This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on May 13, 2025. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

House Republicans on Monday quietly revived a proposal that would grant the Trump administration broad authority to crush nonprofits it views as part of the political opposition, from environmental justice organizations to news outlets.

Fight for the Future and other advocacy groups called attention to the measure, which was buried in the final pages of the House Ways and Means Committee’s draft reconciliation bill, starting on page 380.

A markup hearing for the legislation is scheduled to take place on Tuesday at 2:30 pm ET.

The proposal would empower the U.S. Treasury Department to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits deemed material supporters of terrorism, with only a hollow simulacrum of due process for the accused organizations. It is already illegal for nonprofits to provide material support for terrorism.

“The House is about to hand the Trump administration the ability to strip nonprofits of their 501(c)3 status without any reason or recourse. This is a five-alarm fire for nonprofits nationwide,” said Lia Holland, campaigns and communications director at Fight for the Future. “If the text of last autumn’s H.R. 9495 is passed in the budget, any organization with goals that do not line up with MAGA can be destroyed with a wink from Trump to the Treasury.”

The measure passed the Republican-controlled House late last year with the support of more than a dozen Democrats, but it never received a vote in the Senate.

“This terribly thought-out legislation means that under the current administration, every environmental, racial justice, LGBTQ+, gender justice, immigration justice, and—particularly—any anti-genocide organization throughout the country may be on the chopping block,” said Holland. “If Democrats capitulate to the wanton destruction of crucial civil society institutions, they had better expect civil society to burn them to the ground for that betrayal.”

The GOP’s renewed push for what opponents have called the “nonprofit killer bill” comes as the Trump administration wages war on nonprofit organizations, threatening to strip them of their tax-exempt status as part of a sweeping attack on the president’s political opponents.

“In the months since inauguration, Trump and his Cabinet have found other means of cracking down on political speech—particularly speech in favor of Palestinians—by deporting student activists and revoking hundreds of student visas. He has already threatened to attempt to revoke the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, part of his larger quest to discipline and punish colleges,” journalist Noah Hurowitz wrote for The Intercept late Monday.

“But the nonprofit clause of the tax bill would give the president wider power to go after organizations that stand in his way,” Hurowitz added.

Robert McCaw, government affairs director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Monday that “this provision is the latest in a growing wave of legislative attacks on constitutional rights.”

“CAIR is urging every member of the Ways and Means Committee to VOTE NO on the inclusion of this provision and to support an expected amendment to strike the language,” the group said in a statement. “Three Democratic members of the committee—Reps. Brad Schneider (Ill.), Tom Suozzi (N.Y.), and Jimmy Panetta (Calif.)—previously voted in favor of the Nonprofit Killer Bill on the House floor last year. They must reverse course and vote to oppose it in committee.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Apr. 29, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that his country’s “old relationship with the United States… is over” after leading his Liberal Party to victory in Monday’s federal election, a contest that came amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s destructive trade war and threats to forcibly annex Canada.

“As I have been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country. But these are not idle threats,” Carney, a former central banker who succeeded Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister last month, said after he was projected the winner of Monday’s election.

On the day of the contest, Trump reiterated his desire to make Canada “the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America.”

“President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us,” Carney said Monday. “That will never, ever happen.”

Carney: President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never, ever happen pic.twitter.com/dUEI0YGSM2

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 29, 2025

It’s not yet clear whether the Liberal Party will secure enough seats for a parliamentary majority, but its victory Monday was seen as a stunning comeback after the party appeared to be spiraling toward defeat under Trudeau’s leadership.

Pierre Poilievre, the head of Canada’s Conservative Party, looked for much of the past year to be “cruising to one of the largest majority governments in Canada’s history,” The Washington Post noted.

But on Monday, Poilievre—who was embraced by Trump allies, including mega-billionaire Elon Musk—lost his parliamentary seat to his Liberal opponent, Bruce Fanjoy.

Vox‘s Zack Beauchamp wrote Tuesday that “Trump has single-handedly created the greatest surge of nationalist anti-Americanism in Canada’s history as an independent country,” pointing to a recent survey showing that “61% of Canadians are currently boycotting American-made goods.”

“Trump’s aggressive economic policy isn’t, as he claimed, making America Great or respected again. Instead, it’s having the opposite effect: turning longtime allies into places where campaigning against American leadership is a winning strategy,” Beauchamp added. “If we are indeed witnessing the beginning of the end of the American-led world order, the history books will likely record April 28, 2025, as a notable date—one where even America’s closest ally started eying the geopolitical exits.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Dec. 8, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad collapsed Sunday after rebels seized control of the capital following a stunning advance through major cities, prompting celebrations in the streets as the country’s ousted leader fled.

“The city of Damascus has been liberated,” rebel fighters declared on state TV. “The regime of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has been toppled.”

Video footage posted to social media showed rebels escorting Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali to meet with their leaders. The prime minister said that “we are ready to cooperate” and called for free elections and the preservation of “all the properties of the people and the institutions of the Syrian state.”

“They belong to all Syrians,” he said.

A video captured outside the Syrian Prime Minister's residence shows rebel forces escorting Mohamad Al Jalali to a meeting with their leaders at the Four Seasons Hotel pic.twitter.com/WkT2IZAJLi

— The National (@TheNationalNews) December 8, 2024

The rebel movement was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—an Islamist organization that was once an affiliate of al-Qaeda—along with Turkish-backed Syrian militias. HTS is led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani; the U.S. State Department has deemed him a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” and is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information that results in his capture.

After the Assad government fell, ending a decades-long family dynasty, The Associated Press reported that “revelers filled Umayyad Square in the city center, where the Defense Ministry is located.”

“Men fired celebratory gunshots into the air and some waved the three-starred Syrian flag that predates the Assad government and was adopted by the revolutionaries,” the outlet reported. “A few kilometers (miles) away, Syrians stormed the presidential palace, tearing up portraits of the toppled president. Soldiers and police officers left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the Defense Ministry. Videos from Damascus showed families wandering into the presidential palace, with some emerging carrying stacks of plates and other household items.”

Prisons, including a notorious facility on the outskirts of Damascus that Amnesty International described as a “human slaughterhouse,” were reportedly opened in the wake of Assad’s ouster, with video footage showing detainees walking free.

“Literally seeing hundreds of people across Damascus, friends, family people I’ve known to be neutral and not involved in politics, all post green flags, all support this movement, people are tired, broken and angry, they want change and change is what they’ve got,” Danny Makki, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute who was on the ground in Damascus as the government fell, wrote on social media.

Assad’s whereabouts are not known; he left the country without issuing a statement. Reuters reported that the ousted president, “who has not spoken in public since the sudden rebel advance a week ago, flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination earlier on Sunday.” (Update: Citing Russian state media, AP reported that “Assad has arrived in Moscow with his family” and has been given asylum.”)

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “as a result of negotiations between B. Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, he decided to resign from the presidency and left the country, giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power.”

The explosion of Syria’s civil war in recent days brought renewed focus to the current role of United States troops in the country. There are currently around 900 American forces in Syria alongside an unknown number of private contractors—troop presence that the Pentagon said it intends to maintain in the wake of Assad’s ouster.

The U.S. has said it was not involved in the rebel offensive. In a social media post, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council wrote that President Joe Biden and his team “are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners.”

The U.S.-backed Israeli military said Sunday that it has “taken up new positions” in the occupied Golan Heights “as it prepared for potential chaos following the lightning-fast fall” of Assad, The Times of Israel reported.

“Syrian media reports said Israel had launched artillery shelling in the area,” the outlet added.

Geir Pedersen, the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria, said in a statement Sunday that Assad’s fall “marks a watershed moment in Syria’s history—a nation that has endured nearly 14 years of relentless suffering and unspeakable loss.”

“The challenges ahead remain immense and we hear those who are anxious and apprehensive,” said Pedersen. “Yet this is a moment to embrace the possibility of renewal. The resilience of the Syrian people offers a path toward a united and peaceful Syria.”

Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the Center for International Policy, said Sunday that “today belongs to the people of Syria.”

“The astonishing speed at which the Assad regime has crumbled exposes once again the inherent fragility of seemingly ironclad dictatorships, and of all governments whose rule is based on repression and corruption,” said Okail. “The regime’s fast disintegration shows how autocracy, resistance to political transitions, and gross atrocities and the lack of accountability for committing them ultimately doomed Assad’s brutal rule. Ritualistic elections cannot replace legitimacy, which remains crucial for stability.”

“True sovereignty cannot be attained under the influence of foreign powers that exploit nations as arenas for their own geopolitical competition,” Okail added. “While Syria’s future is for its people to determine, the United States and its partners should take immediate steps to facilitate delivery of humanitarian and reconstruction aid, and help ensure that future is free and democratic, and the rights of all of its communities are protected.”

This story has been updated to include a statement from the Center for International Policy.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Nov. 5, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

After seven weeks on strike, Boeing workers voted Monday to ratify a new contract that includes a 43.65% wage increase over four years—a significant improvement over the 25% increase that the aerospace giant offered in September.

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Districts 751 and W24 approved the contract in a 59%-41% vote around two weeks after rejecting a tentative deal that called for a 35% pay increase over a four-year period.

The contract approved by workers also includes a $12,000 ratification bonus, improvements to retirement and healthcare benefits, and improved overtime rules.

