November, 27 2023, 12:23pm EDT
The Metals Company threatens Greenpeace with injunction but activists continue protest and scale their ship in the Pacific
AMSTERDAM
The Metals Company (TMC) has attempted to silence Greenpeace International’s ongoing protest in the Clarion Clipperton Zone by threatening the campaign group with an injunction on Saturday, November 25. Undeterred by the threats, activists climbed the ship working for the deep sea miners in the Pacific Ocean. Two activists remain on the vessel’s stern to peacefully demand that TMC stops its deep sea mining exploration activities and drops destructive plans in one of the world’s last untouched ecosystems.
Greenpeace International Stop Deep Sea Mining campaigner Louisa Casson, aboard the Arctic Sunrise, said: “This industry that claims to be green is now threatening to take environmental activists to court. Deep sea miners have no credibility and are showing their true colours, using the exact same tricks as the oil industry to wreak damage on our planet when it has already had far too much. Science is saying no to deep sea mining and countries are lining up to call for a stop to this risky industry that’s only out for its own profit, at huge cost to us all.”
At around 3.30pm (GMT-7) in the eastern Pacific Ocean, a boat launched from Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise vessel approached MV COCO, a vessel used for offshore drilling.[1] In the past 5 days TMC has tried to swiftly collect data as part of its plan to file the world’s first commercial mining permit. A non-stop Greenpeace International protest, involving kayaks and small boats, has disrupted their plans from dawn to sunset.
After describing this lawful protest as “kayaking and taking selfies”, TMC’s CEO Gerard Barron, moved on to threaten activists with an injunction.[2] Greenpeace International successfully went ahead with plans to escalate its protest against deep sea mining by getting four climbers to occupy the stern crane that the ship was using to collect data.
Two Greenpeace International climbers used ropes to scale TMC’s ship from one of the small boats, and have been occupying the crane since Saturday. They were joined by three other activists. Other Greenpeace International activists joined the protest from the Arctic Sunrise, bearing witness and brandishing banners with the message: Stop Deep Sea Mining in multiple languages. Two climbers are still attached to the MV COCO.
Sofia Castellanos, a Greenpeace International activist who scaled TMC’s ship, said: “I am taking action against a ship that works for the oil industry and is now working to get a green light for the next destructive industry to start. In Mexico, we’ve spent years cleaning up countless oil spills from our coasts. I can’t go back and block the oil industry from starting, but I am here because we can stop deep sea mining before it destroys our oceans.”
In June 2021, TMC made use of a legal loophole in international law to try and force governments’ hands to allow deep sea mining to begin, despite unresolved negotiations at the International Seabed Authority (ISA). After governments did not give deep sea mining the green light in July 2023, TMC announced that they will submit a deep sea mining commercial application next year, even in the absence of any regulations and despite there being 24 countries calling for a moratorium, with Mexico joining the list last Tuesday.[3][4][5]
Alex Rogers, professor of biology at Oxford University and Science Director at Ocean Census, said: “The Metals Company has tried to subvert a democratic process and push countries into accepting commercial-scale mining before sufficient science is available to make an informed decision. The international seabed and the high seas are common heritage of humankind and it should not be in the purview of companies aimed at enriching a few to destroy marine ecosystems.”
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
+31 20 718 2000LATEST NEWS
First Amendment Advocates Demand Senate Pass PRESS Act Before Trump Takes Office
"Lawmakers and President Biden must act before it's too late," said Trevor Timm of Freedom of the Press Foundation.
Nov 08, 2024
Press freedom advocates on Friday called on the Senate to urgently pass a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting reporters from government overreach and spying before what one group called "an anti-press extremist obsessed with punishing journalists and news outlets who criticize him" takes office as the next president of the United States.
National civil liberties group Defending Rights & Dissent said Republican President-elect Donald Trump's hostility toward the press as well as the plans outlined in the right-wing agenda Project 2025 make it imperative for the Democratic-led Senate to pass the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying (PRESS) Act.
The bill would shield reporters from surveillance aimed at finding out their sources.
"With many purportedly concerned about how Trump may impact our free press, it is unthinkable to allow a bill with as much bipartisan support as the PRESS Act to wither away and die," said Chip Gibbons, policy director for the group.
Project 2025, which was co-authored by at least 140 people who worked in the first Trump administration, calls to rescind the Department of Justice's current guidelines limiting when a journalist's communications records can be obtained by the federal government or when they can be compelled to testify.
"Trump has spent the last year on the campaign trail calling for more leak investigations, imprisoning journalists, and censoring news outlets he doesn't like."
