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Day: 14 May 2024

Summer 2023 was the hottest in 2,000 years

2024-05-14 /

Doyle Rice, writing in USA Today »

Based on an analysis of ancient tree rings that date back to the year 1, last summer was the hottest in the past 2,000 years, a new study released Tuesday suggests. Study authors described the warmth during the summer of 2023 across much of the Northern Hemisphere as “unparalleled.”

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Of even more concern, study authors note, is that the 2015 Paris Agreement to keep warming globally to 2.7 degrees “has already been superseded at this limited spatial scale.” The Paris Agreement seeks to keep warming below that level to stave off the worst impacts of human-caused climate change.

Last Updated on May 23, 2024

Georgia approves controversial ‘foreign agent’ law – dubbed the “Russian Law” by protesters

2024-05-14 /

Rayhan Demytrie and Emily Atkinson writing for BBC News »

Under the bill – which passed its third and final reading with 84 votes against 30 on Tuesday – NGOs and independent media that receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign donors would have to register as organisations “bearing the interests of a foreign power”.

They would also be monitored by the Justice Ministry and could be forced to share sensitive information – or face hefty fines of up to 25,000 GEL ($9,400; £7,500).

Protesters are concerned that the legislation would be used by the government to suppress its opponents. Parallels have also been drawn with an authoritarian bill which came into force in Russia in 2012, and which the Kremlin has since used to clamp down on dissidents.

Last Updated on May 23, 2024

Coalition of Canadian Advocacy Groups and Labour Unions are Renewing Calls For Full Israel Arms Embargo

2024-05-14 /

The signatories of the coalition represent some two million people across Canada.

Alex Cosh writing in The Maple »

The newly launched “Arms Embargo Now” statement notes that Canada’s own laws require that the government stop military exports if there is a substantial risk that such goods could be used to “facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, or commit serious acts of violence against women and children.”

It further notes that under the 1948 Genocide Convention, of which Canada is a signatory, the federal government must “prevent and punish” the crime of genocide. Israel is currently on trial for committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ruled in January that South Africa’s case against Israel was “plausible.”

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 35,091 people since last October, damaged or destroyed more than 60 per cent of the enclave’s residential properties, and plunged it into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Last Updated on May 23, 2024

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