Amid the onslaught of dismal news on Election Day, Californians passed a “tough-on-crime” ballot initiative that will lengthen sentences for some theft and drug crimes — a policy that equity-focused advocates warn will vastly increase incarceration rates in the state. Proposition 36 — also known as the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act — passed overwhelmingly 70-30 at the ballot box.

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley today issued the following statement:

“Millions of Americans should brace for massive cuts to benefits and services they rely on for their survival under plans to target government spending and operations."

Southernmost discovery of amber allows new insights into Cretaceous forests near the South Pole.

Roughly 90 million years ago, climatic conditions in Antarctica were suitable for resin-producing trees. A team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute and the TU Bergakademie Freiberg have just released a paper in the journal Antarctic Science, in which they describe the southernmost discovery of amber in the world.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Today, the Court of Appeal in The Hague delivered its judgment in Milieudefensie v. Shell. It established that the oil and gas giant has a legal responsibility to reduce its emissions, but it rules that it cannot derive a specific emission reduction obligation for Shell. In 2021, the District Court ordered Shell to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 45% from 2019 levels by 2030, effective immediately, citing its responsibility for climate change. This was the first time worldwide that a court established that a corporation had a legal obligation to reduce its emissions in line with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, including the 1.5ºC global temperature rise limit. Shell appealed, with hearings held earlier this year.

In a surprise pivot, the court noted that all of Shell’s new investments in oil and gas fields are incompatible with the internationally agreed global temperature rise limit. The court went even further to say that Shell is aware that these oil and gas investments “lock in” climate pollution, and yet it continues to massively invest in oil and gas. The court noted that climate goals can only be met if production of oil and gas is curtailed. This creates an important opening for future climate litigation targeting fossil fuel companies based on their investments.

“Our data shows Shell has over 800 new oil and gas projects in the pipeline that are all incompatible with the 1.5°C global temperature rise limit, and other Big Oil companies are on a similar course to destruction. That’s why the Shell case is part of a wave of recent climate cases to hold oil and gas companies – the climate arsonists fueling climate chaos – accountable for their role in driving the crisis. At least 86 lawsuits have been filed against fossil fuel producers, with the vast majority filed since the 2015 Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

“Rich fossil fuel producing countries gathering in Baku this week should take notice. Unless they stop propping up fossil fuels with billions of dollars in subsidies and instead take responsibility for paying the climate finance they owe to the Global South they too will be held responsible in court. We’re just getting started.”

Study shows kidney and nerve tissue cells learn and make memories in ways similar to neurons.

It’s common knowledge that our brains—and, specifically, our brain cells—store memories. But a team of scientists has discovered that cells from other parts of the body also perform a memory function, opening new pathways for understanding how memory works and creating the potential to enhance learning and to treat memory-related afflictions.

“Learning and memory are generally associated with brains and brain cells alone, but our study shows that other cells in the body can learn and form memories, too,” explains New York University’s Nikolay V. Kukushkin, the lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Nature Communications.

Nearly 7 in 10 people killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during an earlier six-month period of the ongoing assault on the Palestinian enclave were women and children, the United Nations human rights office said Friday.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified 8,119 of the more than 34,500 Palestinians killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombs and bullets between November 2023 and April 2024. Among those killed were 3,588 children and 2,036 women ranging in age from newborns to nonagenarians. Minors under the age of 18 made up 44% of the victims in the analysis.

Stronger Law Needed to Govern Weapon with Cruel Effects

Geneva - Countries concerned by the severe physical, psychological, socioeconomic, and environmental harm caused by incendiary weapons should work to strengthen the international law that governs them, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. States party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) should condemn the use of incendiary weapons and agree to assess the adequacy of the treaty’s Protocol III on Incendiary Weapons when they hold their annual meeting at the United Nations in Geneva from November 13 to 15, 2024.

“Governments should seize the moment to reiterate their concerns about incendiary weapons and discuss ways to strengthen the law to better protect civilians. A complete ban on incendiary weapons would undoubtedly have the greatest humanitarian benefits.”

The billionaire CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has said it “really doesn’t matter” who wins the US presidential election, because both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will be good for Wall Street.

“I’m tired of hearing this is the biggest election in your lifetime. The reality is over time it doesn’t matter”, said BlackRock chief Larry Fink at an October 21 conference hosted by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, according to the Financial Times.

“It really doesn’t matter”, Fink reiterated. He revealed that, at BlackRock, “we work with both administrations and are having conversations with both candidates”.

BlackRock has $11.5 trillion assets under management, making it the biggest investment company on Earth.

Israeli strikes in Jabalia, northern Gaza, killed over 50 children in just 48 hours, the UN’s child relief agency, UNICEF, said in a statement on Saturday.

“This has already been a deadly weekend of attacks in North Gaza. In the past 48 hours alone, over 50 children have reportedly been killed in Jabalia, where strikes leveled two residential buildings sheltering hundreds of people,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

Earlier this month, the New York Times (10/12/24), Washington Post (10/12/24), and Wall Street Journal (10/12/24) each published front-page articles based on different sets of documents handed to them by the Israeli military.

Israel claims it seized all the documents—in the form of meeting minutes, letters and planning documents—in its ground invasion of Gaza, and that they reveal insights into Hamas’s operations prior to the October 7 attacks. The documents include alleged evidence of Hamas’s pre-10/7 coordination with Iran, plans to blow up Israeli skyscrapers, and even a scheme to use horse-drawn chariots in an attack from Gaza.

Documents received directly from intelligence agencies should always be treated with skepticism, and that’s especially true when their government has a well-documented history of blatant lying. Yet leading newspapers took these Israeli document dumps largely at face value, advancing the agenda of a genocidal rogue state.