Extreme heat, cold, precipitation and fires mark the start of 2026 January 2026 was the fifth warmest on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the Eur

Makes for scary reading with your coffee(if you dare) wmo.int/media/news/e...

Tomorrow, the last remaining arms control agreement between the US and Russia expires. The end of New START Treaty removes the final restraints on an accelerating nuclear arms race.

What does this mean? Read more in
@melissaparke01.bsky.social 's Op-ed: passblue.com/2026/02/01/t...

#NuclearBan

“Audacious” is a weird way to say “wildly illegal under both domestic and international law”

US Institute of Peace renamed for Trump after his administration gutted it earlier this year | CNN Politics President Donald Trump’s name has been installed on the building and signage around the US Institute of Peace (USIP) – an independent agency that the administration gutted earlier this year.

A former USIP official said of Trump: “It’s pretty ironic that he put his name on an institution he destroyed.”

Taking over institutions and putting your name on it is another sign of authoritarianism.

www.cnn.com/2025/12/03/p...

The Trump administration's 'assault' on Peace The violent attack on the US Institute of Peace is a heavy-handed metaphor for this administration's goals.

My story on the USIP raid from March (helpful context for why Trump putting his name on the building today is so egregious):

Waffenexporte: Der vergessene Vertrag Die norwegische Völkerrechtlerin Ida Marie Andenæs Galtung forscht in Genf über Kontrollmöglichkeiten im internationalen Waffenhandel. Die Schweiz steht bisher nicht in ihrem Fokus. Das könnte sich ba...

Die Schweiz unterstützt den #ATT - Arms Trade Treaty - seit seiner Entstehung. Das 🇨🇭 Kontrollregime zu demontieren, ist mit der Idee, "die Umleitung von konventionnellen Waffen zu verhüten" (Art. 1 ATT) nicht zu vereinen.
@woz.ch

www.woz.ch/!21TBK3KHXV5A

8/ A public service reminder:

This entire exercise is an absurd, imaginary world for legal experts.

That's because the truth is:

It's not an armed conflict.
The laws of war thus don't apply.

The more restrictive rules of human rights apply.
It's extrajudicial killing under that law.

X has changed their policy and now you can see where the accounts are based.

Here’s an “influencer from Texas”

Academics who have advised a graduate student from China over the past years would be banned from federal funding. This would give the federal government one more lever to attack scientists. And how long before they expand the list of "hostile foreign" countries?

"Es ist fair, wenn alle verzichten müssen" Politikökonomin Göpel sieht konkrete Ansatzpunkte, um die Akzeptanz für die Klimapolitik zu steigern.

"Es ist fair, wenn alle verzichten müssen" #Interview #Klimaschutz #COP30

I'm struck by how many Chicagoans have seemingly felt compelled to write and share reflections on "this is what it feels like in Chicago right now". We know we're going through something awful together and we want the world to understand it.

Threading several of these pieces below.

We can have a serious convo about overproduction of PhDs vs. the academic job market & inadequate prep for non-academic markets, but this + the staff hiring freeze is balancing budgets in ways that hurt the most vulnerable—not to mention devastating for Harvard teaching by eliminating most TA labor.

With deep sadness, we remember Catarina de Albuquerque, a pioneering human rights advocate who advanced water and sanitation as fundamental rights. Her legacy shapes global policy and lives worldwide. May her memory guide us in the pursuit of justice, dignity, and equality for all

Team Portugal mourns the passing of Catarina de Albuquerque, a renowned & tireless Portuguese Human Rights Defender who contributed to promote significant advances of #Economic, #Social & #Cultural Rights, being also the first Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to safe drinking water & sanitation

WGN-TV producer violently detained during Chicago ICE enforcement action A DHS spokesperson said that Debbie Brockman was placed under arrest for ‘assault on a federal law enforcement officer,’ claiming the WGN employee threw objects at the agent.

A producer and editor for WGN-TV was violently forced to the ground this morning by two Border Patrol agents, before having her hands cuffed behind her back, during an ICE action in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Debbie Brockman has worked for the local television station since 2011.

SOUTH CAROLINA… “Judge Goodstein was walking on the beach when the fire started. Her husband, Arnie, was in the house with children and perhaps grandchildren. The family had to escape by jumping from a window or balcony...” www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

🥐Der Dünger der im Getreide steckt kommt unter anderem aus Russland.
🇪🇺Die EU sagt: Das füllt Putins Kriegskassen.
🇨🇭Ich habe recherchiert, welche Rolle dabei die Schweiz spielt und wieso Düngerimporte aus Russland indirekte Gasimporte sind.

Moments before being slammed to the ground, masked ICE agents took this woman's husband - no warrant, no explanation.

This is ICE: Assaulting a distraught woman, frightened by the disappearance of her husband, in front of her children and the cameras.

What a strange time to be a journal editor.

Nach ZDF-Moderator und Washintong-Büroleiter Elmar Theveßen trifft es nun auch @dunjahayali.de.

Sie selbst zieht sich jetzt für einige Tage aus dem öffentlichen Leben zurück, nachdem sie Morddrohungen und viele weitere Hassnachrichten erhielt.

Wofür? Seht selbst.

All political tribes can be hypocritical but the right's current level of hypocrisy on free speech is deliberate. It's an assertion of power not a blindspot.

The killing of Charlie Kirk is part of a grim pattern of political violence in America. This is what the data show econ.st/4nqZysO

Es könne keine Einheit mit der Linken geben, denn sie setze „das amerikanische Haus in Brand“. Nun werde hart gegen NGOs wie Soros Stiftung vorgegangen. Historische Vergleiche immer schwierig, aber das Attentat auf Kirk spielt in der Propaganda gerade eine ähnliche Rolle wie der Reichstagsbrand.

Introducing the Symposium ‘Knowledge Under Occupation: Academic Freedom and Palestine on the Global Stage’

📣 Our new symposium, #KnowledgeUnderOccupation: Academic Freedom and #Palestine on the Global Stage, is finally online! Throughout this week and the next, #Ö brings together diverse voices reflecting on how #AcademicFreedom is increasingly restricted:
voelkerrechtsblog.org/introducing-...

⏰ Jetzt noch zu unserem Online-Workshop anmelden! ⏰

Nächsten Dienstag diskutieren wir mit @stefanschlegel.bsky.social, @klinglergeorg.bsky.social und @evelyneschmid.bsky.social über das EGMR-Urteil im Fall der #Klimaseniorinnen.
Hier gehts zur Anmeldung ➡ www.humanrights.ch/de/anlaufste...

The Private Life of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change

In a new blog post at @voelkerrechtsblog.org, I discuss the implications of the ICJ's Advisory Opinion for corporate climate accountability.

Though the Court doesn't say much explicitly, the key is to read between the lines.

voelkerrechtsblog.org/the-private-...

A Chinese mining company is accused of covering up the extent of a major toxic spill in Zambia A Chinese-owned mining company has been accused of covering up the extent of a disastrous toxic spill in Zambia that polluted a major river that millions rely on with cyanide and arsenic.

A Chinese-owned mining company has been accused of covering up the extent of a disastrous toxic spill in Zambia that polluted a major river that millions rely on with cyanide and arsenic.

Climat: des habitants d’une île indonésienne attaquent Holcim en justice en Suisse, une première

Climat: des habitants d’une île indonésienne attaquent Holcim en justice en Suisse, une première

“It is a famine. The Gaza Famine.
It is a famine that we could have prevented, if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel.”