human rights

‘Billionaire club’: the tiny island of Barbuda braces for decision on land rights and nature

Hurricane Irma’s destruction of the Caribbean island opened the door for rampant development that threatens its unique ecosystems – but islanders are fighting back

Standing on a truck after a helicopter dash to the tiny airport of Barbuda in the wake of Hurricane Irma, prime minister Gaston Browne addressed the people. He declared all must leave the Caribbean island for their own safety as Hurricanes Jose and Maria were predicted to soon hit. Islanders would be allowed to return “when it was safe”.


It was 2017, and the destruction of Barbuda was reported worldwide to be “catastrophic”, with homes, infrastructure and livelihoods decimated and the inhabitants left in despair.


A state of emergency was declared and the evacuees restricted to the more populous sister island of Antigua for 30 days. Some islanders would never return. Browne said Barbuda was 95% destroyed and estimated it would take up to $300m (£245m) to rebuild.
Within weeks, heavy machinery was at work on the construction site of a private airport for billionaire US investors who had luxury mansions and exclusive hotels already planned.


In 2018, two Barbudans obtained a temporary injunction on the construction of the airport, challenging its impact on the island’s fragile ecosystem. The Antiguan government responded by questioning whether the citizens’ had any legal right to make a challenge. The case reached appeal in 2021 with the focus on the legitimacy of the Barbudans to object to government plans for Barbudan land. In 2022, the court ruled they had no standing – or right.
This week, the UK privy council is expected to make a final judgment over the issue. Antigua and Barbuda achieved independence from the UK in 1981, but remain in the Commonwealth with a constitutional monarchy under Charles III, so the privy council is the final court of appeal. The verdict could impact activists far beyond this tiny island, as a decision against the Barbudans could set a precedent across the Caribbean for citizens challenging governments’ perceived environmental violations.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/sep/26/billionaire-club-the-tiny-island-of-barbuda-braces-for-decision-on-land-rights-and-nature

State Department Employee Accuses Israel of Genocide

Sylvia Yacoub, a career foreign service officer who works on Middle East issues, has been outspoken on X, formerly Twitter, using the platform to bash her boss, President Joe Biden, and lash out at the administration’s support for Israel as it faces down Hamas, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of her social media activity.
Yacoub’s messages—which accuse Israel of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, criticize U.S. military assistance to Israel, and accuse the Biden administration of fomenting Islamaphobia with its pro-Israel position—are said to be well known within the State Department and causing headaches among officials, according to two U.S. government sources who spoke to the Free Beacon.
Yacoub is one of several current Biden administration officials who have publicly griped about America’s robust support for Israel, including a Pentagon employee who has repeatedly called for an immediate Israeli ceasefire, undercutting the administration’s stated policy. U.S. officials, in private forums, have also raised concerns about what they see as the administration’s overly supportive stance towards Israel, according to one U.S. official familiar with the matter.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-department-employee-accuses-president-biden-of-being-complicit-in-israels-genocide/

Mounting evidence suggests Israel may be ready to ‘cleanse’ Gaza

“As Israeli forces began making limited ground incursions into northern Gaza over the weekend, reports proliferated that Israel was readying plans to expel much or all of the enclave’s population into the neighbouring Egyptian territory of Sinai.

In part, those fears were fuelled by a report last week, published in the Israeli outlet Calcalist, of a leaked policy draft from the intelligence ministry outlining just such an ethnic cleansing plan for Gaza.”

Mounting evidence suggests Israel may be ready to ‘cleanse’ Gaza

Doctors from around the world unite to call for urgent climate action

Doctors from around the world unite to call for urgent climate action

Global health bodies are demanding international governments urgently phase out fossil fuels and fast-track renewable energy as health professionals increasingly see patients suffering from harm caused by climate change.
The world’s leading GP and health bodies, representing more than three million health professionals worldwide, will deliver an open letter on Saturday calling for urgent action against climate change to protect the health of communities.
“We the family doctors, doctors and health professionals of the world call on world leaders to take urgent action to safeguard the health of global populations from the climate crisis,” the open letter reads.
Signatories from 39 leading health bodies, including Australia’s peak body for GPs and rural medicine, say they’re already seeing widespread impacts on human health caused by climate change in their patients.

https://bit.ly/3u0aoQc