asylum hearing in a midwestern state.Natalia followed them a year later, but ended up detained.She has spent nearly 1.5 years in jail, one of an estimated 1,000 Russian citizens held in immigration jails across the country, according to RADR.Lawyers say married couples are often sent to prison in different states, often depriving one of the spouses of a strong asylum case.In April, a judge denied Natalia’s request for political asylum, despite the family’s prior arrests for anti-government protests and a history of involvement with a banned opposition group. She has filed an appeal. “I have a deep sense of disappointment, I thought there is some kind of justice and reason here,” Natalia said. “I could never believe that I would be treated in court the same way as in Russia.”- ‘Completely inhumane’ – Another Russian asylum seeker held with Natalia has also lost her case and is awaiting removal. Her husband Yuri was deported on a commercial flight over the summer, after a year in detention, but was able to get off the plane in Morocco and buy a plane ticket to a third country.He worries, however, that his wife will not have that chance, as was the case with the two mass deportation flights.”It’s completely inhumane not to give people an opportunity to get off the flight,” Yuri told AFP from a South Asian country where he is currently staying. “Fine, you want to kick them out of America, but to do this?”US officials declined to comment on recent deportations of Russian citizens.At the Louisiana detention center, the days are long and grim.Natalia says security guards can throw away their meager belongings or forbid them to use a towel to keep warm during a walk outside. Some say they are going hungry and are not receiving proper medical care.”I don’t cry anymore, I know I need to live to see the appeal,” Natalia said. “My biggest sorrow is not being able to take part in my children’s lives. I know they need me.”

A Florida man was executed by lethal injection in the southern US state on Wednesday for the murders of his wife’s sister and her parents.David Pittman, 63, became the 12th person executed in Florida this year and the 31st in the United States.The execution was carried out at 6:12 pm (2212 GMT) at the Florida State Prison, authorities said.Pittman was sentenced to death in 1991 for the 1990 murders of Bonnie Knowles, 21, the sister of his estranged wife, and her parents, Clarence Knowles, 60, and Barbara Knowles, 50.They were stabbed to death and their home was then set on fire.Pittman’s lawyers sought a stay of execution, claiming he is intellectually disabled with an IQ of 70, but the appeals were denied.The 31 executions in the United States this year is the most since 2014 when 35 inmates were put to death.Florida has carried out the most executions, followed by South Carolina and Texas with four each.Twenty-six of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and three by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment, and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

US stocks finished mixed Wednesday while the dollar moved higher as markets digested the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates for the first time in 2025 and signaling it could enact two more cuts this year.The moves largely corresponded to market expectations and follow recent economic reports showing weaker job growth that Fed Chair Jerome Powell said justified a greater focus on the central bank’s labor market mandate compared with inflation.Equities initially strengthened on the decision, but trading was choppy thereafter as markets digested Powell’s press conference while trying to parse whether his message was more dovish or hawkish than expected.The dollar initially retreated but later strengthened, with gains against the euro and other currencies compared with Tuesday.The bounce in the dollar “could reflect the market’s view that the Fed didn’t sound quite as dovish as markets had hoped,” said James Stanley, senior strategist at Forex.com.”That said, it would be difficult to call a rate meeting when the bank cut rates and warned that rate cuts were expected at the final two meetings of this year as anything but dovish.”Fed policymakers walk a tightrope balancing inflation and labor market risks as they mull changes to interest rates.On Wednesday, the Fed said that “downside risks to employment have risen,” even as inflation has picked up and “remains somewhat elevated.”It noted that job gains have slowed while the unemployment rate — despite being low — also inched up.Based on the projections released Wednesday, policymakers appeared to be close to evenly split between those who expect at least two interest rate cuts later this year and those who anticipate one or fewer.Powell himself reiterated that additional interest rate actions would depend on upcoming economic data.A note from EY-Parthenon economist Gregory Daco said the Fed may proceed “more gradually” and make fewer than two additional cuts in 2025.”An October cut remains possible but would likely require a negative” September jobs report, said Daco, who currently anticipates a second 25-basis-point interest rate cut in December.In Europe, London and Frankfurt stocks ended the day higher while Paris dipped.In Britain, data showing UK inflation held at 3.8 percent in August reinforced expectations that the Bank of England will maintain its key rate on Thursday and for the remainder of 2025.The Bank of Canada cut its key lending rate as expected on Wednesday. Asian stocks traded mixed, after Tuesday’s tepid showing on Wall Street. – Key figures at around 2100 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 46,018.32 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.1 percent at 6,600.35 (close)New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 0.3 percent at 22,261.33 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 9,208.37 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,786.98 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.1 percent at 23,359.18 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 44,790.38 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 3,876.34 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.8 percent at 26,908.39 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1811 from $1.1867 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3626 from $1.3647Dollar/yen: UP at 147.00 yen from 146.48 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 86.70 pence from 86.95 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $64.05 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.8 percent at $67.95 per barrelburs-jmb/mlm