“Strikes work,” labor journalist Kim Kelly wrote in response to the contract vote.

Jon Holden and Brandon Bryant, respectively the presidents of IAM District 751 and W24, said in a joint statement that “working people know what it’s like when a company overreaches and takes away more than is fair.”

“Through this strike and the resulting victory, frontline workers at Boeing have done their part to begin rebalancing the scales in favor of the middle class—and in doing so, we hope to inspire other workers in our industry and beyond to continue standing up for justice at work,” said Holden and Bryant. “Through this victory and the strike that made it possible, IAM members have taken a stand for respect and fair wages in the workplace.”

“Livable wages and benefits that can support a family are essential—not optional—and this strike underscored that reality,” they added. “This contract will have a positive and generational impact on the lives of workers at Boeing and their families. We hope these gains inspire other workers to organize and join a union. Frontline Boeing workers have used their voices, their collective power, and their solidarity to do what is right, to stand up for what is fair—and to win.”

IAM’s international president, Brian Bryant, called the contract “a new standard in the aerospace industry—one that sends a clear statement that aerospace jobs must be middle-class careers in which workers can thrive.”

“Workers in the aerospace industry, led by the IAM—the most powerful aerospace union in the world—will not settle for anything less than the respect and family-sustaining wages and benefits they need and deserve,” said Bryant. “This agreement reflects the positive results of workers sticking together, participating in workplace democracy, and demonstrating solidarity with each other and with the community during a necessary and effective strike.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and an outspoken supporter of the Boeing strike, congratulated IAM members on Monday “for winning a hard-fought victory.”

“I also congratulate Machinists President Jon Holden as well as Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg for working to reach a deal that ensures Boeing will continue to build quality planes that contribute to our country’s security and mobility while valuing and respecting the fact that there is no Boeing without the IAM,” Jayapal said in a statement.

As did the union leadership in their remarks, Jayapal specifically thanked Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su of the Biden administration for helping secure the deal, citing “skilled leadership” that brought “both parties to the table and to an agreement.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Oct. 24, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

The union representing striking Boeing employees announced late Wednesday that its members rejected a tentative labor contract in a strong majority vote, news that came less than two weeks after the company divulged plans to slash 10% of its workforce following years of aggressive spending on executive-enriching stock buybacks.

The tentative deal, which was announced by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) and Boeing over the weekend, included a 35% general wage increase spread over the duration of the four-year contract—short of the 40% pay boost the union initially demanded.

IAM said Wednesday that 64% of members who voted opted to reject the proposal—though the union did not immediately disclose turnout figures.

IAM District 751 president Jon Holden and IAM District W24 president Brandon Bryant said in a joint statement that “we will continue to negotiate in good faith until we have made gains that workers feel adequately make up for what the company took from them in the past.”

“After 10 years of sacrifices, we still have ground to make up, and we’re hopeful to do so by resuming negotiations promptly,” said Holden and Bryant. “This is workplace democracy—and also clear evidence that there are consequences when a company mistreats its workers year after year. Workers across America know what it’s like for a company to take and take—and Boeing workers are saying they are fully and strongly committed to balancing that out by winning back more of what was taken from them by the company for more than a decade.”

“Ten years of holding workers back unfortunately cannot be undone quickly or easily,” they added.

Brian Bryant, international president of IAM, expressed support for the districts’ fight for a just contract in response to news of the contract vote.

“The entire IAM union, all 600,000 members across North America, stand with our District 751 and W24 membership,” said Bryant. “Their fight is our fight—and we support their decision to continue this strike for fairness and dignity for Boeing workers.”

The vote marked the second time Boeing union members have rejected a tentative contract deal since last month, when workers walked off the job after dismissing an offer that included a 25% pay raise over four years.

Reuters noted Wednesday that Boeing workers have been “venting frustration after a decade when their wages have lagged inflation and critics have complained that the planemaker spent tens of billions of dollars on share buybacks and paid out record executive bonuses.”

Between 2010 and 2019, Boeing spent an estimated $68 billion on stock buybacks and dividends. The company’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, is poised to bring in $22 million in total compensation next year.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement Wednesday that “while the recent tentative agreement from Boeing made important strides forward, it is clear from today’s vote that Boeing’s offer did not reach the demands of striking machinists.”

“Workers are recovering from years without pay increases, the decimation of their defined-benefit pension plans, and a previous management who did not respect them or even the quality of work,” said Jayapal. “Today’s vote makes it clear that Boeing still has more work to do to earn the trust of workers and to put more on the table for a fair contract.”

“I have been proud to stand with the machinists throughout the strike,” she added. “Every worker deserves fair pay, good benefits, and a safe workplace. I hope to see both parties come back to the table to negotiate a deal that is acceptable to the union, because at the end of the day there is no Boeing without the IAM.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Oct. 1, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon early Tuesday with the open support of the United States, which endorsed what it called “limited operations to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure” despite warnings that a ground assault could spark a wider conflict and intensify the humanitarian disaster facing Lebanese civilians.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described its ground invasion with the same terms it has used to characterize its bombing campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza, which—despite being called “targeted” at Hezbollah and Hamas—have frequently killed scores of civilians and obliterated schools, hospitals, shops, and residential buildings. Since mid-September, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than a thousand people and displaced roughly a million.

The IDF launched its ground invasion with the backing of the Biden administration. In a statement, the White House said that the invasion of Lebanon is “in line with Israel’s right to defend its citizens and safely return civilians to their homes.”

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council acknowledged the risk of “mission creep” only to effectively wave it away, saying that “we will keep discussing that with the Israelis.”

Analysts likened Israel’s movement of troops into Lebanon to its invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah earlier this year—an operation that was initially described as limited but ultimately left the area in ruins.

“Gaza was a testing ground for Israel to see what they could get away with and, it turns out, the answer is absolutely anything it wants,” said historian and analyst Assal Rad. “It did not stop at Gaza or the West Bank and it may not stop at Lebanon, because war was [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s objective all along and his prize is Iran.”

The invasion comes after the Netanyahu government rejected a three-week cease-fire proposal put forth by the U.S., France, and other nations and intensified its bombing of Lebanon, hammering Beirut with airstrikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and many civilians. The attack that killed Nasrallah was reportedly carried out with 2,000-pound bombs supplied by the U.S.

Coverage of the invasion in the Western corporate media painted the U.S. as “increasingly powerless,” with “limited” influence to forestall a massive ground assault on Lebanon. But the Biden administration has yet to seriously leverage American military aid to prevent a war that could envelop the entire region.

On the contrary, billions of dollars of aid and American weapons have continued to flow to Israel, enabling its war on Gaza and Lebanon. The Washington Post observed that “the events of recent weeks appear to fit a pattern in which the administration urges against specific Israeli actions only to later backtrack so it can avoid imposing conditions on military aid.”

The U.S. has also engaged in what’s been described as “unprecedented” intelligence-sharing with Israel, further deepening its complicity in the devastating wars.

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said in a statement late Monday that “Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, following its devastating attacks on Lebanon over the past two weeks, is the entirely predictable consequence of the Biden administration’s ceaseless coddling and resupply of weapons to Israel, whatever public bleats for cease-fires the administration has otherwise made.”

“The Biden administration has acted recklessly in giving Israel a blank check to light the entire region on fire, all while disregarding our own legal obligations under both U.S. and international law to halt the weapons flow to them,” Whitson added.

The U.S.-based anti-war group CodePink said that “Israel claims its operation in Lebanon is ‘targeted,’ but like in Gaza, civilians are the real victims.”

“Make no mistake: The Biden administration is providing cover for Israel as it invades a neighboring, sovereign nation,” the group said. “U.S. taxpayers fund Israel’s military, providing billions annually and supplying weapons used to kill innocent people.”

“The Biden administration and Congress could halt this escalation by cutting military aid, demanding a cease-fire, and holding Israel accountable,” CodePink continued, “but instead, they allow continued aggression across the Middle East.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Sep. 18, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Several news outlets confirmed late Tuesday what was widely suspected: Israel’s military and intelligence services were behind the explosions of pagers recently purchased by the Lebanese political party and militant group Hezbollah.

The explosions, reportedly set off earlier Tuesday by a message that appeared as if it was from Hezbollah’s leadership, killed at least 11 people—including an 8-year-old girl—and wounded thousands more.

Citing both an unnamed former Israeli official with knowledge of the operation and an anonymous U.S. official, Axios reported that “Israeli intelligence services planned to use the booby-trapped pagers it managed to ‘plant’ in Hezbollah’s ranks as a surprise opening blow in an all-out war to try to cripple Hezbollah.”

“But in recent days, Israeli leaders became concerned that Hezbollah might discover the pagers,” the outlet continued. “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his top ministers, and the heads of the Israel Defense Forces and the intelligence agencies decided to use the system now rather than take the risk of it being detected by Hezbollah, a U.S. official said.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department publicly denied that the Biden administration was involved in the attack or aware of the operation in advance.

Heidi Matthews, an associate professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, wrote Tuesday that “each explosion constitutes an indiscriminate attack,” pointing to video footage of a pager detonating in a crowded market.

“Under these circumstances,” Matthews added, “this is an act of terror.”

