Clodsire

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4713217

A forthcoming Supreme Court decision is poised to weaken a bedrock law that requires federal agencies to study the potential environmental impacts of major projects.

The case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, concerns a proposed 88-mile railroad that would link an oil-producing region of Utah to tracks that reach refineries in the Gulf Coast. Environmental groups and a Colorado county argued that the federal Surface Transportation Board failed to adequately consider climate, pollution, and other effects as required under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, in approving the project. In 2023, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the challengers. The groups behind the railway project, including several Utah counties, appealed the case to the highest court, which is expected to hand down a decision within the next few months.

Court observers told Grist the Supreme Court will likely rule in favor of the railway developers, with consequences far beyond Utah. The court could limit the scope of environmental harms federal agencies have to consider under NEPA, including climate impacts. Depending on how the justices rule, the decision could also bolster — or constrain — parallel moves by the Trump administration to roll back decades-old regulations governing how NEPA is implemented.

Full Article

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29202910

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4706639

By yuvaltheterrible

Of course, true violent crime rates against indigenous communities are likely much higher, because the overwhelming majority of it goes completely unreported. When your assailants have been given a get out of jail free card, why would you even bother?

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4706639

By yuvaltheterrible

Of course, true violent crime rates against indigenous communities are likely much higher, because the overwhelming majority of it goes completely unreported. When your assailants have been given a get out of jail free card, why would you even bother?

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4662082

Palestinian Christians in Gaza remember Pope Francis and his daily calls to the Catholic church in Gaza. “Gaza was among his last words,” one member of the parish told Mondoweiss. "His voice made us forget the sound of the planes and the bombs."

Christians around the world are mourning the death of Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21. But in the Gaza Strip, the local Christian community is not just mourning the loss of a religious leader, but the loss of a friend – someone they called “a true father.”

Universally hailed as a champion of the oppressed and the marginalized, the late Pope demonstrated his commitment to this reputation during the past 18 months of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. It has been widely reported that he made regular and near-daily calls to the Holy Family Church in Gaza and that he roundly condemned Israel’s actions, describing them as “terrorism” with “the characteristics of a genocide.”

“The death of Pope Francis is a great loss to the world and an even greater loss for those who did not see the world through his eyes — the eyes of justice and truth,” says George Anton, head of the emergency committee of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, where Palestinian Christians in Gaza have sought refuge since the start of the war. “He always championed the oppressed and always stood up for what was right, no matter what. This was reflected in his stance with us during the war.”

Full Article

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4660449

Significantly absent in the long obituaries for Pope Francis in both the New York Times and the Washington Post were mentions of his deep concern for the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. In Francis’s last public message on Easter Sunday, just hours before he died, he had called for a ceasefire in Gaza, and condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” there.

The obits also failed to note that Pope Francis had personally telephoned the Holy Family Church in Gaza just about every evening since Israel invaded the territory in October 2023 — including the Saturday night before Easter. The church’s pastor, Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, remembered: “He said he was praying for us, he blessed us, and he thanked us for our prayers.” Other church members said that the Pope “would make sure to speak not only to the priest but to everyone else in the room.”

Pope Francis’s concern for Gaza and Palestine did not start in October 2023. Rev. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian theologian and Lutheran pastor, told Democracy Now:

I think no Palestinian will ever forget when Pope Francis, in 2014, stopped his car, went down, stepped down and prayed at the separation wall separating Jerusalem from Bethlehem — a moment that touched all of us and continued to speak to us for years.

Full Article