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Amnesty International USA Statement on Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Gun Violence
WASHINGTON
Following the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on gun violence, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) released the following statement from End Gun Violence Manager Ernest Coverson. The hearing comes one day after 10 people were fatally shot in a Colorado supermarket, and one week after six Asian women were shot and killed by a white gunman in Georgia.
"Today's hearing proved that now, more than ever, lawmakers must prioritize gun safety solutions. Following yet another mass shooting in Colorado just last night, we are once again reminded that gun violence continues to traumatize communities across the country.
"The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in gun violence, along with an unprecedented spike in online gun purchases. In fact, according to recent CDC data, there were nearly 40,000 deaths by gunfire in 2019 alone. Many gun owners, including first-time buyers, were able to get their hands on firearms without undergoing necessary training or background checks.
"States are reopening to a United States that is even less safe than before the pandemic -- essentially amounting to a powder keg of greater violence that will only lead to more trauma. While gun violence is a uniquely American issue that impacts everyone's human rights, community-level gun violence disproportionately affects Black and brown communities and children.
"It's been 25 years since the federal government passed a gun safety law. There is no key legislation that will end gun violence overnight, but there are steps Congress can take right now to save lives. In our statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee for today's hearing, AIUSA calls on the Senate to pass the Break the Cycle of Violence Act, which would support on-the-ground groups working to keep communities safe from gun violence. While this measure is no magic wand, it would make a long-term and life-changing impact on marginalized and underserved groups.
"We must start changing course today to make our country safer for those who will come after us."
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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Exposed: The Oil and Gas Giants Profiting Most From Israel's Gaza Genocide
"The complicity of international corporations and governments in fueling Israel's war machine represents the latest chapter in a long history of fossil fuel companies enabling genocide and mass atrocities," said one campaigner.
Nov 14, 2024
On the fourth day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Azerbaijan, green groups highlighted how fossil fuel companies "enable and profit from Israel's genocide in Gaza," continuing "a long history of the industry's complicity in mass atrocities worldwide."
"The fossil fuel industry is culpable in death and destruction around the world, not only through the climate crisis they cause but through the violence they fuel," Oil Change International said in a statement Thursday.
"Every shipment of oil to Israel carries the weight of Palestinian lives."
The group—along with others including Friends of the Earth Palestine/PENGON and Tipping Point U.K.—is seizing the opportunity presented by COP29 to draw attention to an aspect of the Gaza war often overlooked amid the staggering death and destruction wrought by Israel's 13-month onslaught, which a United Nations panel on Thursday
said is consistent with the "characteristics of genocide."
"Investor-owned and private oil companies supply 66% of oil to Israel—more than a third of that from major oil companies like Chevron, Shell, and BP—despite genocide warnings from the International Court of Justice," Oil Change said. "BP is among the top corporate suppliers of oil to Israel. It operates and is the largest owner of the BTC pipeline, which transports Azeri oil that is ultimately sent to Israel."
The BTC pipeline runs from Baku—the Azeri capital and COP29 host city on the Caspian Sea—through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey and, according to Oil Change, supplies Israel with 28% of its oil, belying Thursday's claim by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the country has severed all ties with Israel.
An
investigation published in September by Energy Embargo for Palestine showed how oil transported via the BTC pipeline is refined into jet fuel for Israel Defense Forces warplanes.
Oil Change continued:
BP has also been granted gas exploration licenses in occupied Palestinian waters. By providing it with fuel, BP enables the Israeli government to commit genocide in Gaza. Chevron operates and partially owns the two largest Israeli-claimed fossil gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan, making it the main international actor extracting fossil gas claimed by Israel in the Mediterranean. In 2022, 70% of Israel's power was generated from fossil gas extracted by Chevron. Through the millions of dollars it pays Israel for its gas extraction licenses, Chevron is also directly contributing to financing Israel's regime of genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism, and occupation.
"The complicity of international corporations and governments in fueling Israel's war machine represents the latest chapter in a long history of fossil fuel companies enabling genocide and mass atrocities,"
Mohammed Usrof, a member of the Palestinian Youth Climate Negotiation Team at COP29 who lost 21 relatives to Israel's onslaught, said in a statement Thursday. "Every shipment of oil to Israel carries the weight of Palestinian lives."