בסופר ובחנות הירקות: תיעוד נוסף של מכשיר קשר מתפוצץ לפעילי חיזבאללה בכיס@anastasia___stu @OmerShahar123 pic.twitter.com/OcjQsGLhvv

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 17, 2024

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Hezbollah ordered thousands of pagers from the Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, but the company denied making the devices. According to the Times, which cited unnamed officials, Israeli operatives “tampered with” the devices “before they reached Lebanon,” planting in them “as little as one to two ounces” of explosive material and a switch “that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.”

Heightening fears of a broader conflict, Hezbollah pledged Tuesday to retaliate against Israel over the attack, which reportedly injured Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon as well as Hezbollah fighters and medics.

The Guardian‘s Andrew Roth noted Tuesday that just “a day before the coordinated sabotage, Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to [U.S. President] Joe Biden, was in Israel urging Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials against an escalation in Lebanon.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly sabotaged cease-fire negotiations with hardline demands in recent weeks as the Israeli military—heavily armed by the U.S.—continues to assail the Gaza Strip.

“While U.S. officials have said that the basis for peace along Israel’s northern boundary with Lebanon would come through a cease-fire in Gaza, that agreement has proven elusive and appears no closer to fruition,” Roth wrote Tuesday. “The White House had hoped that a period of quiet around Israel would allow for cease-fire negotiators to achieve a breakthrough, as intermediaries shuttle between Hamas and Israel to thread the needle of both sides’ complex demands regarding a hostage exchange and territorial claims.”

“That period of quiet has now been shattered with a breathtaking act of subterfuge and Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate,” Roth added.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on June 3, 2024.

Leftist Claudia Sheinbaum, a close ally of popular outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, won Mexico’s presidential election in a landslide on Sunday, with an official tally showing her leading right-wing opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez by nearly 30 percentage points.

Gálvez called Sheinbaum early Monday to acknowledge the results and concede defeat in what was the largest race in Mexico’s history—a contest marred by deadly violence.

Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and the former mayor of Mexico City, is set to become the first woman and the first person of Jewish descent to lead Mexico after Sunday’s overwhelming victory, which was a boon to her leftist Morena party. According to official vote tallies, The Washington Post reported, Morena and its allies “appeared close to winning a supermajority in Congress, which would allow them to change the constitution.”

“We imagine a plural, diverse, and democratic Mexico,” Sheinbaum told cheering supporters on Sunday. “Our duty is and will always be to look after each and every Mexican, without distinction.”

David Adler, co-general coordinator of Progressive International, called Sheinbaum and Morena’s win “epic, whopping, [and] historic.”

While Sunday’s contest—which involved more than 20,000 government positions—and outcome were unprecedented, some questioned whether the results would be truly transformative for Mexico, where poverty and inequality remain high despite minimum wage hikes and other progress made in recent years under the government of López Obrador, commonly known as AMLO.

“AMLO has done a little better for people than prior governments, and Sheinbaum has pledged to continue his political approach, though with a greater emphasis on sustainability,” Tamara Pearson, a Mexican Australian author, journalist, and activist, wrote for The Nation ahead of Sunday’s race. “The pension for informal workers has increased to 6,000 pesos ($359) every two months. The health system for informal workers, which includes most Mexicans, is still extremely lacking but has improved.”

The outgoing president has also faced backlash for pursuing fossil fuel infrastructure projects that risk damaging Indigenous communities and the planet.

Mongabay‘s Maxwell Radwin noted last week that Sheinbaum—who contributed to a major Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report—”continues to support one of AMLO’s most polarizing projects, the Tren Maya, a 1,554-kilometer (966-mile) railroad crossing the Yucatán Peninsula.”

“Despite dozens of legal complaints about deforestation, the destruction of cave ecosystems, and the relocation of Indigenous communities,” Radwin observed, “she’s defended the project and even suggested expanding it to a major port in the town of Progreso, in northwest Yucatán.”

With Mexico facing a devastating heatwave and other climate impacts, Sheinbaum has pledged to prioritize clean energy development, vowing to “lead a $13.6 billion program to jumpstart Mexico’s renewable energy sector,” Politicoreported.

Sheinbaum is set to take office in October.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on May 07, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

An alliance of unionized rail workers on Tuesday demanded that the U.S. Senate reject President Joe Biden’s nomination of former Trump administration official Ronald Batory to serve on the board of Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail company.

In a statement, Railroad Workers United (RWU) said Batory’s tenure as head of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) under former President Donald Trump “was marked by policies favoring ‘operational efficiencies’ (i.e., corporate profits) over the safety and well-being of rail workers and the public.”

“Notably, under his leadership, FRA attempted to override state laws mandating two-person train crews, promoting instead the adoption of single-person crews nationally,” said RWU. “This push was part of a broader deregulation agenda, ostensibly aimed at reducing operational costs for the monopoly of carriers at the potential expense of safety and labor protections.”

“Moreover, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Batory oversaw the FRA’s issuance of emergency waivers that suspended numerous long-standing safety regulations,” the group added. “These waivers were granted rapidly with limited opportunity for stakeholder input, raising significant concerns among rail labor organizations about their sweeping breadth and the lack of stringent oversight, which could compromise rail safety and worker security.”

The statement urges rail workers across the country to contact their senators and demand they block Batory’s nomination.

“His record clearly demonstrates a prioritization of carrier profits over the safety of rail workers and the traveling public,” said RWU, calling the Senate to “derail Batory.”

Rail workers reacted with outrage last week after Biden announced Batory’s nomination, given his ties to the railroad industry and policy moves under an administration whose deregulatory spree helped lay the groundwork for the toxic crash in East Palestine, Ohio last year.

Amtrak’s board of directors is required to be both geographically and politically diverse. Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, noted in a statement Monday that while Batory “would never be our choice, we recognize that federal law requires the board to have three members from the minority party, in this case the Republican Party.”

“Since the law also requires the president to consult with the Senate minority leader when making minority party appointments, the breadcrumb trail for this transparently anti-labor nominee leads directly to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s doorstep,” said Regan, contending that the Kentucky Republican “owns this choice,” not Biden.

In its statement Tuesday, RWU acknowledged that “some may argue that the Biden administration is procedurally obligated to forward this nomination.”

But the group said Batory’s nomination nevertheless “starkly contradicts the administration’s stated commitments to worker safety and robust regulatory standards.”

“The nomination of Mr. Batory, whose regulatory philosophy aligns with reducing workforce protections and operational oversight, does not serve the public interest,” said RWU.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on May 06, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Humanitarian organizations and United Nations officials are warning that the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children—nearly all of whom are sick, injured, or malnourished—are in grave danger as Israeli forces on Monday moved to forcibly evacuate the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah ahead of an expected ground invasion.

An estimated 600,000 children are believed to be sheltering in Rafah in terrible conditions and under the near-constant threat of Israeli airstrikes, which rocked the city and killed dozens of people—including at least eight kids—hours before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued its evacuation directives.

“They’re being told to move, quote unquote, to a ‘humanitarian zone.’ That’s a unilaterally declared humanitarian zone,” James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said in a BBC appearance Monday. “That’s not a humanitarian zone where humanitarians have been able to provide the services they need to. I’ve been talking to colleagues and friends in Rafah this morning, and they’re terrified.”

“Nowhere is safe,” said Elder. “But as unbearable as this is, it’s happening and it’s going to be horrific.”

Threatening “extreme force” in the area, the Israeli military on Monday ordered roughly 100,000 people in the eastern part of Rafah to move west to Al-Mawasi, a town on Gaza’s southern coast. Humanitarian groups said Al-Mawasi doesn’t have anywhere near sufficient infrastructure to house displaced people from Rafah and stressed that nowhere in Gaza is safe as long as Israel continues its bombing campaign.

Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International, said in response to the IDF’s directives that “for weeks we have been warning there is no feasible evacuation plan to lawfully displace and protect civilians.”

“For weeks, we have been warning of the devastating consequences this will have for children and our ability to assist them in an already straight-jacketed response. For weeks, we have been calling for preventive action,” Ashing continued. “Instead, the international community has looked away. They cannot look away now.”

“The announced incursion will not only risk the lives of over 600,000 children but will at best disrupt and at worst cause the collapse of the humanitarian aid response currently struggling to keep Gaza’s population alive,” she added. “Forcibly displacing people from Rafah while further disrupting the aid response will likely seal the fate of many children. We had already run out of words to describe how catastrophic the situation is in Rafah—but this next chapter will take it to indescribable new levels.”

“History will judge all of those who are complicit in what is being done to Palestinians in Gaza. It must end now.”

Roughly 1.4 million people, many of them already displaced multiple times since October, are currently sheltering in Rafah, which Israel’s military has been threatening to invade for months amid faltering cease-fire talks with Hamas.

Reuters reported that in the wake of the IDF’s evacuation order, “some loaded children and possessions onto donkey carts, some packed into cars, others simply walked” in the hopes of escaping Israel’s ground assault.

“People have nowhere to go, no area is safe. All that remains in Gaza is death,” Mohammed Al-Najjar, a 23-year-old man with family in Rafah, told the news agency. “I wish I could erase these last seven months from my memory. So many of our dreams and hopes have faded.”

According to UNICEF, around 65,000 children in Rafah have a preexisting disability—including seeing, hearing, and walking difficulties—and nearly 80,000 are infants. Roughly 8,000 children under the age of two in Rafah are acutely malnourished.

