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SCOTUS Rules Against Vulnerable Communities in Favor of Corporate Polluters in Utah Railroad Case
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to require further analysis before permitting a railroad line in Utah that would carry billions of gallons of oil because the Surface Transportation Board failed to analyze and disclose the pollution impacts of refining all that oil in Gulf Coast communities in Louisiana. The original suit was brought by environmental and community groups, including Sierra Club.
The decision by the Supreme Court will narrow the scope of federal environmental reviews of fossil fuel infrastructure projects under the National Environmental Policy Act.
In response, Sierra Club Senior Attorney Nathaniel Shoaff issued the following statement:
“Regrettably, the Supreme Court has scored one for the oil companies who don’t want you to look too closely at the harm their product will do to Black and Brown communities in Cancer Alley. Our bedrock environmental laws, like NEPA, are meant to ensure people are protected from corporate polluters. Fossil fuel infrastructure projects do not exist in a vacuum and have far-reaching impacts on communities, especially those on the frontlines of climate change or those who face serious health harms from increased pollution. Today’s decision will undoubtedly help the fossil fuel industry, but Sierra Club will not stop fighting projects that will have devastating consequences for people and the planet.”
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
(415) 977-5500LATEST NEWS
New Illegal Settlements Show Israel Is 'Blatantly Working to Destroy the Palestinian People'
"The international community is enabling Israel's crimes by standing aside while millions of Palestinians are subjected to this racist and brutal regime of the Israeli government," said the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
May 30, 2025
Israeli government officials confirmed Thursday that they have approved the largest expansion of unlawful settlements in the occupied West Bank in decades, including the construction of new settlements and the "legalization" under Israeli law of existing outposts in the Palestinian territory.
The decision, reportedly made during a secret Israeli security cabinet meeting last week, drew sharp backlash from Israeli human rights organizations. A spokesperson for B'Tselem said the latest expansion of settlements—which the International Court of Justice has condemned as part of an illegal annexation campaign—shows that "Israel continues to promote Jewish supremacy through the theft of Palestinian land and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank."
"The Israeli government is openly and blatantly working to destroy the Palestinian people, and any chances for a normal future for the people living between the Jordan River and the sea," the spokesperson said. "The international community is enabling Israel's crimes by standing aside while millions of Palestinians are subjected to this racist and brutal regime of the Israeli government."
Israeli settlements in the West Bank have grown rapidly since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, with the United Nations Human Rights Office estimating that Israel moved ahead with plans to build more than 20,000 housing units in new or existing settlements between November 2023 and October 2024.
"This extremist Israeli government is trying by all means to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state," Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, toldReuters on Thursday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that's the government's objective, declaring that settlement expansion "prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel."
"The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: The annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal."
The new expansion will add nearly two dozen settlements, according to far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in a West Bank settlement and vocally supports annexation of the Palestinian territory.
"This is a great day for settlement and an important day for the state of Israel," Smotrich wrote in a social media post on Thursday.
The announcement came amid continued Israeli raids and home demolitions in the West Bank, alongside the Israeli military's devastating assault on the Gaza Strip. Israel's attacks have displaced tens of thousands of people in the West Bank and virtually the entire population of Gaza.
It's unclear where the new settlements will be located in the West Bank, given that the expansion decision was made in secret. The Israeli anti-occupation group Peace Now suggested that the secrecy could stem from "concerns about the proceedings in the International Criminal Court, which has begun investigating Israel's settlement construction and development as possible war crimes."
The Wall Street Journalreported earlier this week that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was considering arrest warrants against Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for their roles in expanding West Bank settlements.
"The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: The annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal," Peace Now said in a statement Thursday. "The cabinet's decision to establish 22 new settlements—the most extensive move of its kind since the Oslo Accords, under which Israel committed not to establish new settlements—will dramatically reshape the West Bank and entrench the occupation even further."
"At a time when both the Israeli public and the entire world is demanding an immediate end to the war, the government is making clear—again and without restraint—that it prefers deepening the occupation and advancing de facto annexation over pursuing peace," the group added.
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Mahmoud Khalil Team Files FOIA Request to Expose Trump Collusion With Anti-Palestinian 'Agents of Repression'
One attorney for the targeted U.S. resident accused the doxxing groups of "weaponizing inflammatory rhetoric and conflating criticism of Israel with hate speech in order to chill activism for Palestinian rights."
May 29, 2025
Mahmoud Khalil's legal team on Thursday demanded records from the federal government to expose the Trump administration's "collusion with anti-Palestinian doxxing groups" that have worked to get people including their client deported from the United States.
“For years, these anti-Palestinian doxxing groups have served as agents of repression, weaponizing inflammatory rhetoric and conflating criticism of Israel with hate speech in order to chill activism for Palestinian rights," said Ayla Kadah, an attorney and justice fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), one of the groups representing Khalil, in a statement.
"Now, evidence seems to point to the Trump administration colluding with them as they escalate their crusade to target noncitizens for detention and deportation, with Mahmoud Khalil serving as their latest target," Kadah continued. "Mahmoud deserves answers, and so does the public."
"Evidence seems to point to the Trump administration colluding with them as they escalate their crusade to target noncitizens for detention and deportation."
Khalil is a legal permanent resident of Palestinian origin and a former Columbia University student organizer who has been in federal immigration custody since being accosted by plainclothes agents with his pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla, outside their New York City apartment in March. Abdalla, a U.S. citizen, gave birth to their son while her husband remained detained in Louisiana.
