SYDNEY, 6 November 2017 (Reuters) – Australia turned down on Sunday an offer to take 150 asylum seekers being held in an Australian-run detention centre in Papua New Guinea, where UN officials have warned a humanitarian emergency is unfolding. About 600 men have barricaded themselves inside the camp on remote Manus Island in Papua New […]
By Sudha Ramachandran 15 February 2017 (The Diplomat) – United States President Donald Trump’s plans to build a “great, great wall” along the United States’ 3,200 kilometer long border with Mexico to keep out what he calls “criminals, drug dealers, [and] rapists” is hardly a new idea. Several other countries, many motivated by Islamophobia, have […]
3 November 2017 (CBS News) – Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers, predicts it will be two or three months before most Puerto Ricans regain power in their homes. The vast majority of people in the U.S. territory have gone without it for over six weeks since Hurricane Maria […]
By Charles Anderson 31 October 2017 NELSON (The Guardian) – New Zealand’s new government is considering creating a visa category to help relocate Pacific peoples displaced by climate change. The new category would make official the Green party’s pre-election policy which promised 100 visas for those affected by climate change.As part of the new Labour-led […]
By Justin Elliott and Decca Muldowney 26 October 2017 (ProPublica) – The Federal Emergency Management Agency, citing unspecified “potentially sensitive information,” is declining to release a document it drafted several years ago that details how it would respond to a major hurricane in Puerto Rico. The plan, known as a hurricane annex, runs more than […]
3 November 2017 (Thomson Reuters) – The United Nations human rights office called on Australia on Friday to restore food, water, and health services to about 600 interned refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea, which Canberra cut off three days ago. The detainees in the Manus Island Centre have defied attempts by the […]
By Josh Holder, Niko Kommenda, and Jonathan Watts 3 November 2017(The Guardian) – When UN climate negotiators meet for summit talks this month, there will be a new figure on the table: 3C. Until now, global efforts such as the Paris climate agreement have tried to limit global warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels. However, […]
By Leyla Santiago, Khushbu Shah, and Rachel Clarke 4 November 2017 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CNN) – Towns and communities across Puerto Rico are entirely without power, more than six weeks after Hurricane Maria.The island’s leadership is touting restoration figures that show nearly 40% of electricity generation has resumed — but it doesn’t say how […]
27 October 2017 (CBS News) – The Trump administration denied Friday that political connections had anything to do with restoring electrical connections in Puerto Rico.A contract worth $300 million was awarded to a tiny company called Whitefish Energy in Whitefish, Montana, hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Zinke said Friday he had nothing to do […]
By Rebecca Savransky and Timothy Cama 30 October 2017 (The Hill) – The FBI is reportedly investigating the $300 million contract awarded to Whitefish Energy to repair Puerto Rico’s electrical grid in the wake of Hurricane Maria.People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that FBI agents from the San Juan field office […]