“The ‘evacuation’ of Rafah is illegal,” said Heidi Matthews, an assistant professor of law at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. “There are no ‘humanitarian’ or ‘safe zones.’ Civilians are being forcibly displaced to areas totally unsuitable to human habitation. This is a crime against humanity.”

The Biden administration, which has supported Israel’s war on Gaza from the start, has expressed opposition to a Rafah ground invasion absent a credible plan to keep civilians out of harm’s way. On Monday, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said that “we continue to believe that a hostage deal is the best way to preserve the lives of the hostages, and avoid an invasion of Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering.”

The spokesperson said U.S. President Joe Biden plans to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at some unspecified point on Monday.

Mike Merryman-Lotze, just peace global policy director at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), said in a statement Monday that “the Biden administration has spoken against the invasion of Rafah but continues to send billions of dollars in weapons to Israel for its genocidal campaign.”

“Any invasion will only bring countless more deaths and exacerbate the risk of famine that is already high because Israel continues to block most humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. President Biden and all elected officials must act now to stop this invasion, demand a permanent and complete cease-fire, and end all arms transfers to Israel.”

CNN reported Sunday that the Biden administration decided to pause a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition to Israel, but an unnamed official told the outlet that the hold was “not connected to a potential Israeli operation in Rafah and doesn’t affect other shipments moving forward.”

Medical Aid for Palestinians, an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom, said Monday that “the international community knows that this invasion will be a catastrophe.”

“The killing of civilians will accelerate and much more of Gaza’s remaining infrastructure will be destroyed,” the group said. “History will judge all of those who are complicit in what is being done to Palestinians in Gaza. It must end now.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Apr. 16, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Scientists said Monday that the world’s coral reefs are facing a fourth global bleaching event as the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency pushes ocean temperatures to record highs, imperiling the critical underwater ecosystems that sustain thousands of species.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI)—which NOAA co-chairs—said they documented coral bleaching in the northern and southern hemispheres of every major ocean basin on Earth between February 2023 and April of this year. It could be the worst global bleaching event on record.

“Since early 2023, mass bleaching of coral reefs has been confirmed throughout the tropics including Florida in the U.S.; the Caribbean; Brazil; the eastern Tropical Pacific (including Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia); Australia’s Great Barrier Reef; large areas of the South Pacific (including Fiji, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Samoas, and French Polynesia); the Red Sea (including the Gulf of Aqaba); the Persian Gulf; and the Gulf of Aden,” the organizations said in a statement.

“NOAA has received confirmation of widespread bleaching across other parts of the Indian Ocean basin as well, including in Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Tromelin, Mayotte, and off the western coast of Indonesia,” they added.

“More than half the reefs on the planet have basically experienced bleaching-level heat stress in the last year.”

Derek Manzello, coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch, said that “as the world’s oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent.”

Excessively warm water causes corals to expel algae from their tissues, causing the organisms to turn white. While they can recover, such bleaching is evidence that corals are under significant stress and at risk of death.

The latest global bleaching event is the second in the last 10 years and “should be a global wake-up call,” Manzello told The Washington Post.

“More than half the reefs on the planet have basically experienced bleaching-level heat stress in the last year,” said Manzello.

NOAA and ICRI’s statement comes as scientists around the world are voicing growing alarm over high ocean temperatures. Research released last month showed that global ocean surface temperatures had broken records every day of the year up to that point, underscoring the need to aggressively rein in fossil fuel production and use.

“Temperatures are off the charts,” Emily Darling, director of coral reefs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said Monday. “While many corals are suffering from extreme heat stress and bleaching, some locations and species show different types of natural resilience. Finding and conserving these priority coral reefs are critical to any global strategy to safeguard the planet’s oceans and blue economies.”

“The announcement of the fourth global bleaching event is an urgent call to do two things: reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work together to prioritize resilient coral reefs for conservation,” Darling added.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on April 2, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

World Central Kitchen said Tuesday that a targeted Israeli airstrike killed seven members of its aid team in Gaza as they left a warehouse in the city of Deir al-Balah, where they had just unloaded more than 100 tons of food set to be distributed to starving Palestinians.

The Washington, D.C.-based aid organization said the seven killed included a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada as well as Australian, Polish, and British nationals and one Palestinian staffer later identified as Saif Abu Taha.

“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,” Erin Gore, the group’s CEO, said in a statement. “This is unforgivable.”

WCK said its convoy of vehicles—including two armored cars branded with the group’s logo—was hit by an Israeli strike while traveling in what was supposed to be a deconflicted zone. The group said it coordinated the convoy’s movements with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), leading WCK to conclude that the attack was not an accident.

“I am heartbroken and appalled that we—World Central Kitchen and the world—lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the IDF,” Gore said Tuesday. “The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and cherished.”

Photographs and video footage from the scene and its aftermath show utter carnage. Rescue teams that arrived at the scene and removed the WCK staffers’ bodies from the wreckage displayed the passports of those killed, identifying Zomi Frankcom of Australia, Damian Sobol of Poland, and other victims of the Israeli strike.

The IDF pledged to carry out “an in-depth examination at the highest levels”—a promise that, given the Israeli military’s record, is likely to prove empty.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the strike “unintentionally hit innocent people,” but Haaretz reported that the attack “was launched because of suspicion that a terrorist was traveling with the convoy”—an indication that the strike itself, targeting vehicles carrying aid workers, was intentional.

The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked aid workers with impunity in recent months, killing staffers of United Nations agencies, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, and other organizations.

WCK is known for coordinating emergency food relief in disaster zones around the world. The group has collected and delivered hundreds of tons of food to Gaza in recent weeks as famine has spread across the enclave due to the Israeli government’s blockade.

Following the deadly attack on its staffers, WCK said it would pause its operations in the region immediately.

“We will be making decisions about the future of our work soon,” the group said in a statement.

Celebrity chef José Andrés, the group’s founder, wrote in a social media post late Monday that he is “heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family.”

“These are people…angels…I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia,” he wrote. “They are not faceless…they are not nameless. The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been accused of abetting genocide in Gaza, confirmed that Australian citizen Zomi Frankcom was among those killed by the Israeli strike and demanded “full accountability.”

“This is a tragedy that should never have occurred,” Albanese told reporters, saying he had summoned the Israeli ambassador to Australia.

Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, said the Biden White House is “heartbroken and deeply troubled by the strike.”

“Humanitarian aid workers must be protected as they deliver aid that is desperately needed, and we urge Israel to swiftly investigate what happened,” she added.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on March 14, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

A report published Thursday shows that major fossil fuel companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP are playing a key role in propelling Israel’s devastating military assault on Gaza, facilitating the country’s supply of energy that powers Israeli jets and tanks as they bomb and shell civilians.

The new research, conducted by Data Desk and commissioned by the advocacy group Oil Change International, examines the sources of Israeli jet fuel and crude imports in an effort to shine light on the web of countries and corporations implicated in the war on the Gaza Strip.

Israel, which relies heavily on oil imports, has received at least three tankers of jet fuel from the United States since the start of the war, the research shows. A number of countries—including nations whose leaders have criticized the assault on Gaza—have continued supplying Israel with crude oil during its military campaign, which has killed more than 31,000 people in less than six months and sparked a horrific humanitarian crisis.

Israel gets “relatively small but regular shipments of crude oil via the SUMED pipeline,” which “receives crude oil from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iraq, and from Egypt through which the pipeline travels,” the report notes.

“Countries and major oil companies fueling Israel’s war machine are complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Data Desk’s analysis confirms that the diesel and gasoline Israel uses to fuel its tanks and other military vehicles are generated by the country’s own refineries, but those facilities rely on imports from Russia, Brazil, Azerbaijan, and elsewhere.

“Major international oil and gas companies complicit in facilitating these supplies of crude oil include: BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Eni, and TotalEnergies,” the report says.

The research points to several specific pipelines that deliver crude to Israel, including Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).

BP operates the BTC pipeline and Exxon, TotalEnergies, and other prominent oil companies are shareholders. Chevron owns the largest stake in the CPC pipeline.

Allie Rosenbluth, U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, urged countries to “leverage their oil supply as a means to demand an immediate cease-fire and an end to the occupation.”

“Countries and major oil companies fueling Israel’s war machine are complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” said Rosenbluth. “By directly fueling Israel’s military, on top of over a hundred other weapons sales, the U.S. in particular must be held accountable for potential violations of international law.”

Human rights organizations have been calling for an arms embargo on Israel for months, but less attention has been paid to the country’s energy supply.

In late February, a coalition of Palestinian advocacy organizations stressed that “energy supplies are instrumental to Israel’s war machine: to operate its army tanks, armored personnel carriers, ships, and military bulldozers, including specialist jet fuel that allows Israeli jets to rain death and destruction down on Gaza.”

The groups called on governments around the world to immediately halt all energy exports to Israel and implored workers and activists to do everything in their power to “disrupt the flow of energy making Israel’s genocide possible.”

Mahmoud Nawajaa, general coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, said in response to the new report Thursday that “states and companies that continue to provide Israel with fuel for its military forces are directly complicit in supporting its ongoing genocide.”

“The BDS movement, which is already targeting Chevron with a growing global boycott and divestment campaign, will expose and target the complicit states and corporations mentioned in this valuable report,” Nawajaa added.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 21, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee said Tuesday that “we should kill ’em all” after an activist pressed him to respond to atrocities that the U.S.-backed Israeli military is committing against Palestinians in Gaza, including children.

“I’ve seen the footage of shredded children’s bodies,” the activist told Ogles. “That’s my taxpayer dollars that are going to bomb those kids.”

“You know what? So, I think we should kill ’em all, if that makes you feel better,” Ogles responded. “Hamas and the Palestinians have been attacking Israel for 20 years. It’s time to pay the piper.”

Watch the exchange:

Ogles, a vocal supporter of arming Israel unconditionally, was among the 212 House Republicans who voted in November to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on the false grounds that she “justified” the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7.

Following the Tennessee Republican’s call for the mass killing of Palestinians, Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid asked, “Any congressional resolutions to censure or expel Ogles?”

Video footage of Ogles’ remarks was posted to social media hours after the Biden administration vetoed a cease-fire resolution at the United Nations Security Council—the third time since October 7 that the U.S. has wielded its veto power to block a measure calling for an immediate end to the bloodshed in Gaza.

Hours before the latest U.S. veto, an official with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that Gaza is “poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths” as malnutrition and disease spread rapidly across the enclave.

Israeli forces have killed more than 12,400 children in Gaza since October 7, according to the territory’s health officials. More than 600,000 children are currently trapped in Rafah, which Israeli forces are preparing to invade. On average, more than 10 Gaza children per day have lost one or both of their legs since October, according to Save the Children.

“After four months of relentless violence, we are running out of words to describe what children and families in Gaza are going through, as well as the tools to respond in any adequate way,” Jason Lee, Save the Children’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, said in a statement Tuesday. “The scale of death and destruction is astronomical.”

“Children are being failed by the adults who should be protecting them,” Lee added. “It’s beyond time for the adults in the room to step up their responsibilities and legal obligations to children caught up in a conflict they played no part in, who just want to be able to live.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Jan. 15, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Anti-corruption activist Bernardo Arévalo was sworn in as Guatemala’s president early Monday after months of fierce opposition from the Central American nation’s right-wing political establishment, obstruction that progressive campaigners and other leaders in the region decried as a coup attempt.

Arévalo’s inauguration was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, but the proceedings were delayed for hours as conservative legislators stonewalled efforts to select new congressional leadership.

The delay, part of a sustained push by right-wing forces to derail the transfer of power, sparked fury in the streets, with Arévalo backers—including Indigenous groups and the country’s youth—mobilizing as it appeared that the president-elect’s opponents were launching a last-ditch attempt to stop him from taking office.

Leading government officials from other Latin American nations expressed alarm over the delay and said in a joint statement that “the will of the Guatemalan people must be respected.”

Reuters reported that Arevalo’s inauguration was “thrown into disarray after the Supreme Court allowed opposition lawmakers to maintain their leadership of Congress, and forced members of the president’s Semilla party to stand as independents, further diluting its presence.”

“Semilla holds only 23 of the 160 seats in Congress,” the news agency noted. “Arevalo’s authority, however, got a boost after prominent Semilla lawmaker, Samuel Pérez Álvarez, was unexpectedly elected as the Congress president.”

Sunday’s chaos capped off a drawn-out fight by Guatemala’s entrenched and corrupt political establishment to prevent a reformer from taking power. Arevalo has been described as the most progressive Guatemalan president since Jacobo Árbenz, who was ousted in a U.S.-sponsored coup in 1954.

Following his landslide victory in August, Guatemala Attorney General Consuelo Porras—an ally of former President Alejandro Giammattei who was appointed to a second four-year term in 2022—launched an aggressive legal campaign to halt Arevalo’s ascent to the presidency, alleging that he and his party engaged in various forms of election fraud.

Arévalo, who also faced credible death threats and assassination plots, rejected such accusations as part of a high-level coup attempt and said he would push for Porras’ resignation.

“In the 20th century, coups involved tanks, bayonets, soldiers, and lasted two or three days,” Arévalo said in an interview with The New York Times last month. “The coups of the 21st century are carried out with members of Congress, with lawyers, in the courts. It’s more sophisticated, takes much more time, it’s done with the pretense of institutional continuity.”

On Monday, in his first act as Guatemala’s president, Arévalo “visited the site outside the attorney general’s office where Indigenous protesters have kept vigil for more than three months, demanding authorities respect the vote and that Porras step down,” The Associated Press reported.

“It fills me with deep honor to assume this lofty responsibility, showing that our democracy has the necessary strength to resist and that through unity and trust we can change the political panorama in Guatemala,” Arévalo said in his inaugural address. “There cannot be democracy without social justice, and social justice cannot prevail without democracy.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Jan. 11, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

South African representatives argued before the International Court of Justice on Thursday that Israel is engaged in a genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, subjecting the enclave to “merciless” bombing with the clear intent to wipe out the Palestinian population.

“They have deplored anyone feeling sorry for the uninvolved Gazans, asserting repeatedly that there are no uninvolved, that there are no innocents in Gaza, that the killers of the women and the children should not be separated from the citizens of Gaza, and that the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves,” South African attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said during his presentation.

Thursday’s hearing also featured remarks from South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, South African Ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela, lawyer Adila Hassim, and international law professor John Dugard, each of whom laid out an aspect of South Africa’s case against the Israeli government.

Hassim argued that Israel’s “first genocidal act” is the “mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza,” pointing to the U.S.-armed military’s use of 2,000-pound bombs in southern Gaza—the region to which Israeli forces ordered Gazans to move earlier in the war.

“No one is spared. Not even newborns,” said Hassim, displaying photos of mass graves in the Gaza Strip. “U.N. chiefs have described it as a graveyard for children.”

Hassim made the case that Israel is guilty of violating articles 2a, 2b, 2c, and 2d of the Genocide Convention, which defines genocide as harm inflicted “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.”

“Israel has deliberately imposed conditions on Gaza that cannot sustain life and are calculated to bring about its physical destruction,” said Hassim. “Israel has forced—forced—the displacement of about 85% of Palestinians in Gaza. There is nowhere safe for them to flee to.”

South Africa’s presenters sought to demonstrate genocidal intent in part by directly quoting high-ranking Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ngcukaitobi pointed to Netanyahu’s repeated invocation of biblical passages to paint Gazans as modern-day Amalekites.

The attorney also played footage of Israeli soldiers chanting that they will “wipe off the seed of Amalek” and that there are “no uninvolved civilians” in Gaza.

“Israel’s political leaders, military commanders, and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent,” said Ngcukaitobi. “These statements are then repeated by soldiers on the ground in Gaza as they engage in the destruction of Palestinians and the physical infrastructure of Gaza.”

South Africa’s legal team decided against sharing highly graphic videos and photos during its presentations, saying it did not want to turn the court’s proceedings “into a theatre for spectacle.”

“South Africa’s application in this court today is built on a foundation of clear legal rights, not images,” the legal team said Thursday.

South Africa is asking the ICJ to adopt “provisional measures” to halt Israel’s mass killing and displacement of Gazans, many of whom are starving and being stalked by disease.

Israel is set to offer its counter to South Africa’s case on Friday, which will mark the first time Israel has defended itself in person at the United Nations’ highest court.

In the days ahead of the ICJ’s public hearings, Israeli officials pressured governments around the world to publicly denounce South Africa’s case. The United States, Israel’s top ally and leading arms supplier, has dismissed South Africa’s arguments as “meritless.”

But a growing number of national governments are backing South Africa, including Brazil, Malaysia, Bolivia, and Pakistan. South Africa’s ICJ effort has also drawn massive support from grassroots organizations across the globe.

“Israel’s killing, injuring, traumatizing, and displacing large numbers of Palestinians and denying water, food, medicine, and fuel to an occupied population meet the criteria for the crime of genocide,” reads an open letter signed by more than 1,000 unions, popular movements, and other groups. “If a majority of the world’s nations call for a cease-fire, yet fail to press for prosecution of Israel—what is to stop Israel from ethnically cleansing all Palestinians?”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Jan. 7, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

An Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday killed two Palestinian journalists and seriously wounded a third, adding to the war’s grisly toll on media workers.

The Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement that the Israeli military targeted the journalists’ car as they were driving through the northern part of Rafah. The strike killed Hamza Dahdouh, the 27-year-old son of Al Jazeera‘s Gaza bureau chief, and Mustafa Thuraya, a freelance videographer working with Agence France-Presse. Hazem Rajab was injured in the Israeli strike.

“The assassination of Mustafa and Hamza, Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh’s son, whilst they were on their way to carry out their duty in the Gaza Strip reaffirms the need to take immediate necessary legal measures against the occupation forces to ensure that there is no impunity,” the network said, imploring the international community to “hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes.”

Hamza is the fifth member of Wael Dahdouh’s family killed in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Earlier in the war, Israeli strikes killed Dahdouh’s wife, younger son, daughter, and grandson. Wael himself was wounded by an Israeli drone strike that killed Al Jazeera journalist Samer Abu Daqqa.

“Hamza was everything to me, the eldest boy, he was the soul of my soul,” Wael said in anguished remarks from the cemetery where his son was buried. “These are the tears of parting and loss, the tears of humanity.”

Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, expressed “shock” in response to news of Dahdouh and Thuraya’s killing.

“This unbearable massacre must stop,” Deloire wrote on social media. “Israel must be held accountable for this eradication of journalism in Gaza. We will continue to refer to the International Criminal Court so that maximum priority is given to crimes against journalists. Justice must be served.”

