Former NOAA staffers have launched a new website that provides climate information. It replaces a government site that was shut down when the Trump administration took office. n.pr/4aWVKvt

A Tunis court has sentenced Sihem Bensedrine, a prominent human rights defender and former president of the Truth and Dignity Commission, to a total of 25 years in prison and a heavy fine, apparently in retaliation for her work.

These extreme sentences are meant to imprison us all in a prison of fear, self censorship & silence. They are wrong. terrifying & un-American, but silence in the face of neighbors being abducted, the climate destroyed & our democratic rights dismantled would be far far worse. Do not obey in advance.

🌊 Today is #WorldEnvironmentDay! Read our 2021 Q&A with environmental law expert @johnhknox.bsky.social on why a healthy environment is a human right — now recognized as such by the UN Human Rights Council. ✍️ @katarinazimmer.bsky.social: knowmag.org/4uQ0laE

A Kenyan court ruled a lawsuit against British oil giant BP over 1980s toxic waste can proceed. Petitioners allege oil exploration contaminated groundwater, killing 500+ people and thousands of livestock. This "historical injustice" case could open the door for more legal action across Kenya.

Under Lee Zelden the EPA, which was founded to protect the environment and human health, has cancelled safety regulations, supported coal, and stopped caring about climate change. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... via @elizkolbert.bsky.social

This kind of downstream consequence is precisely how authoritarianism works - even if SPLC beats the case, they suffer severe financial and reputational harms, deterring further opposition.

‘President Trump had called the plan [to reduce shipping emissions] a "green scam" and representatives of his administration had threatened countries with tariffs if they had voted in favour.’ www.bbc.com/news/article...

I am honored to assume the presidency of @asilorg.bsky.social. Our 4000 members share a mission: to foster the study of international law, and to promote the establishment and maintenance of international relations on the basis of law and justice. www.justsecurity.org/137021/remar...

There is a huge shift in climate politics happening RIGHT NOW in Santa Marta, Colombia. Countries are meeting to discuss a treaty to phase out fossil fuels -- the one issue that #UNFCCC has studiously avoided for 30 years. 🧵

🌱✊ #EnvironmentalDemocracy update: CIEL will join the 1st European Forum on Environmental Human Rights Defenders—a new regional space strengthening protection for environmental defenders in Europe. Learn more: coe.int/en/web/reykj... A thread 🧵 [1/3]

The next administration must make clear that any immigrant, refugee, or asylum seeker wrongly deported, exiled, or otherwise mistreated by this administration will be readmitted with an expedited path to citizenship. Send a plane to get them. We can't undo the damage. But we can do something.

The U.S. Has Killed More Than 180 People in Boat Strikes. We’re Tracking Them All, @theintercept.com theintercept.com/2025/11/17/t...

Breaking: New study using observational constraints projects that the Atlantic Ocean circulation #AMOC will weaken ~50% by 2100, even for medium emissions and without Greenland melting. 🌊 More realistic models means stronger weakening - not entirely unexpected. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health. 'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

Ecuador: UN Special Rapporteurs raise alarm over repression targeting Indigenous Peoples & human rights defenders. They echo FIDH & its members’ concerns and call for accountability. www.fidh.org/en/impacts/e...

The Asiatic cheetah is on the brink of extinction, with just 27 left in Iran. Now, war visits fresh peril on this critically endangered species. news.mongabay.com/2026/04/war-...

Difficult to describe how unusual it is for @icrc.org to speak publicly like this. "Heavy explosive weapons with wide-area effects struck densely populated urban areas, including the capital Beirut, without effective advance warnings." ICRC Outraged by Deadly Strikes in Densely Populated Areas

Completely unstable and perilous. The House must bring up impeachment articles, and the Senate needs to remove a president who wants to commit war crimes. We cannot sit idly by as Donald Trump threatens to end an entire civilization.

Here are the stories of some of the human beings who died horrific deaths from preventable disease because Trump and Musk and their flunkies decided to murder them by gleefully destroying USAID and the entire global aid system:

A landmark ruling against a Thai gold mine marks a step toward accountability, yet villagers face uncertain justice. With payouts delayed by appeals and compensation falling short of the actual health and environmental costs, the battle for remediation continues. Learn more. 👇️

Last week @freedomhouse.bsky.social released Freedom in the World 2026. The bottom line: "Global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025. A total of 54 countries experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties, while only 35 countries registered improvements."

A study of 38,000 people across 75 countries found that feeling connected to nature consistently predicts higher well-being, hope and resilience – regardless of wealth or national culture. theconversation.com/a-connection...

A court in China has sentenced prominent human rights lawyer Xie Yang to five years in prison on politically motivated charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” The Chinese government should immediately quash the conviction and free Xie.

Since the closure of USAID an estimated 834,000 people lost their lives as a result of the loss of health assistance. USAID was also one of the largest contributors to conservation ($400m annually). This week on the podcast, Michelle Nijhuis @biographic.bsky.social details the situation a year on.