"While administrations from both parties have made it the norm to use the Espionage Act to imprison whistleblowers, thus opening the door for surveillance of journalists," said Gibbons, "Project 2025 proposes undoing one of the only guardrails limiting this assault on democracy."
Trump has frequently expressed anger over journalists' coverage of him, and days before the election, he said he wouldn't "mind" if reporters at his rally were killed.
"Trump has spent the last year on the campaign trail calling for more leak investigations, imprisoning journalists, and censoring news outlets he doesn't like," said Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). "Lawmakers and President [Joe] Biden must act before it's too late."
On Friday, FPF director of advocacy Seth Stern wrote that investigative journalist Catherine Herridge would be protected from government surveillance if the PRESS Act, which was unanimously passed by the House earlier this year, were signed into law.
The federal appellate court for the D.C. Circuit is expected to hold a secret hearing on November 18 about whether Herridge can be fined $800 per day for refusing to comply with a judicial order to disclose her sources for a story about a university president's alleged ties to the Chinese military.
"If the court rules against Herridge, every potential government whistleblower in the nation's capital will think twice before talking to journalists in confidence. That means that in the second Trump administration, we'll all know less about government waste, corruption, and malfeasance," wrote Stern. "Congress could moot all of this by passing the PRESS Act, the federal shield bill that would protect journalist-source confidentiality."
Gibbons called on Senate leaders to "act now and pass this legislation before Trump can enact Project 2025’s plans to turn counter intelligence surveillance against U.S. journalists."
Keep ReadingShow Less
After $16 Billion Election, Nonprofit Tracking Money in Politics Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
"This is an absolutely devastating development on the precipice of the next administration," said one journalist.
Nov 08, 2024
Journalists and other critics of how money influences U.S. politics expressed alarm and disappointment in response to Friday reporting that shortly after the nation's latest election, the research nonprofit OpenSecrets had to lay off a third of its staff.
Citing a current staffer, Politico's Daniel Lippman revealed that OpenSecrets "laid off 10 employees yesterday due to financial difficulties" and "much of the research team were among the casualties, which constituted around a third of the group's total headcount."
According to the Politico Playbook newsletter:
Executive director Hilary Braseth wrote in an email to supporters that "OpenSecrets remains committed to its mission—serving as the trusted authority on money in American politics—but our task has become more difficult as groups have opted to fund a partisan outcome rather than nonpartisan democratic infrastructure."
She said in a subsequent email to Playbook that the layoffs were "a necessary first step to make our organization sustainable," and that she had "no doubt that our team will continue to produce the high-quality data that the public has come to rely on."
With a mission "to serve as the trusted authority on money in American politics," OpenSecrets envisions a country in which citizens "use data on money in politics to create a more vibrant, representative, and responsive democracy."
In response to the layoffs, numerous reporters took to social media on Friday to share how they—like Common Dreams—have used what National Public Radio media correspondent David Folkenflik calledthat "an invaluable resource for many a journalist and researcher—utterly nonpartisan but a source for transparency about money in politics now under financial threat."
"Terrible news!" declaredNerdWallet data journalist Joe Yerardi. "The folks at OpenSecrets have helped me so many times on stories. The [organization] does such vital work."
Other reactions included:
- Wall Street Journal reporter Maggie Severns: "OpenSecrets is an important resource on money in politics, this is terrible to see."
- Politico deputy national editor Zach Montellaro: "This stinks—OpenSecrets is a great resource for campaign finance data and following the money."
- Digiday senior reporter Marty Swant: "Sad news for a critical team that helps shed light on dark money in politics."
- McClatchy and Miami Herald investigative reporter Ben Wieder: "This is such sad news. OpenSecrets is such an important resource for journalists and anyone who cares about money in politics."
- The New Republic breaking news writer Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling: "This is an absolutely devastating development on the precipice of the next administration."
Republican President-elect Donald Trump—known for "outright scandals and blatant corruption" during his first term—defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day earlier this week, . The GOP also seized control of the U.S. Senate and is on track to win a majority in the House of Representatives.
In a Tuesday analysis, OpenSecrets' Albert Serna Jr. and Anna Massoglia detailed how about $16 billion "went to influence federal elections and another $4.6 billion was raised by state candidates, party committees, and ballot measure committees for 2023 and 2024 elections."
The pair also highlighted Tuesday that this cycle "has broken the record for outside spending," with about $4.5 billion from independent groups such as super political action committees; dark money accounted for over $1 billion in total contributions to organizations like super PACs; top donors had outsize influence; and donations to support or defeat various ballot measures have also set "several records."
Jimmy Cloutier, a former OpenSecrets reporting fellow now at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, said Friday in response to the layoffs that "I'm devastated for my former colleagues—and shocked that this news comes just days after the most expensive election in U.S. history."