Since October 7, Israeli forces have killed dozens of media workers in the Gaza Strip, where around 1,000 journalists were working before the assault. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), more journalists were killed in the first 10 weeks of the war “than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year.”

“CPJ is particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting journalists and their families by the Israeli military,” the group said last month. An investigation by Reporters Without Borders concluded that Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah and his colleagues were deliberately targeted in October 13 strikes in southern Lebanon.

Reporters Without Borders has filed two war crimes complaints with the International Criminal Court since early October. The second complaint, submitted last month, accuses the Israel Defense Forces of intentionally killing seven Palestinian journalists.

“Targeting reporters is a war crime,” the group wrote in a social media post on Sunday.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Dec. 11, 2023. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Streets were empty and shops were closed across the West Bank on Monday as people in the occupied territory held a general strike to protest Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, part of a broader day of action that included work stoppages in Lebanon, Jordan, and elsewhere around the world.

Since Israel’s latest war on Gaza began following a deadly Hamas-led attack in early October, violence by settlers and occupying forces in the West Bank has surged, making 2023 the deadliest year in the Palestinian territory in nearly two decades. According to the humanitarian group Save the Children, Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed more than 100 kids in the West Bank so far this year—three times the number killed in 2022.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have killed more than 7,000 children in less than two months, and more than a million kids are currently at grave risk as Israel expands its ground operation to include areas of southern Gaza that were previously seen as relative safe havens.

“The situation is extremely difficult,” Hussein al-Sayyed, who is staying with relatives in the southern city of Khan Younis after fleeing Gaza City earlier in the war, told The Associated Press. “I have children and I don’t know where to go. No place is safe.”

The West Bank’s general strike kicked off what’s expected to be an international day of strikes and other protests around the world demanding an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

Amman-based Roya News reported that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Jordan took part in the protests, “closing all its facilities, including its schools, and urging all employees and students to stay at home.”

The protests come days after the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. The move drew immediate and widespread backlash from humanitarian groups and lawmakers around the world, including some in U.S. President Joe Biden’s party.

“Shameful,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote Sunday in response to the veto. “The Biden admin can no longer reconcile their professed concern for Palestinians and human rights while also singlehandedly vetoing the U.N.’s call for a cease-fire and sidestepping the entire U.S. Congress to unconditionally back the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.”

Muwafaq Sahwil, secretary of the Palestinian political party Fatah in Ramallah and el-Bireh, told Al Jazeera that Monday’s strikes are “a message to the U.S. administration that stands against the aspirations of our people.”

“It is also a message from people around the world to their politicians and the international community to stand up for the Palestinian people who have been suffering from occupation for 75 years,” said Sahwil. “We hope the strike will push the international community to help stop the war and to respond to Palestinians’ aspirations to achieve self-determination.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Dec. 5, 2023. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

A record number of fossil fuel lobbyists have inundated the COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, with new research released Tuesday showing that more than 2,400 industry influence-peddlers were granted access to the critical U.N. talks—a 400% increase over last year.

The Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition tallied 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists on the provisional list of COP28 participants, a likely undercount as the estimate doesn’t include those who are attending the talks under a different professional title. A new U.N. rule approved earlier this year requires lobbyists at COP28 to declare their affiliation.

Representatives from ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and other oil and gas firms outnumber the delegations of nearly every single country at the summit except Brazil and the UAE, according to the new analysis. KBPO said that more fossil fuel lobbyists received attendance passes than all of the delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations combined.

“The sheer number of fossil fuel lobbyists at climate talks that could determine our future is beyond justification,” said Joseph Sikulu, pacific managing director at 350.org. “Their increasing presence at COP undermines the integrity of the process as a whole. We come here to fight for our survival and what chance do we have if our voices are suffocated by the influence of Big Polluters? This poisoning of the process needs to end, we will not let oil and gas influence the future of the Pacific this heavily.”

Climate Action Network International added that “you don’t bring arsonists to a firefighting convention—or the climate talks, for that matter—but that’s precisely what is happening here at COP28.”

“Big Polluter interference in climate negotiations is costing millions of people their homes, livelihoods, and lives,” the group wrote on social media.

Ahead of COP28, KBPO estimated that fossil fuel lobbyists from some of the world’s top oil and gas firms attended past U.N. climate summits more than 7,000 times.

Advocates said the sharp increase in lobbyist attendance at COP28 underscores the industry’s commitment to preventing substantive climate action as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, imperiling hopes of preventing catastrophic warming.

“Their agenda is crystal clear: safeguarding their profits at the expense of a livable future for all of us,” Kathy Mulvey, accountability campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “The urgency of phasing out fossil fuels demands a unified, unwavering commitment from global leaders, unencumbered by the fossil fuel industry’s self-serving agenda.”

Industry influence could help explain the inadequacy of climate commitments that have emerged from the summit this far. The Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, spearheaded by the UAE and Saudi Arabia—two leading petrostates—has been called a “dangerous distraction” from efforts to phase out fossil fuels, and a new agreement on a global loss and damage fund has been criticized as badly inadequate to meet the needs of frontline nations.

COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber—who is also CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company—has dismissed calls to phase out fossil fuels as his company plots a massive expansion that could make it the second-largest oil producer on the planet. Al Jaber has also used his role as the head of the summit to pursue new oil and gas deals.

“Oil and gas companies and their enablers—the climate arsonists fueling climate chaos—cannot be trusted to help put out the fire or deliver what we need: a full, fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phaseout,” said David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International.

KBPO noted in its new analysis that lobbying at COP28 is hardly limited to the fossil fuel industry, pointing to the presence of finance, agribusiness, and transportation representatives.

“To share seats with the Big Polluters in climate change conversations is to dine with the devil,” Ogunlade Olamide Martins, program manager at Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, said in a statement. “This unholy matrimony will only endorse ‘conflict of interest’ and further facilitate the silence of honest agitation. COP’s conclusions must be independent of industries’ parasitic influences and must only address the concerns of the vulnerable masses.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Nov. 12, 2023. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Doctors and nurses in the Gaza Strip issued urgent pleas for a cease-fire as Israeli forces encircled and attacked the territory’s largest hospital, trapping thousands of displaced people and threatening the lives of medical workers and patients.

One Doctors Without Borders nurse texted his colleagues from the basement of al-Shifa Hospital early Saturday, writing that “four or five families”—including his own—were sheltering there amid heavy bombardment and fighting around the facility.

“We are being killed here, please do something,” the nurse wrote. “The shelling is so close, my kids are crying and screaming in fear.”

The attacks on and around al-Shifa as well as the Israeli siege—which has cut off Gaza’s electricity supply and prevented fuel from reaching the northern part of the enclave—have caused power outages at the hospital, endangering babies and other patients who are unable to evacuate. Al-Shifa’s director said that two premature babies have died due to outages at the hospital’s intensive care unit and pediatric ward.

Mohammed Obeid, a Doctors Without Borders surgeon at al-Shifa, said four patients in the hospital were wounded by sniper fire on Saturday and those who have tried to flee have been shot at and bombed.

“There is no electricity, actually there is no water, there is no food. Our team is exhausted,” said Obeid. “We are nearly sure that we are alone now. No one hears us.”

Other hospitals in northern Gaza, including al-Quds, have been forced to shut down completely due to a lack of fuel and other critical supplies. Across the strip, the majority of hospitals have ceased functioning.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Saturday that “repeated appeals for urgent international assistance” at al-Quds have been unsuccessful, leaving the hospital to “fend for itself under ongoing Israeli bombardment, posing severe risks to medical staff, patients, and displaced civilians.” Nearly 200 medics have been killed by Israeli bombing in Gaza since October 7.

The al-Rantisi pediatric hospital was reportedly surrounded by tanks on Saturday. NBC News, which has journalists embedded with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), reported that “more than a dozen children with cancer or other serious blood disorders” were evacuated from al-Rantisi to hospitals in Egypt and Jordan “but more than 30 remain” in Gaza.

Israel’s bombing has killed more than 4,500 children since it began last month following a deadly Hamas-led attack.

Targeting hospitals is a war crime under international law. Israel claims Hamas runs operations from inside and under Gaza’s hospitals, an assertion that directors of the facilities have denied.

Last week, an IDF spokesperson said that “if we see Hamas terrorists firing from hospitals, we’ll do what we need to do.

The Israeli military’s intensifying assault on Gaza hospitals has been met with global horror. The World Health Organization said Sunday that it has been unable to communicate with its contacts at al-Shifa and assumes they “joined tens of thousands of displaced people who had sought shelter on the hospital grounds and are fleeing the area.”

“WHO has grave concerns for the safety of the health workers, hundreds of sick and injured patients, including babies on life support, and displaced people who remain inside the hospital. The number of inpatients is reportedly almost double its capacity, even after restricting services to lifesaving emergency care,” the U.N. agency added. “WHO calls again for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza as the only way to save lives and reduce the horrific levels of suffering.”

Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), echoed that call on Saturday.

“We urge the U.S., U.K., Canada, member states of the League of Arab States, member states of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, and the European Union who have repeatedly called for the respect of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) to take action to ensure a cease-fire now,” the group said in a statement.

“The horrors unfolding before our eyes in Gaza clearly show that calls for restraint and adherence to IHL have gone unheeded,” MSF added. “Working purposefully to reach a cease-fire is the most effective way to ensure the protection of civilians.”

