The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that it expects to be able to use facial recognition technology to scan 97 percent of departing airline passengers within the next four years.

The department’s facial recognition program, officially titled “Biometric Exit,” is run by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a branch of DHS.

According to The Hill, the program “cross-references the images of departing passengers with a ‘gallery’ of images [and] photos from visa and passport applications. The matching service allows CBP to create a record of the passenger’s departure, which they can then use to figure out if the individual has overstayed their visa.”

Biometric Exit has raised alarm among privacy advocates.

Jeramie Scott, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s Domestic Surveillance Project, told Buzzfeed in March that “it’s important to note what the use of facial recognition [in airports] means for American citizens.”

“It means the government, without consulting the public, a requirement by Congress, or consent from any individual, is using facial recognition to create a digital ID of millions of Americans,” Scott said.

Public Citizen sued Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday for allegedly blocking access to the consumer group’s website on her department’s guest Wi-Fi and internal networks.

“No way are we going to let them get away with suppressing our views.”
—Robert Weissman, Public Citizen

“This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment,” Public Citizen president Robert Weissman wrote in an email to supporters. “Users attempting to access Public Citizen’s website though the department’s guest wireless networks receive a message that access is ‘in violation of your internet usage policy.’ We requested the department’s policy for blocking access to internet sites, but it hasn’t responded to our request.”

“What we do know,” Weissman continued, “is that our website contains lots of information critical of DeVos and the department.”

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The U.K. Parliament made history on Wednesday by becoming the first to declare an environment and climate emergency.

MPs in the House of Commons passed the motion put forth by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn following debate.

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“This can set off a wave of action from parliaments and governments around the globe,” Corbyn said in a statement, which called attention to the recent wave of actions demanding urgent action on the climate crisis.

“Protesters and school-strikers told us to act,” he said. “Governments never act without pressure and we must keep the pressure up. I’m proud that the Labour Party brought this motion to the House, and now we will carry on this work by developing our plans to deliver a Green Industrial Revolution.”

“Now it’s time for real action to tackle climate change,” Labour added on Twitter.

Climate activists welcomed the development—and the grassroots power that made it happen—but also stressed that it must be followed by a dismantling of business-as-usual to truly behave as though it’s an emergency.

The U.K. Parliament will vote Wednesday on a Labour Party motion to declare a climate emergency.

“We have no time to waste,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in prepared remarks. “We are living in a climate crisis that will spiral dangerously out of control unless we take rapid and dramatic action now.”

Corbyn also praised youth who’ve led recent climate strikes.

“The truth is they are ahead of the politicians on this—the most important issue of our times,” said Corbyn.

“By becoming the first parliament in the world to declare a climate emergency,” he added, “we could set off a wave of action from parliaments and governments around the globe.”

Watch the debate in the House of Commons currently underway:

A number of environmental groups, including UK Student Climate Network, Extinction Rebellion, and Friends of the Earth, are supporting a demonstration outside Parliament at 5pm.

“The first step to mitigating the worst impacts of climate change is making the government admit the scale and urgency of the situation,” the groups said in a call-to-action. “This is our chance to make that happen.”

In a tweet posted Tuesday, Corbyn gave a sense of urgency to his party’s motion. “It’s time to act,” he said.

Thousands took to the streets of London on Saturday to show solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand an end to Israel’s brutal occupation.

Ahed Tamimi—the 18-year-old Palestinian activist who became a global protest icon after she was imprisoned for slapping Israeli soldiers outside of her home in the occupied West Bank—joined Saturday’s march and delivered a speech to demonstrators:

Members of the U.K. Labour Party also joined or backed the demonstration, which was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Stop the War Coalition, and other groups.

“We cannot stand by or stay silent at the continuing denial of rights and justice to the Palestinian people.”
—Jeremy Corbyn, U.K. Labour Leader

“Palestine has the right to exist but sadly that is a right that is increasingly threatened,” said Labour MP Richard Burgeon. “Palestinians should be able to live free from ever expanding settlements on stolen land.”

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The London march took place just a week after an Israeli assault on Gaza killed over 20 Palestinians, including two pregnant women and two infants.

On Friday, as Al Jazeera reported, Israeli forces killed one Palestinian and injured dozens more during anti-occupation demonstrations.

Ahead of Friday’s marches, U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote a lengthy Facebook post expressing support for the demonstrators, calling for an end to British arms sales to Israel, and denouncing Prime Minister Theresa May’s government for its “deafening” silence in the face of Israel’s attacks on Palestinians.

“We cannot stand by or stay silent at the continuing denial of rights and justice to the Palestinian people,” Corbyn wrote. “The silence of many governments, including our own, has been deafening. The U.K. government should instead unequivocally condemn the killing of demonstrators—including children, paramedics, and journalists—and other civilians, and freeze arms sales to Israel.”

As protests of Amazon’s 48-hour “Prime Day” continued Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a dozen House Democrats demanded a federal probe of workplace conditions employees have described as “grueling” and “unsafe.”

A letter (pdf) to the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration—spearheaded by Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—outlines in detail the “unacceptable” conditions that hundreds of workers have reported at the warehouses operated by Amazon and its subsidiaries and contractors.

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“Amazon operates more than 100 warehouses across that country that employ more than 125,000 people, yet in the last five years OSHA has reported conducting only 150 inspections of Amazon spaces and issued just 41 violations,” the letter notes. “OSHA has previously found that Amazon fails to report worker injuries and when OSHA does investigate, your agency has found instances of egregious injuries, including fractures and amputations.”

“Hold this corporate malfeasance accountable.”
—Rep. Ilhan Omar

“Owing to the breadth and severity of past violations as well as mounting public revelations of brutal and hazardous working conditions,” the letter continues, “we request that OSHA launch a thorough and comprehensive investigation into the workplace conditions at all of Amazon’s warehouses, and that any violations uncovered in the course of such investigation be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The letter was also signed by Democratic Reps. Debbie Dingell (Mich.), Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), Al Green (Texas), Deb Haaland (N.M.) Ro Khanna (Calif.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Andy Levin (Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.).

Noting the massive fortune of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Sanders said in a statement Tuesday that “people who work for a company owned by the wealthiest person in America should not have to risk their lives, health, or well-being on the job. They must be treated with dignity and respect.”

Omar, in the statement and on Twitter, highlighted some of the conditions that workers have reported.

“Amazon workers often work in overheated facilities without air conditioning,” she said. “They fear taking bathroom and water breaks for fear of retaliation. Workplace injuries are often ignored—sometimes leaving workers homeless or bereft of income. There are multiple reports of deaths of Amazon workers on the company’s watch.”

Urging OSHA to “hold this corporate malfeasance accountable” by launching a probe, Omar declared Amazon “a 21st century sweatshop.”

The letter from lawmakers followed Amazon workers’ strikes on Monday and calls from labor advocates for consumers to boycott the internet retailer’s two-day sale.

As Common Dreams reported Monday, “protests against the company’s business practices and support for the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda” were held in several cities, and came as Amazon critics voiced support for employees at a fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota who planned a work stoppage “to protest what they say are long working hours, insufficient breaks, and unrealistic packing quotas.”

Demonstrations targeting Amazon continued alongside Prime Day Tuesday, and included a march to Bezos’ house intended to pressure the company to cut ties with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.