So far, the Trump administration has maintained its effort to deport Khalil over his on-campus activism against Israel's U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip, claiming that despite his green card, he can be removed from the country because U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has "reasonable grounds to believe that Khalil's presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences."
CCR sent the 15-page records request to the U.S. departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Justice, and State, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The group also publicly released the document, which states that "Khalil has long been targeted by anti-Palestinian organizations, including individuals and groups who have sought his deportation or later taken credit for his arrest and detention."
"Days prior to his arrest by ICE, he sought Columbia University protection from these hostile groups, seeing that the groups were calling for the federal government to effectuate his deportation," notes the Freedom of Information Act filing. "In this FOIA request, Khalil seeks information that would illuminate the reported origins of his targeting and the bases of the Rubio determination."
"Specifically, he seeks information that would document and expose the reported collaboration between federal officials and private, anti-Palestinian organizations who have identified, doxxed, and reported him and others for purposes of securing the deportation of student activists advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights," the document says.
The filing lists "the most prominent groups" subject to the FOIA request—Betar USA, CAMERA, Canary Mission, Capital Research Center, Columbia Alumni for Israel, Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus, Middle East Forum, and Shirion Collective—and details their targeting of Khalil, his university, and other individuals dealing similar cases, including Badar Khan Suri, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Rümeysa Öztürk, who have all been released from ICE custody recently.
"The correlation is clear, and not a coincidence: To date, not a single reported visa revocation and detention of an individual based on pro-Palestine activism occurred absent prior doxxing by one of these groups."
"Patterns of arrests and detention by ICE and DHS strongly suggest that these federal agencies are acting at the encouragement of the groups," the document says. "The groups also appear to be coordinating amongst themselves and amplifying each other's efforts to solicit federal agencies to punish individuals for protesting for Palestinian rights."
"These groups often take credit for ICE and DHS's adverse actions against those they have identified or reported, further corroborating the connection between the groups' targeting and the agencies' punitive actions," the filing adds. "The correlation is clear, and not a coincidence: To date, not a single reported visa revocation and detention of an individual based on pro-Palestine activism occurred absent prior doxxing by one of these groups."
The filing was first reported by Zeteo. A State Department spokesperson told the outlet, "Given our commitment to and responsibility for national security, the department uses all available tools to receive and review concerning information when considering visa revocations about possible ineligibilities."
CCR's request for records came a day after U.S. District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey ruled that Rubio likely violated constitutional law in his attempt to use Section 1227 of the U.S. Code to deport Khalil. Despite this, the judge declined to release Khalil on bail or to move him to a facility in New Jersey, closer to his family.
In response to Wednesday's ruling, Khalil's legal team said that "we will work as quickly as possible to provide the court the additional information it requested supporting our effort to free Mahmoud or otherwise return him to his wife and newborn son."
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Swiss Glacier Collapse That Buried Village Likely a 'Direct Result of Our Warming Climate'
"What happened to Birch Glacier is what we would expect from rising temperatures in the Alps and elsewhere," one scientist said.
May 29, 2025
Thawing permafrost exacerbated by human-caused global heating is the likely culprit behind a massive glacier collapse that buried nearly the entire Swiss town of Blatten, one scientist said Thursday while warning of the likelihood of similar disasters in the future.
The alpine hamlet of 300 inhabitants—who were evacuated earlier amid warning signs of disaster—was almost completely wiped out on Wednesday after the Birch Glacier, located in the Lötschental Valley in northern Switzerland, collapsed. The glacial avalanche, laden with boulders and other debris, cascaded down the mountainside and into the village, obliterating everything in its path. Local officials said around 90% of Blatten was buried.
"We've lost our village," Blatten Mayor Matthias Bellwald told reporters. "The village is under rubble. We will rebuild."
before and after today’s glacier collapse that buried 90% of blatten, switzerland
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— ian bremmer ( @ianbremmer.com) May 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
While there are no verified casualties from the disaster, one 64-year-old man has been reported missing.
Mathieu Morlighem, a glaciologist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, toldABC News that permafrost thaw under and along the sidewalls surrounding the glacier likely caused the collapse.
"What happened to Birch Glacier is what we would expect from rising temperatures in the Alps and elsewhere," he explained. "I think we can expect more events like this in the future."
As ABC News reported:
Glaciers in Switzerland have lost almost 40% of their volume since 2000, and the loss is accelerating, according to the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research. Record-high summer temperatures in 2022 and 2023 caused a 10% glacial ice loss in the country.
Experts warn that Switzerland's glaciers could disappear completely by 2100 due to the climate emergency.
As Common Dreamsreported in March, the crisis is planetary and is predicted to adversely affect nearly 2 billion people who depend upon glaciers for agricultural irrigation and drinking water.
"Most of the world's glaciers, including those in mountains, are melting at an accelerated rate worldwide," a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization report published earlier this year warned. "Combined with accelerating permafrost thaw, declining snow cover, and more erratic snowfall patterns... this will have significant and irreversible impacts on local, regional, and global hydrology, including water availability."
The Swiss collapse happened a day before Thursday's opening of the
High-Level International Conference on Glaciers' Preservation in Tajikistan, which aims to "highlight the vital role of glaciers in maintaining global ecological balance and addressing water-related challenges."
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