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected calls for a cease-fire during a televised address on Saturday, saying one would only be possible once Hamas releases all hostages. Before Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza, Netanyahu reportedly rejected a proposed five-day cease-fire in exchange for the release of some hostages, including women and children.

The leadership of the U.S., Israel’s top arms supplier, has also refused to support a cease-fire despite pressure from the head of the United Nations, leading human rights organizations, Capitol Hill staffers, and members of Congress.

“Doctors should not have to beg for a cease-fire,” U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) wrote on social media Saturday. “Nurses should not have to beg for a cease-fire.”

“As a nurse, I cannot imagine the difficulty of taking care of patients while being bombed,” added Bush, one of the leaders of a cease-fire resolution in the U.S. House. “It does not have to be like this. Where is the collective humanity?”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Nov. 8, 2023. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Twenty-two Democrats in the U.S. House voted with Republicans on Tuesday to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib—the only Palestinian-American member of Congress—over her response to the deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the Israeli military’s response, which has killed more than 10,000 people in just a month.

The censure resolution, led by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), falsely accuses Tlaib (D-Mich.) of defending the Hamas attack as “justified” resistance and calling for the “destruction of the state of Israel.”

The final vote on the measure was 234-188, with four Republicans and 184 Democrats voting no. The 22 Democratic yes votes included Reps. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Jared Golden (Maine), Susie Lee (Nev.), Brad Schneider (Ill.) and Ritchie Torres (N.Y.).

In a floor speech ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Tlaib said that “trying to bully or censure me won’t work because this movement for a cease-fire is much bigger than one person.”

“There are millions of people across our country who oppose [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s extremism and are done watching our government support collective punishment and the use of white phosphorous bombs that melt flesh to the bone,” she continued. “But let me be clear: My criticism has always been of the Israeli government and Netanyahu’s actions. It is important to separate people and governments.”

“No government is beyond criticism,” Tlaib added. “The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it’s being used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation.”

In a statement responding to the censure vote, the progressive group Justice Democrats accused the House of taking out “its anti-Palestinian bigotry out on the only Palestinian American in Congress” and called out by name each of the Democratic members who voted yes.

“We ask Representatives Steve Cohen, Jim Costa, Angie Craig, Don Davis, Lois Frankel, Jared Golden, Dan Goldman, Josh Gottheimer, Greg Landsman, Susie Lee, Kathy Manning, Jared Moskowitz, Wiley Nickel, Chris Pappas, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Pat Ryan, Brad Schneider, Kim Schrier, Darren Soto, Ritchie Torres, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Frederica Wilson why the cries of Palestinian babies sound different to them,” said Alexandra Rojas, the group’s executive director.

“Congresswoman Tlaib’s moral courage will never be extinguishable, but these 22 Democrats’ cowardice, bigotry, and fanaticism will be the only thing the American people ever remember of them,” Rojas added.

Tlaib is one of more than 20 members of Congress who have called for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which is facing an appalling humanitarian crisis as Israel continues bombing the besieged territory and ramping up its ground attack. Major human rights groups and the head of the United Nations have also called for a cease-fire, which is overwhelmingly popular with the U.S. public.

But Tlaib and other progressive U.S. lawmakers who have called for a cease-fire have been met with open criticism from members of their own party and the Biden White House.

Tlaib has accused President Joe Biden of supporting genocide in Gaza, echoing the assessments of legal experts who say the administration’s unconditional arming of Israel and unwavering political support rise to the level of complicity in Israeli war crimes.

A group of United Nations experts warned last week that “the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide.”

“The time for action is now,” they added. “Israel’s allies also bear responsibility and must act now to prevent its disastrous course of action.”

Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid noted in a statement Wednesday that “the House did not censure Rep. Brian Mast for stating there is no such thing as an innocent Palestinian civilian and comparing all Palestinians to Nazis, nor Rep. Max Miller for saying Gaza should be turned into a ‘parking lot,’ nor Rep. Josh Gottheimer who was reported in two outlets to have blamed all Muslims for the attacks of October 7.”

“Representative Tlaib has repeatedly called for the recognition of the shared humanity of all Israelis and Palestinians,” Shahid added. “It is clear that while Israelis and Palestinians may be equal in the eyes of God, they are not in the eyes of the United States government. It’s now up to Democrats of conscience to dismantle the horrific hierarchy of human value that has taken hold at the highest places in our party and government.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Sep. 4, 2023. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

As the first-ever Africa Climate Summit kicked off in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday, an analysis by the humanitarian group Oxfam found that rich nations have delivered just a small fraction of the aid that East African nations say they need each year to meet their climate goals.

Unlike rich countries that account for a disproportionate share of planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution, East Africa has contributed “almost nothing” to global carbon emissions that are driving record-shattering heat worldwide, Oxfam’s new report notes. In 2021, according to one recent estimate, the average North American emitted 11 times more carbon dioxide than the average African.

The World Meteorological Organization pointed out Monday that Africa is responsible for less than 10% of global carbon emissions.

Yet “East Africa is one of the world’s worst-hit regions by climate change and is now experiencing its worst climate-induced extreme weather, fueling an alarming hunger crisis,” Oxfam’s report states. “Over 31.5 million people are currently facing acute hunger across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan.”

Those countries, which suffer billions of dollars worth of climate-related damage each year, have said they will need at least $53.3 billion annually to meet critical targets under the Paris Climate Agreement. According to Oxfam, wealthy countries provided just $2.4 billion in aid to East African nations in 2021.

More broadly, Oxfam noted, high-income countries pledged that they would provide $100 billion a year by 2020 to help lower-income countries fight climate chaos.

“Oxfam estimates that in 2020 the real value of financial support specifically aimed at climate action was only around $21 billion to $24.5 billion—much less than officially reported figures suggest,” the group’s report states.

Fati N’Zi-Hassane, Oxfam’s Africa director, said Monday that “even by their own generous accounts, polluting nations have delivered only pittance to help East Africa scale up their mitigation and adaptation efforts.”

“Nearly half the funds (45%) they did give were loans, plunging the region further into more debt,” N’Zi-Hassane added.

Climate finance is expected to be a major topic of discussion at the Nairobi summit, which comes after months of scorching heat on the continent.

“Africa is seen as a sunny and hot continent,” Amadou Thierno Gaye, a research scientist and professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, told Bloomberg in July. “People think we are used to heat, but we are having high temperatures for a longer duration. Nobody is used to this.”

The Associated Press reported Monday that “there is some frustration on the continent about being asked to develop in cleaner ways than the world’s richest countries—which have long produced most of the emissions that endanger climate—and to do it while much of the support that has been pledged hasn’t appeared.”

Mohamed Adow of Power Shift Africa told AP that “we have an abundance of clean, renewable energy and it’s vital that we use this to power our future prosperity. But to unlock it, Africa needs funding from countries that have got rich off our suffering.”

In addition to calling on rich nations to contribute the aid they’ve promised to support Africa’s renewable energy transition, African civil society groups are urging their leaders to reject fossil fuel expansion, specifically warning against the completion of TotalEnergies’ East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

A recent Human Rights Watch report warned that more than 100,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania are set to “permanently lose land to make way for the pipeline and Tilenga oilfield development.” One analysis indicates the pipeline could result in 379 million tonnes of planet-warming emissions over its lifespan—more than 25 times the combined annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania.

Zaki Mamdoo, coordinator of the Stop EACOP Coalition, said Monday that “the African Climate Summit could provide the platform needed for the continent to dramatically shift its trajectory and future—from one that is set to bear the brunt of climate collapse, to one of energy security and prosperity driven by decentralized and people-centered renewables.”

“For this to happen,” said Mamdoo, “African leaders will need to rise to the occasion and make firm commitments to significantly upscale renewable energy developments while resisting and withdrawing any and all support for exploitative and destructive projects like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Aug. 21, 2023. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Ecuadorians voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to reject oil drilling in a section of Yasuní National Park, the most biodiverse area of the imperiled Amazon rainforest.

Nearly 60% of Ecuadorian voters backed a binding referendum opposing oil exploration in Block 43 of the national park, which is home to uncontacted Indigenous tribes as well as hundreds of bird species and more than 1,000 tree species.

The Associated Press reported that “the outcome represents a significant blow to Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, who advocated for oil drilling, asserting that its revenues are crucial to the country’s economy. As a result of the vote, state oil company Petroecuador will be required to dismantle its operations in the coming months.”

Yasunidos, the civil society group behind the referendum, celebrated the vote as “a historic victory for Ecuador and for the planet.” Drilling operations in Block 43, which began in 2016, currently produce more than 55,000 barrels of oil per day.

Most of Ecuador’s oil is located under the Amazon rainforest, whose role as a critical carbon sink has been badly diminished in recent years due to deforestation and relentless corporate plunder.

Sunday’s win was decades in the making. As The New York Times reported ahead of the vote, the referendum is “the culmination of a groundbreaking proposal suggested almost two decades ago when Rafael Correa, who was president of Ecuador at the time, tried to persuade wealthy nations to pay his country to keep the same oil field in Yasuní untouched. He asked for $3.6 billion, or half of the estimated value of the oil reserves.”