Tipping Point U.K. organizer Sadie DeCost said that "BP originated as a key enabler of the British empire, and continues as one of the top 10 largest carbon emitters in the world."
"It operates and is the largest owner of the BTC pipeline, which ships Azeri oil to fuel Israel's genocide in Gaza," DeCost added. "BP's historic colonial harms continue through its support of violent regimes. Its emissions are estimated to cause hundreds of billions of dollars of loss and damage. We must shut down BP to end this injustice, and demand climate reparations for impacted communities around the world."
Mahmoud Nawajaa, general coordinator of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights, lamented that "criminal fossil fuel companies that have shamefully been invited to join COP29 are not only responsible for destroying the planet, they are also responsible for fueling genocide and other atrocity crimes around the world, from Gaza to Myanmar to the Amazon region."
"Prime among these is Chevron, [which] continues to supply Israel and its military with energy and millions of dollars in tax revenues through fossil fuel extraction activities in the Mediterranean," Nawajaa added.
Oil Change International U.S. campaign manager Allie Rosenbluth asserted Thursday that "the fossil fuel industry is not just destroying our climate—it's actively profiting from genocide."
"These companies and the governments enabling them know exactly how their supplies are being used against Palestinian civilians," she continued. "Palestinian groups and their allies around the world have called for an energy and arms embargo demanding governments and companies cease all fuel and arms shipments to Israel until it ends the genocide and its regime of apartheid against the Palestinian people."
"The fossil fuel industry is not just destroying our climate—it's actively profiting from genocide."
"Despite these strong demands, the U.S. continues to be a key supplier of JP8 jet fuel to Israel, which is crucial for its military operations," Rosenbluth added. "This isn't just business—it's complicity in mass atrocities."
Oil Change noted that while many governments have prioritized profit and national interest over human rights in Palestine, Colombia—which is led by leftist President Gustavo Petro—"has set a strong precedent and issued an embargo on coal exports to Israel" as part of a broader suspension of relations due to the Gaza onslaught.
This is more than just a symbolic move, as Israel imports more than half of its coal from Colombia.
"Others must follow suit," Oil Change stressed.
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ACLU Slams Senate Push to Crack Down on Campus Criticism of Israel
"The ability to criticize governments and their policies is a critical component of our democracy."
Nov 14, 2024
The ACLU on Thursday sent a letter to U.S. senators arguing that bipartisan legislation which backers claim would combat antisemitism on university campuses would actually be an affront to free speech protections and censor legitimate criticism of the Israeli government as it carries out atrocities in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon.
The group's letter comes two weeks after Axiosreported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "recently promised Jewish leaders that he would try later this year to pass" the House-approved Antisemitism Awareness Act, or S. 4127.
"Instead of addressing antisemitism on campus, this misguided legislation would punish protected political speech," said ACLU senior policy counsel Jenna Leventoff, who signed the letter with Christopher Anders, director of democracy and technology.
"At a time when civil rights enforcement on campus could not be more critical, this bill risks politicizing these vital protections by censoring legitimate political speech that criticizes the Israeli government," Leventoff warned. "The right to criticize government actions is the most fundamental protection provided by the First Amendment—and this includes the actions of foreign governments. The Senate must continue to block this bill and protect free speech."
"It would likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism."
The letter highlights that "federal law already prohibits antisemitic discrimination and harassment by federally funded entities. S. 4127 is therefore not needed to protect against antisemitic discrimination; instead, it would likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism."
As Israeli forces—armed by the Biden administration and U.S. Congress—have bombed and starved Palestinians in Gaza over the past 13 months, students colleges and universities across the United States have held protests urging their education institutions and government to divest from the assault, which is the subject of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Some campus administrations—under pressure from Zionists in Congress—have called in law enforcement to violently crack down on protesters and enacted new policies intended to limit anti-genocide demonstrations by students and faculty.
"The ACLU does not take a position on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, but it does staunchly defend the right of those in the United States to speak out on domestic and international political matters," the organization emphasized. "The ability to criticize governments and their policies is a critical component of our democracy."
As the letter explains:
This bill directs the Department of Education to take the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition of "antisemitism" into consideration when determining whether alleged harassment was motivated by antisemitic intent and violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs receiving federal financial assistance, including in higher education. The federal government itself has interpreted Title VI to prohibit harassment or discrimination against Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs as well as others when that discrimination is based on the group's actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics. These existing protections are critically important, particularly in the current environment.
The IHRA working definition, however, is overbroad. It equates protected political speech with unprotected discrimination. Enshrining this definition into regulation would chill the exercise of First Amendment rights and risk undermining the Department of Education’s legitimate and important efforts to combat discrimination. Criticism of Israel and its policies is political speech, squarely protected by the First Amendment.
"The IHRA definition of antisemitism is also unconstitutional," the letter continues, citing a case about Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order directing the state's higher education institutions to craft policies based on the controversial language.
The letter points out that even "the lead author of the original IHRA definition, Kenneth Stern, has himself opposed the application of this definition to campus speech, noting that codifying this definition would lead campus administrators to 'fear lawsuits when outside groups complain about anti-Israel expression, and the university doesn't punish, stop, or denounce it.'"
The ACLU specifically warned that "S. 4127 could result in colleges and universities suppressing a wide variety of speech critical of Israel or in support of Palestinian rights in an effort to avoid investigations by the department and the potential loss of funding, even where such speech is protected and does not qualify as harassment."
"Even where administrators do not take formal action, students and their organizations, faculty, and university staff may be deterred from speaking and organizing on these issues," the group added. The bill would also "likely inspire an increasing number of complaints focused on constitutionally protected criticism of Israel," taking time away from "meritorious" filings.
The Senate majority leader has faced intense pressure to bring the bill to a vote as this session of Congress winds down. Axios noted that Florence Avenue Initiative, a nonprofit that doesn't have to disclose its donors, "has spent about $5 million on an ad campaign blasting Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish lawmaker, for his inaction."
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World's Largest Coral Found in Pacific, Unharmed by Planetary Heating
"While the nearby shallow reefs were degraded due to warmer seas, witnessing this large healthy coral oasis in slightly deeper waters is a beacon of hope."
Nov 14, 2024
Scientists announced on Thursday their discovery of the largest coral ever documented off the coast of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific Ocean and celebrated the fact that the massive underwater ecosystem appears to be unharmed by planetary heating—but said the discovery underscores the need to urgently protect marine environments.
Scientists and filmmakers from National Geographic's Pristine Seas research program, which aims to push governments to protect the oceans, visited a remote site near the Solomon Islands in mid-October, and initially thought the large object just below the ocean's surface was part of a shipwreck.
Cinematographer Manu San Félix dove into the water to examine the object and found that it was actually a huge network of coral polyps.
The coral was found to be 34 meters (111 feet) wide and more than five meters (16 feet) high—larger than a blue whale and big enough to be viewed from space.
The mega coral, or pavona clavus, is thought to be about 300 years old, and scientists said it could provide insight into historical conditions in the world's oceans.
"Protecting the reef cannot make the water cooler, cannot prevent the warming of the ocean. We need to fix that, we need to reduce carbon emissions."
Enric Sala of the Pristine Seas project compared the discovery to "a big patch of old growth forest," telling New Scientist that the coral, which is not showing signs of the bleaching observed in a growing number of reefs around the world, is providing shelter and sustenance to fish, shrimp, worms, and crabs.
"Large adult coral colonies like this contribute significantly to the recovery of coral reef ecosystems due to their high reproductive potential," Eric Brown, a coral scientist toldEuronews. "While the nearby shallow reefs were degraded due to warmer seas, witnessing this large healthy coral oasis in slightly deeper waters is a beacon of hope."
But Sala told Euronews that the coral is not necessarily "safe from global warming and other human threats."
Record-breaking ocean temperatures have caused coral bleaching events across the planet over the past two years, impacting biodiversity in the world's oceans as well as increasing the risk of sea-level rise and impacting tourism industries in coastal areas.
Sala said the discovery should push governments to protect more of the world's oceans. About 8.4% of the Earth's ocean is under a marine protected area (MPA) designation, and the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty was finalized in 2023, pledging to protect the biodiversity of the oceans.
Establishing more MPAs alongside climate action, Sala said, will help shield coral like the one found near the Solomon Islands from pollution and the effects of planetary heating.
"Protecting the reef cannot make the water cooler, cannot prevent the warming of the ocean," Sala told New Scientist. "We need to fix that, we need to reduce carbon emissions. But MPAs can help us buy time by making the reefs more resilient."
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