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Red-state Republicans seek climate ‘liability shield’ for fossil fuel industry

If enacted, Utah and Oklahoma measures would restrict litigation against oil companies over role in climate crisis

Big oil is not the only industry seeking limits on legal accountability. Pharmaceutical giants have pushed state and federal lawmakers to block some pesticide-focused lawsuits, successfully lobbying for such measures in Georgia and North Dakota. More recently, lawmakers attempted – but failed – to weaken pesticide regulations via a national bill. Tech companies have also raised concerns about lawsuits over harms linked to artificial intelligence, prompting federal and state proposals – including in Colorado and Texas – that would shield companies from certain civil claims.Attempts from the oil industry to skirt liability are “expressions of fear”, said Inslee.

Microplastics are undermining the ocean’s power to absorb carbon

Tiny plastic particles drifting through the oceans may be quietly weakening one of Earth’s most powerful climate defenses. New research suggests microplastics are disrupting marine life that helps oceans absorb carbon dioxide, while also releasing greenhouse gases as they break down. By interfering with plankton, microbes, and natural carbon cycles, these pollutants reduce the ocean’s ability to regulate global temperatures.

The authors stress that plastic pollution and climate change must be addressed together. “In this way, the effects of climate change could be lessened by taking appropriate action to slow down the production of microplastics,” they state.

Homeland Empire • EQUATOR

From Venezuela to Minnesota, Trump is trying to create a borderless American power, collapsing the foreign and the domestic into a single domain of impunity

Violence is not power. Dominance without hegemony is dangerous, but fragile. Democratic ferment, unlike kinetic action, tends to be slow, until it isn’t. The political opposition desperately needs trustworthy leadership and organisation, but it is anything but timorous. As we already see, it will take many people willing to risk being on the other side of terrible violence. But in a waning American age, the struggle to defeat the Homeland Empire can also teach us to finally see the horizons of a world shared in common.

Conservative Influencer Chased From Minneapolis Streets by Counterprotesters

A protest at City Hall was organized by a conservative influencer to draw attention to a fraud scandal in the state. He was chased by counterprotesters lobbing water balloons in frigid temperatures.

$1 Billion in Cash Buys a Permanent Seat on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’

The board was originally conceived to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, but its charter does not mention the Palestinian enclave, suggesting a possibly broader mandate.

She protested at Stephen Miller’s home. Now police are investigating.

Barbara Wien, a retired peace studies professor, believes she was confronting a threat to her community with her protest of Stephen Miller. Some say she’s the danger.