“Mr. Correa spent six years in a campaign to advance the proposal but never managed to persuade wealthy nations to pay,” the Times noted. “Many young Ecuadoreans, though, were persuaded. When Mr. Correa announced that the proposal had failed and that drilling would begin, many started protesting.”

Yasunidos ultimately collected around 757,000 signatures for the proposed ban on oil exploration in Yasuní—nearly 200,000 more than required to bring a referendum to a vote in Ecuador.

“The uncontacted Tagaeri, Dugakaeri, and Taromenane have for years seen their lands invaded, firstly by evangelical missionaries, then by oil companies,” said Sarah Shenker, head of the Survival International’s Uncontacted Tribes campaign, following the vote. “Now, at last, they have some hope of living in peace once more. We hope this prompts greater recognition that all uncontacted peoples must have their territories protected if they’re to survive, and thrive.”

Sunday’s vote makes Ecuador the first country to restrict fossil fuel extraction through the citizen referendum process, according to Nemonte Nenquimo, a Waorani leader.

“Yasuní, an area of one million hectares, is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth,” Nenquimo wrote in a recent op-ed for The Guardian. “There are more tree species in a single hectare of Yasuní than across Canada and the United States combined. Yasuní is also the home of the Tagaeri and Taromenane communities: the last two Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation in Ecuador.”

“Can you imagine the immense size of one million hectares?” Nenquimo added. “The recent fires in Quebec burned a million hectares of forest. And so the oil industry hopes to burn Yasuní. It has already begun in fact, with the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil project on the eastern edge of the park.”

Ecuadorians’ decision to reject oil drilling in the precious ecosystem drew applause from around the world.

“Historic and wonderful,” responded the climate group Extinction Rebellion Global. “Thank you and congratulations to the people of Ecuador for protecting their people, land, nature, future, and those of the rest of the world, too.

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative—a global campaign that works to accelerate the transition to renewable energy— added that “the historic vote sets a remarkable example for other countries in democratizing climate politics.”

This story has been updated to include a statement from Survival International.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on July 25, 2023. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

The company responsible for the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, is on the verge of buying up the only municipally owned interstate railroad in the United States.

One remaining barrier to Norfolk Southern’s $1.6 billion purchase of the Cincinnati Southern Railway (CSR) is the Ohio city’s voters, who will have an opportunity to reject the proposed sale on the November 7 ballot.

Norfolk Southern first expressed interest in buying the 337-mile railway outright in 2021, well before the East Palestine derailment earlier this year brought closer scrutiny to the rail giant’s history of fighting safety regulations at the expense of workers and communities. Cincinnati has leased the railway to Norfolk Southern for decades, and the arrangement currently brings the city around $25 million a year.

City officials—including the unelected board of trustees that manages the railway—formally announced the proposed sale last November, setting off a lengthy process during which lawmakers changed 150-year-old statutes to allow proceeds from the transaction to be used for purposes other than paying off debts, such as infrastructure improvements.

The $1.6 billion from the sale would be placed into “a trust fund of professionally managed financial assets,” according to the five-member board of trustees, which would oversee the fund. The board unanimously approved the sale in a November vote.

On July 13, the board recommended that the proposed sale be placed on the ballot this coming November. The sale must also win approval from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, which is assessing the deal and expected to issue a decision by September.

Aftab Pureval, Cincinnati’s Democratic mayor, called the potential sale “a historic opportunity to deliver great value to citizens of Cincinnati and realize a substantial return on the investment and foresight of our predecessors.”

But some local residents have voiced sharp disagreement, suggesting the deal could face resistance come November. Madeline Fening of the Cincinnati City Beat recently observed that “the events in East Palestine have completely changed the way residents discuss the vote.”

The November ballot language will explicitly identify Norfolk Southern as the prospective buyer.

Emily Spring, a Cincinnati resident and community organizer, said last week that “selling the CSR to Norfolk Southern would not only hurt the railroad’s workers and surrounding communities—neighborhoods historically affected by unfair economic and political practices—it would give the power that we have as Cincinnatians to yet another billionaire corporation that continues to put profits over people.”

“I, along with others in my community, am prepared to block this sale and fight to keep our railroad in the hands of Cincinnatians,” Spring added. “For Cincinnati, for our environment, for rail workers, and for our communities, it’s time to derail this sale.”

Werner Lange, chair of the Ohio Peace Council and a retired educator with five grandchildren living in Cincinnati, argued in a recent op-ed that the pending sale is a “Faustian bargain, one that sacrifices something of inestimable value for insecure material prospects.”

“The CSR is a jewel in the Queen City treasure, and has been so for over 150 years,” Lange wrote. “As the only municipally-owned long-distance railway in the nation, it confers a unique and enviable status upon Cincinnati. It shines as a beacon of hope and harbinger of things to come in an industry increasingly plagued with catastrophic derailments by privately-owned railroad companies, such as the notorious Norfolk Southern.”

Lange cast doubt on proponents’ case that the sale would be an economic boon for the city, writing that “according to recent state law, should there be more than a 25% loss on speculative investments made by appointed financial managers from the $1.62 billion sale price, then the city receives nothing—nada—until the stock market loss is rectified, if ever.”

“Norfolk Southern clearly qualifies as a poster child for corporate greed and neglect of community need, making it unworthy as a buyer of the cherished Cincinnati Southern Railway,” Lange added.

The rail giant’s accident rate has risen three times faster than the industry average over the past decade, surging by roughly 81% between 2013 and 2022 as its profits have steadily grown, hitting an annual record last year.

Like other rail giants, Norfolk Southern has lobbied furiously against even modest safety improvements at the state and federal levels. As The Lever reported in the wake of the February derailment in East Palestine—which is still reeling from the toxic crash—Norfolk Southern “helped kill a federal safety rule aimed at upgrading the rail industry’s Civil War-era braking systems.”

The company’s CEO has also declined to support federal legislation aimed at preventing a repeat of the East Palestine disaster.

Railroad Workers United (RWU), an alliance representing rail workers across the United States, is among the organizations speaking out against the proposed sale of the Cincinnati railway to Norfolk Southern, calling it the latest example of industry privatization and consolidation.

Last month, RWU—which supports nationalizing the U.S. rail industry—adopted a resolution describing the CSR as “an example of publicly owned rail infrastructure in North America that needs to be expanded, not eliminated.”

Matt Weaver, a maintenance-of-way worker and member of RWU’s steering committee, said in a statement that “the rail industry has robbed the American people blind for 150 years now.”

“Millions of acres of land and massive subsidies were given to the ‘Robber Barons’ of old,” said Weaver. “Today’s rail industry is the same, indifferent to the needs and concerns of their own workers and customers, let alone the nation. The citizens of Cincinnati would be wise to hold onto their railroad infrastructure as their forefathers understood the perils of private rail ownership. They would not be well-served by this sale.”

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on July 15, 2023. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

House Democrats warned that hundreds of thousands of teachers could lose their jobs if legislation advanced Friday by a Republican-controlled appropriations subcommittee becomes law.

The panel’s draft Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies funding bill for the coming fiscal year calls for nearly $64 billion in total cuts, a proposal that Democrats said “decimates support for children in K-12 elementary schools and early childhood education” and “abandons college students and low-income workers trying to improve their lives through higher education or job training.”

The nonprofit Committee for Education Funding noted that the Republican proposal would impact “virtually all” education programs, hitting teacher funding, student aid, and more. The bill, one of a dozen appropriations measures that Congress is looking to pass by the end of September, would bring Department of Education funding to below the 2006 level, according to the group.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Friday that “we are witnessing a widespread attack on public education that should shock every American family.”

“If left to their own devices,” DeLauro added, “Republicans would gleefully take public education to the graveyard.”

The GOP legislation would slash Title I grants to local educational agencies that serve children from low-income families by nearly $15 billion compared to fiscal year 2023 levels. Appropriations Committee Democrats said the massive cut “could force a nationwide reduction of 220,000 teachers from classrooms serving low-income students” amid a teacher shortage.

The legislation would also completely eliminate funding for a number of Education Department programs, including Federal Work-Study, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Promise Neighborhoods, and Child Care Access Means Parents in School.

“Disgraceful to say the least,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) tweeted in response to the GOP measure.

Additionally, the bill would inflict major cuts to labor, health, and medical research programs and agencies, slashing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration by $95 million, Job Corps by $1.8 billion, the National Institutes of Health by $2.8 billion, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by $1.6 billion.

The bill would zero out funding for the CDC’s Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention Research. There have been at least 377 mass shootings across the U.S. this year.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second-largest teacher’s union in the U.S., expressed outrage over the GOP funding measure’s “deep cuts to education, healthcare, and worker programs.”

“At the same time, another GOP-led committee is advancing bills to extend tax cuts for the rich,” the union wrote, referring to the House Ways and Means Committee, which recently approved a tax-cut package that would disproportionately benefit large corporations and the top 1%.

“Their values are showing—and they’re not pretty,” AFT added.

The proposed funding cuts for labor, health, education, and related agencies are part of the GOP’s far-reaching assault on federal programs as members of Congress race to approve a dozen appropriations bills by September 30—the end of the current fiscal year—to avert a government shutdown.

The debt ceiling agreement reached in late May by the Biden White House and Republican leaders set caps on non-military discretionary outlays, but GOP appropriators are working to cut spending as much as possible, targeting clean water funds, IRS enforcement, public housing, and other critical programs.