Foreign investors are suing Latin American and Caribbean nations for $36.6 billion, often targeting environmental policies. These legal battles undermine government efforts to protect ecosystems, transition to clean energy, and human rights. Story by @aimeegabay.bsky.social for #Mongabay.

Happy birthday, #ICCPR which entered into force 50 years ago. Almost 90% of states have ratified it, and a clear majority also the optional protocol allowing individual complaints. This is the one international treaty that I have worked most hours on, as academic, practitioner and treaty body member

Denton County and its economy are built around the University of North Texas. Denton County also went 56/43 for Trump in 2024. That's because most voters there wanted to get rid of immigrants. Now, as international students disappear, the university is collapsing. They burned down their own house.

Wildlife traffickers selling protected animals on Facebook use coded language to evade moderation. Research by Bellingcat and @mongabay.com has identified nine groups, with more than 70,000 members combined, leading back to six profiles and one broker in Indonesia. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03...

Interesting: The UK’s three national human rights institutions have warned that weakening protections under the European Convention on Human Rights would risk the rights of everyone in the country👇 🔗 www.heraldscotland.com/news/2594907... via @heraldscotland.bsky.social

"The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history," one of the world's top democracy researchers says in a new report. I wrote about it here for CNN: www.cnn.com/2026/03/18/m...

1/2. He took the greatest military force in history, lost a war to a middle power in a week, begged the world to save him, & demanded the media lie about this & everything else. I try, but at a simple human level I do not see how anyone mistakes this man’s almost supernatural weakness for strength.

The US is no longer a liberal democracy, according to the top global watchdog on freedom and democracy. We're falling fast, and are now classed the same as Guatemala, Colombia, and Peru www.v-dem.net/documents/75...

NEW Somewhat unexpectedly, the US government has submitted an Article 51 letter to the UNSC articulating the US int'l law justification for attacking Iran. As someone who used to help draft these letters for the USG, I find the administration's legal arguments completely unconvincing. 1/n

Favorite detail of this op-ed I published today: Honduran currency now depicts Berta Cáceres, their 1st to feature a woman (and an Indigenous one, too) It marked Int'l Day of Women in Multilateralism, which recognizes women's key roles in promoting #humanrights peace & sustainable development:

I don’t use this word lightly, but this is evil.

James Baker spent over five months shuttling around the world to build an international coalition to rollback Iraq's illegal invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Trump posts a message on social media and expects the world to help the US after its illegal war against Iran.

this administration scans authoritarian in everything it does, and the assault on the media -- and more precisely the public's right of access to accurate information & reporting -- is pretty much foundational. censorial in every respect.

"The Iran War Is Creating a Public Health and Environmental Crisis" by @thorbenson.bsky.social for @rollingstone.com (via @yahoonews.com): uk.news.yahoo.com/iran-war-cre...

✋ Former USG war crimes lawyer here. Apropos of SecDef's remarks this morning: Denial of quarter—even the declaration of no quarter—is a war crime. And recognized as such by the US Government. From DoD's Manual for Military Commissions.

Reported findings that the US is responsible for the recent deadly school attack in Iran, and that it was based on outdated targeting data, highlight the need for reform and accountability within the US military to minimize civilian harm during conflict. New from HRW: https://bit.ly/4dqo6Aa

A resolution of the UN General Assembly to operationalise ICJ #AdvisoryOpinion on #ClimateChange is necessary & urgent for everyone's #HumanRights Statement with @srenvironment.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/2eyjm5fr 📺 To find out more : www.youtube.com/watch?v=B59x... & www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sgw...

10 Years After Berta Cáceres’ Murder, Why Is Honduras Still So Dangerous for Environmental Activists? - The criminals behind the Indigenous leader's murder remain at large, while illegal land grabs and attacks continue with impunity By @ninalakhani.bsky.social drilled.media/news/berta?r...

The UN’s call for urgent action at the Lega Dembi mine in #Ethiopia underscores what residents have said for years: children are getting sick, pregnancies are being lost, & pollution persists. It’s time for the government and Midroc to deliver. Read @jkippenberg.bsky.social#Ethiopia: https://bit.ly/4rqmYzS

🌍⚖️ Today, @coe.int Human Rights Commissioner Michael O'Flaherty called for urgent rights-based climate action and urged UN Member States to support the upcoming #UN General Assembly resolution to operationalise the 2025 ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change. 👉 www.coe.int/en/web/commi... A 🧵

This #InternationalWomensDay, I want to thank the WHRDs who continue their work at the forefront of all human rights struggles despite enormous risks. Your determination & perseverance keep the human rights movement alive in challenging times.

I think this deserves at least as much sustained attention from US media as Claudine Gay's dissertation

The Guardian on our new study, which shows that global heating is significantly gathering speed. Our efforts to overcome our fossil fuel addiction should do the same. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

🧵Feels like shouting into the void, but it is essential to note that the Trump/Rubio gutting of the State Department and blowtorching of US diplomatic capacity and credibility is an accelerant to this spiraling war and will seriously undercut US/allied efforts to pick up the pieces after. 1/

This is what authoritarianism looks like