Investigative journalist Dave Levinthal, who also previously worked for the organization, said that "this is heartbreaking news, not just for us OpenSecrets alums, but anyone who cares about genuinely nonpartisan research and reporting plus political/governmental transparency."
Healthcare Across Borders executive director Jodi Jacobson said Friday that "this is unacceptable and unconscionable and shows how perverse our funding streams are. We can sink over a billion into a political campaign but not fund one of the most critical tools of accountability at a time when we need it most?"
Some responded to the layoff news with calls for donations to OpenSecrets. Filmmaker Adam McKay declared: "Legacy news media has all but blacked out money's outsized control of [government] so this is one of the few places to find out who is bribing your candidate or [representative]. Donate if you can ASAP."
Issue One research director Michael Beckels said: "Care about being able to follow the money in politics? Today would be a good day to donate—or become a monthly donor—OpenSecretsDC, one of the best groups around for understanding the flow of money in state and federal elections."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Horrific Reality': Nearly 70% of UN-Verified Gaza Deaths Are Women and Children
The United Nations human rights office noted the "unprecedented levels of killings, death, injury, starvation, illness, disease, displacement, detention, and destruction" wrought by Israel's 13-month onslaught.
Nov 08, 2024
Nearly 7 in 10 people killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during an earlier six-month period of the ongoing assault on the Palestinian enclave were women and children, the United Nations human rights office said Friday.
The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified 8,119 of the more than 34,500 Palestinians killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombs and bullets between November 2023 and April 2024. Among those killed were 3,588 children and 2,036 women ranging in age from newborns to nonagenarians. Minors under the age of 18 made up 44% of the victims in the analysis.
The OHCHR report noted the "unprecedented levels of killings, death, injury, starvation, illness, disease, displacement, detention, and destruction" wrought by Israel's onslaught, as well as the "wanton disregard" by Israeli forces and Hamas of international humanitarian law.
The analysis also highlights "the Israeli government's continuing unlawful failures to allow, facilitate, and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and repeated mass displacement."
"If committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population... these violations may constitute crimes against humanity," OHCHR said. "And if committed with intent to destroy—in whole or in part—a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, they may also constitute genocide."
South Africa is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. On Thursday, Ireland became the latest of around 30 countries and regional blocs to announce its intent to intervene in the case on behalf of Palestine.
OHCHR found that 88% of the verified Palestinian fatalities from Israeli attacks on residential buildings were people killed in strikes that claimed at least five lives. In recent weeks, Israel's renewed offensive in northern Gaza—which some experts believe is an attempt to ethnically cleanse the area by bombing and starving its people before forcibly expelling them to make way for Israeli recolonization—has wiped out a staggering number of civilians, including many women and children, in single strikes on homes, hospitals, and refugee camps.
"The high number of fatalities per attack was due to the IDF's use of weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas," the analysis states, adding that some Palestinians may have been killed by errant projectiles launched by Hamas or other Gaza-based militants.
The new report also raises concerns over Isrsel's forcible transfer of Palestinians, systematic attacks on medical workers, journalists, and reported use of white phosphorus munitions—which are banned in populated areas.
Israel has not yet responded to the OHCHR report but has previously said that it "will continue to act, as it always has done, according to international law."
Since October 7, 2023, when Israeli forces launched their assault on the densely populated coastal enclave of 2.3 million people in response to the Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Gaza Ministry of Health and U.N. agencies say that more than 43,600 Palestinians have been killed and over 102,500 others wounded. More than 10,000 others are missing and believed dead and buried beneath the ruins of bombed homes and other structures.
Among those killed, say officials, are more than 18,000 children. Last month, the U.K.-based charity Oxfam International said that Israel's yearlong assault on Gaza has been the deadliest year of conflict for women and children anywhere in the world over the past two decades.
The relentless death and destruction has caused the "complete psychological destruction" of Gaza's youth, according to the charity Save the Children. The same has been said of many Gazans of all ages.
Last December, the U.N. Children's Fund called Gaza "the world's most dangerous place to be a child." Earlier this year, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for the first time added Israel to his so-called "List of Shame" of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts.
The ICJ—which is a U.N. body—has issued three provisionsal orders in the ongoing genocide case, including directives for Israel to prevent genocidal acts, stop its assault on Rafah, and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel has been accused of flouting all three orders.
"The trends and patterns of violations, and of applicable international law as clarified by the International Court of Justice, must inform the steps to be taken to end the current crisis," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement Friday.
"The violence must stop immediately, the hostages and those arbitrarily detained must be released, and we must focus on flooding Gaza with humanitarian aid," he added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular