The June 24 US Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade comes six weeks after a court in El Salvador sentenced a woman to 30 years in prison after she suffered an obstetric emergency that resulted in termination of her pregnancy, according to a… Read moreEl Salvador: warning for post-Roe US
A judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Jan. 27 invalidated an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, finding that the Biden administration failed to properly account for the auction’s environmental impact…. Read moreUS judge invalidates massive offshore oil sale
The US Supreme Court this month heard oral arguments for two immigration cases that address the right of detained non-citizens to have a bond hearing after six months of detention. Both cases were brought by asylum-seekers who had been detained for… Read moreSCOTUS hears cases on indefinite migrant detention
Finnish authorities announced that they are investigating damage to an undersea telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland after seizing a vessel suspected of sabotage in the incident. After telecommunications authorities detected a fault in the undersea cable linking Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia's capital, Finland's Border Guard was mobilized, and located a suspicious vessel within the country's exclusive economic zone. After taking control of the vessel, Border Guard officials told reporters that the cargo ship had been sailing from the Russian port of St. Petersburg to Israel. Officials linked it to Russia's "shadow fleet" allegedly used to circumvent Western sanctions, describing the incident as part of a broader pattern of "hybrid threats" targeting critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. (Map: Google)
In Episode 98 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg discusses the book Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience by Melanie Kirkpatrick. A work of Thanksgiving boosterism, it nonetheless recognizes the dissidents who reject the holiday as… Read morePodcast: Thanksgiving and Atonement
For the first time, the annual UN climate summit is focusing on the overlap between conflict and the climate crisis. This convergence is especially clear in rebel-controlled northwest Syria. A years-long drought is compounding the suffering caused by over 12 years of war, and devastating earthquakes that struck the region earlier this year. Water pumping infrastructure has been repeatedly hit by regime and Russian warplanes, leaving farmers without irrigation for parched fields. Since the start of October, the northwest has been experiencing the most intense military escalation by the regime and its Russian patron in nearly three years, with scores killed and over 120,000 displaced by air-strikes. (Photo: Mahmoud Abo Ras/TNH)
Local indigenous peoples and their environmentalist supporters have rallied outside the federal courthouse in Reno, Nev., as they await a decision on their request for an injunction to stop the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project, set to be developed on… Read morePaiute and Shoshone oppose Nevada lithium mine
The government of Greenland announced July 23 that it will suspend all oil exploration, saying the territory “wants to take co-responsibility for combating the global climate crisis… The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and… Read moreGreenland suspends oil exploration, citing climate crisis
In Episode 81 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes stock of the fast-mounting manifestations of devastating climate destabilization—from Oregon to Siberia, from Germany to Henan. In Angola, traditional pastoralists are joining the ranks of “climate refugees” as their communal lands… Read morePodcast: climate change and the global struggle
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged states to dismantle systematic racism against African and African-descendent peoples, in a June 28 report focusing on law enforcement around the world. “The status quo is untenable,” Bachelet said. “Systemic racism needs a systemic response…. Read moreUN: end systemic racism in law enforcement
The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on June 29 in PennEast Pipeline Co. v. New Jersey that the Natural Gas Act can grant private companies authority to take state-owned property to build a pipeline. Under the Natural Gas Act (NGA), a… Read moreSCOTUS: pipeline companies may take state property
A bill by the Canadian Parliament recognizing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and establishing a framework for its implementation received Royal Assent on June 21. The legislation requires the government of Canada to take measures… Read moreCanada law recognizing UNDRIP gets royal assent
