Bill McKibben explains what individuals can do to win the climate fight — together

Bill McKibben explains what individuals can do to win the climate fight — together

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Jessica McKenzie: I was wondering if we could start just by taking stock of the global climate movement. How do you think things are going? Bill McKibben: The success or failure of the global climate movement is obviously measured by how high the temperature is. And the temperature is higher than it’s been in 125,000 years, at least, this year. So I think you’d have to say from that, we’re not exactly triumphant. In the…

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War on Gaza: Internal anger with Biden and Congress reaches boiling point

War on Gaza: Internal anger with Biden and Congress reaches boiling point

Middle East Eye reports: After three months of Israel’s war on Gaza, and after months of widespread mass protests against the war and calls for US President Joe Biden to support a ceasefire, Washington ordered air strikes on Yemen, an escalatory move that could push the region into a wider war. The decision by Biden has exponentially increased the level of anger from lawmakers and progressives who have been working since October to push for a ceasefire in Gaza. But…

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A top Biden official is pushing an urgent post-Gaza plan that’s alarming some insiders

A top Biden official is pushing an urgent post-Gaza plan that’s alarming some insiders

HuffPost reports: Top White House official Brett McGurk is quietly floating a controversial plan to reconstruct Gaza after Israel’s assault concludes, HuffPost has learned, despite serious concerns from some officials inside the administration that it would sow the seeds for future instability in the region. In recent weeks, McGurk has been pitching national security officials on a plan suggesting an approximately 90-day timeline for what should happen once active fighting in Gaza ends, three U.S. officials said. It argues that…

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Red Sea crisis could shatter hopes of global economic recovery

Red Sea crisis could shatter hopes of global economic recovery

The Observer reports: A prolonged conflict in the Red Sea and escalating tensions across the Middle East risk having devastating effects on the global economy, reigniting inflation and disrupting energy supplies, some of the world’s leading economists warn this weekend. Before a statement expected on Monday by Rishi Sunak in the House of Commons about UK and US airstrikes on Houthi sites in Yemen, economists at the World Bank say the crisis now threatens to feed through into higher interest…

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The Houthis’ forgotten war goes global

The Houthis’ forgotten war goes global

Elisabeth Kendall writes: On 14 November 2023, the military spokesman of Yemen’s Houthis, General Yahya Sarea, released a statement with an image of an Israeli ship on fire with a vow to ‘sink your ships’. Five days later, dramatic footage captured on the bodycams of Houthi hijackers and beamed around the world showed heavily armed insurgents clad in black balaclavas jumping out of a helicopter onto the deck of the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship affiliated with an Israeli businessman,…

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How airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels could backfire for the Western alliance

How airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels could backfire for the Western alliance

  Elisabeth Kendall, Yemen and Middle East expert, Girton College, University of Cambridge, says: “Of course the reason behind the strikes by the United States and the UK is to try to disengage the Houthis from wreaking havoc in the Red Sea. So the whole point is to try to tamp down the conflict there, and to ease the burden of fear on the shipping industry and therefore the knock-on effects that that has on our economies. The problem now…

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Poll indicates majority of Republicans are xenophobic racists

Poll indicates majority of Republicans are xenophobic racists

CBS News reports: As Donald Trump dominates the GOP nomination race and some of his inflammatory comments find favor with the party faithful, CBS News measured how the public feels about his “poisoning the blood” language. A striking number of voters agree with this description of immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally, and among Republicans, associating the remarks with Trump himself makes them even likelier to agree. We asked registered voters whether they agreed or disagreed with this statement in…

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Cells across the body talk to each other about aging

Cells across the body talk to each other about aging

Viviane Callier writes: Aging can seem like an unregulated process: As time marches along, our cells and bodies inevitably accumulate dings and dents that cause dysfunctions, failures and ultimately death. However, in 1993 a discovery upended that interpretation of events. Researchers found a mutation in a single gene that doubled a worm’s life span; subsequent work showed that related genes, all involved in the response to insulin, are key regulators of aging in a host of animals, from worms and…

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Germany and Israel’s genocidal partnership draws strong rebuke from Namibia

Germany and Israel’s genocidal partnership draws strong rebuke from Namibia

The Times of Israel reports: The German government sharply rejects allegations before the UN’s top court that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza and warned against “political instrumentalization” of the charge. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit says in a statement that Israel was “defending itself” after the “inhuman” attacks by Hamas on October 7. He says Germany would intervene as a third party before the ICJ under an article allowing states to seek clarification on the use of a multilateral convention….

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For many Palestinians in Gaza, the fear of Israeli airstrikes has become secondary to the slow, agonizing threat of starvation

For many Palestinians in Gaza, the fear of Israeli airstrikes has become secondary to the slow, agonizing threat of starvation

Mahmoud Mushtaha reports: The struggle for survival has morphed into a haunting and totalizing reality for Palestinian residents here in Gaza City, as it has for Palestinians across the entire Strip. Against the backdrop of intensified Israeli military attacks, the deprivation of food and water under a tightened siege, and the pervasive threat of epidemics with no medical aid, the city’s remaining inhabitants — even as they fight to stay alive — feel as if they have been left with…

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Israeli teacher held in solitary confinement for posting concern about Gaza deaths

Israeli teacher held in solitary confinement for posting concern about Gaza deaths

The Observer reports: An unlikely charge of intent to commit treason landed Meir Baruchin, a grey-haired, softly spoken history and civics teacher, in the solitary confinement wing of Jerusalem’s notorious “Russian Compound” prison in early November. The evidence compiled by police who handcuffed him, then drove to his apartment and ransacked it as he watched, was a series of Facebook posts he’d made, mourning the civilians killed in Gaza, criticising the Israeli military, and warning against wars of revenge. “Horrific…

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US-UK airstrikes risk strengthening Houthi rebels’ position in Yemen and the region

US-UK airstrikes risk strengthening Houthi rebels’ position in Yemen and the region

Houthi supporters rally in Yemen following U.S.-U.K. airstrikes. Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images By Mahad Darar, Colorado State University The U.S.- and U.K.-led strikes on the rebel Houthi group in Yemen represent a dramatic new turn in the Middle East conflict – one that could have implications throughout the region. The attacks of Jan. 11, 2024, hit around 60 targets at 16 sites, according to the U.S. Air Force’s Mideast command, including in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, the main port of Hodeida and…

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Houthis show resolve that Western air strikes will be hard pressed to shake

Houthis show resolve that Western air strikes will be hard pressed to shake

Patrick Wintour writes: The near-official slogan of the Houthi movement is: “God is the Greatest / Death to America / Death to Israel / A curse upon the Jews.” Crowds of supporters in the group’s northern Yemen strongholds have been chanting it for more than 20 years, ever since the phrase was brought back from Tehran at the turn of the century, when it was first directed at the then Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. So those who claim the…

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NASA scientist on 2023’s record-breaking temperatures: ‘We’re frankly astonished’

NASA scientist on 2023’s record-breaking temperatures: ‘We’re frankly astonished’

Ars Technica reports: Earlier this week, the European Union’s Earth science team came out with its analysis of 2023’s global temperatures, finding it was the warmest year on record to date. In an era of global warming, that’s not especially surprising. What was unusual was how 2023 set its record—every month from June on coming in far above any equivalent month in the past—and the size of the gap between 2023 and any previous year on record. The Copernicus dataset…

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