The Israeli military on Tuesday expanded its ground assault to refugee camps in central Gaza, forcing displaced people to flee in terror from an area that was once considered a relative safe zone as the rest of the strip came under near-constant bombardment. Over the weekend, U.S.-armed Israeli forces pummeled central Gaza with airstrikes, reducing the Maghazi refugee camp to ruins and killing…
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that his nation’s forces will be expanding their assault on the Gaza Strip in the coming days after the U.S. weakened a United Nations Security Council resolution that originally aimed to pursue a stop to the fighting. Over just the past 24 hours, the Israeli military — armed to the teeth by the U.S. — has killed more than 250 people in the…
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Iowa’s Republican-led government sparked outrage late last week by declining to participate in a federal program that would have provided low-income residents with $40 a month in additional food assistance during the coming summer. Created by the U.S. Congress late last year, the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) for Children program aims to boost nutrition benefits for families with…
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Dozens of anti-war organizations on Friday urged U.S. President Joe Biden to rule out any military escalation in Yemen as tensions in the Red Sea continue to rise following a series of Houthi attacks on shipping vessels. “While these attacks are concerning, expanding the war into Yemen will not resolve them and instead may dramatically worsen the threats to commercial shipping both in the Red Sea…
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The Biden administration is reportedly working to prevent the Swiss government from holding a conference on alleged Geneva Convention violations by both the Israeli government and Hamas, a private pressure campaign that comes as the U.S. is obstructing U.N. Security Council efforts to address the spiraling humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. HuffPost’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed reported Wednesday that…
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The United Nations Security Council on Monday delayed an expected vote on a new Gaza cease-fire resolution as the U.S. worked to weaken the measure’s language, objecting to the proposed call for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities.” Unnamed diplomats told The Associated Press that the wording will likely be changed to call for a “suspension” of hostilities or some other watered…
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Dozens of Biden administration staffers held a vigil outside the White House late Wednesday calling for a lasting cease-fire in Gaza as the Palestinian territory’s healthcare system collapsed and the U.S.-armed Israeli military bombed the entirety of the besieged strip. The staffers donned masks and sunglasses to conceal their identities, likely out of fear of retaliation from an administration…
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The COP28 climate summit in Dubai ended with an agreement that, for the first time, explicitly endorsed a move away from fossil fuels, but is so full of loopholes that the fossil fuel industry will be allowed to persist and thrive, reports Jake Johnson.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
The COP28 climate summit in Dubai ended Wednesday with an agreement that, for the first time, explicitly endorsed a move away from fossil fuels — a weak but historic signal that the oil and gas era may be coming to an end. But the deal, dubbed the UAE Consensus, is also chock full of escape hatches that will allow the fossil fuel industry to persist and thrive in ways that are incompatible with…
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The World Health Organization on Tuesday accused Israeli forces of delaying an aid and ambulance convoy and abusing medical personnel as they tried to transfer critically wounded patients to a hospital in southern Gaza, resulting in at least one death. In a detailed account of what it called a “high-risk mission” conducted on December 9, the WHO said that as the emergency convoy made its way to…
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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.”
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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…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
forces held joint military drills within Guyanese airspace on Thursday as a longstanding and intensifying territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana sparked fears of war in South America. At the center of the dispute is Essequibo, an oil-rich region that Guyana has controlled for more than a century. Venezuela has claimed sovereignty over Essequibo for decades, and the two nations…
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Sen. Bernie Sanders was the lone member of the Senate Democratic caucus to oppose advancing a $110.5 billion supplemental foreign aid measure on Wednesday, expressing opposition to the bill’s unconditional military assistance for the Israeli government. “I voted NO on the foreign aid supplemental bill today for one reason,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. “I do not believe that we should give…
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Dozens of White House interns sent a letter late Tuesday urging President Joe Biden to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, echoing the calls of a growing number of lawmakers, congressional staffers, administration officials, and ordinary Americans. “We heed the voices of the American people and call on the administration to demand a permanent cease-fire,” reads the letter, which is signed “40+…
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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.
“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.”
“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 post was originally published on The Real News Network.
Sen. Bernie Sanders said Monday that he opposes sending billions of dollars in additional military assistance to the Israeli government as it continues to wage a catastrophic war on the Gaza Strip, an assault that the Vermont senator described as unlawful and “immoral.” “I do not believe we should be appropriating over $10 billion for the right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government to continue…
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Scientists and climate advocates responded with outrage Sunday to COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber’s claim that there is “no science” behind the push to rapidly phase out planet-warming fossil fuels, which Al Jaber’s company is extracting on a large scale . Al Jaber’s comments, first reported by The Guardian on Sunday, came in response to questioning from Elders chair Mary Robinson during a…
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Israel resumed its assault on the Gaza Strip Friday morning just minutes after the pause with Hamas officially expired, ending a fragile seven-day truce that created conditions for the release of hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian captives and allowed additional — but still inadequate — humanitarian aid to enter the besieged territory. Gaza’s health ministry said that Israel’s post-pause…
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The European Union’s foreign affairs chief on Monday said he was “appalled to learn” that Israel’s wartime government is preparing to vote on a budget plan that includes money for illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has grown in recent weeks amid Israel’s assault on Gaza. “In the middle of a war, the Israeli gov is poised to commit new funds…
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President Joe Biden is reportedly planning to skip the United Nations climate summit that kicks off later this week in Dubai, a decision sure to anger climate advocates and scientists who have pushed him to back a speedy fossil fuel phaseout at the talks. The New York Times was first to report the president’s plans on Sunday, citing an unnamed White House official who did not provide a…
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Amazon workers and allies in dozens of countries around the world took to the streets Friday to protest the e-commerce behemoth’s atrocious working conditions, low pay, union busting, tax dodging, and inaction on planet-warming emissions. The “Make Amazon Pay” strikes and rallies coincided with Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year and one of Amazon’s most profitable.
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Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal under which dozens of Israeli hostages will be freed in exchange for a brief pause in fighting and the release of 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israel’s prisons. The pause, set to take effect within the next 24 hours, is expected to last at least four days to allow for the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin…
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A press freedom group said Monday that at least 50 journalists — most of them Palestinian — have been killed since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, to which the Israeli military responded with an indiscriminate bombing campaign in the densely populated Gaza Strip. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which began documenting media worker fatalities in 1992…
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The richest 1% of the global population produced 16% of the world’s carbon dioxide in 2019, generating as much planet-warming pollution as the poorest two-thirds of humanity, according to a report released Monday by Oxfam International. Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99% describes the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency and runaway inequality as “twin crises” that are leaving those least…
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Facing backlash from former staffers and other progressives, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday declined once again to join the growing number of congressional lawmakers demanding an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, saying in a statement that he is “not quite sure how you negotiate a cease-fire with a terrorist organization that is dedicated to perpetual war.” Sanders (I-Vt.
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More than a thousand fossil fuel companies around the world are currently planning to build new liquefied natural gas terminals, pipelines, or gas-fired power plants even as scientists warn that fossil fuel expansion is incompatible with efforts to prevent catastrophic warming. That’s according to an updated database released Wednesday by Urgewald and dozens of partner groups.
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The head of the United Nations’ emergency relief operations said Wednesday that he was “appalled” by news of the Israeli military’s raid of Gaza’s largest hospital, where hundreds of patients and healthcare workers and thousands of displaced people are sheltering. “The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff, and all civilians must override all other concerns,” Martin Griffiths, the U.N.
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