Category: plutocracy

  • UN urges action to reverse 1.5°C overshoot

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    https://www.euractiv.com/news/un-urges-action-to-reverse-1-5c-overshoot

    [Photo by Federico Gambarini/picture alliance via Getty Images]

    World must slash emissions to limit irreversible climate damage

    The world must rapidly change course as it drifts beyond the global warming limit of 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned in a new report.

    The UN and climate scientists have already conceded that the red line agreed in Paris over a decade ago will be crossed. The three-year average last year exceeded the limit agreed in Paris in 2015, many are betting on 2026 being among the hottest years ever, and 2027 looks set to be hotter still.

    “We must make the overshoot as small and short as possible,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement ahead of the report’s publication on Wednesday. This means “limiting how high temperatures rise and how long they remain above 1.5°C,” he said.

    At a time of growing political resistance to climate action, Guterres called for an “overshoot of ambition” that would include a faster phase-out of fossil fuels and sharp cuts to methane emissions.

    Continues at https://www.euractiv.com/news/un-urges-action-to-reverse-1-5c-overshoot

    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.

  • Summer of 2026 was UK’s hottest on record, Met Office says

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    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/sep/01/summer-2026-uk-hottest-on-record-provisional-met-office-data

    A person using an electric fan to cool down on the underground in London. Education, health services and transport all suffered in the heat. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

    Meteorologists say mean average temperature of 16.5C was made 130 times more likely by climate crisis

    This year’s summer was the UK’s hottest on record, according to provisional data, and the Met Office said the season’s mean temperature was made 130 times more likely by the climate crisis.

    Record-breaking and back-to-back heatwaves have scorched much of Europe. In England, temperatures peaked at 38.1C (100.1F) at Kew Gardens in London on 13 August, and June had already been confirmed as the country’s hottest since records began in 1884. Scientists have said these heatwaves are only possible because of the climate crisis driven by burning fossil fuels.

    The Met Office said an average mean UK temperature of 16.5C made this summer provisionally the warmest on record as well as the warmest season in a series going back to 1884. England, Wales and Northern Ireland broke their respective mean temperature records for summer while Scotland recorded its joint sixth hottest summer.

    This is the second year in a row that temperature records have been broken, with 2025 and 2026 both the warmest UK summers since records began.

    The infamous summer of 1976 is now the seventh warmest on record in terms of mean temperature.

    Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/sep/01/summer-2026-uk-hottest-on-record-provisional-met-office-data

    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
    Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.

  • Analyst Warns New Pentagon Plan for Iran Would Amount to ‘Permanent State of War’

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    Article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth
    Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials testify during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on April 30, 2026. (Photo by Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)

    “Make no mistake,” said Trita Parsi, “to periodically bomb a country is to fight a forever war.”

    The US Defense Department is reportedly considering a new strategy for Iran that would entail bombing the country “periodically” in an effort to keep ship traffic flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, a plan that one analyst said would amount to the kind of forever war that President Donald Trump once vowed to avoid.

    “During previous administrations, Israel tried to sell war with Iran to the US and conceded that military strikes would not knock out Iran’s nuclear program, but would require ‘periodic’ return to kinetic action to keep the program in check,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote late Monday. “The US rejected the plan precisely because it didn’t want to be in a permanent state of war with Iran. Now, Trump’s secretary of war is pushing for it.”

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    Esmail Baghaei Hamaneh, spokesperson of Foreign Ministry

    Iran Says Trump’s New Attacks Show Americans ‘Stuck in the Massive Error They’ve Made’

    Parsi’s comments came in response to new reporting by Axios indicating that Trump administration officials are weighing a plan under which US forces would “strike Iran periodically in order to keep moving dozens of oil tankers out of the Gulf relatively safely every day.”

    Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth supports the plan, unnamed US officials told the outlet.

    Axios’ reporting followed a Washington Post story detailing US military leaders’ warning that “prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable,” increasing the likelihood of more limited strikes—though without a clearly defined timeline.

    On Monday, Trump threatened to hit Iran “hard” in response to the country’s retaliatory attacks on American military installations in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. The Iranian attacks followed a US bombing campaign on Larak Island, marking the first military exchange in weeks as the costly and unpopular war—which Trump said would last just weeks—drags on with no end in sight.

    Iran pledged to respond “dozens of times greater” to future US attacks, warning that “no target in the region is beyond Tehran’s reach.”

    “The invading US military has no choice but to leave the region,” the general staff of Iran’s armed forces said in a statement on Monday.

    In his analysis, Parsi called the shifting US strategy “quite stunning,” noting that “only a week ago, [Treasury Secretary] Scott Bessent said sanctions would make military action unnecessary.”

    “Six days later, the US bombed Iran again,” Parsi observed. “And now, Axios reveals that all along, the Pentagon was preparing a plan for ‘periodic’ bombings of Iran to prevent it from suppressing traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. What does this tell us? First, the administration is apparently giving up on solving the issue militarily, economically, or diplomatically. Instead, permanent warfare is needed to manage the problem.”

    “Make no mistake,” Parsi continued, “to periodically bomb a country is to fight a forever war.”

    Article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Strait of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won. He's challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
    Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Strait of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.

  • Almost half of terrorism arrests in Great Britain since 9/11 have been in past year

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    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/01/almost-half-of-terrorism-arrests-in-great-britain-since-911-have-be

    A person holding a sign saying ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’ is detained by police in London. Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

    Increase coincides with proscription of Palestine Action last year which has led to thousands of arrests for allegedly supporting the protest group

    Almost half of all terrorism arrests in Great Britain since the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in 2001 have come in the past year, official data shows.

    There have been 6,539 arrests for terror-related activity in Great Britain since the 2001 attacks and 3,021 of those arrests were in the year ending 31 March 2026, according to the Home Office.

    The increase coincides with the proscription of Palestine Action, which came into effect on 5 July last year and has led to thousands of arrests of people for allegedly supporting the direct action protest group, the first such group to be banned under the Terrorism Act.

    The ban, which has been criticised by UN experts, NGOs, a former director of public prosecutions and a former director of the security services, is the subject of a continuing legal challenge, which will next be heard at the UK supreme court on 4 November.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/01/almost-half-of-terrorism-arrests-in-great-britain-since-911-have-be

    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    Keir "I support Zionism without Qualification" Starmer supporting genocide. He berates Palestine Action for upholding international law and prevent his - Labour and Israel's - Gaza genocide. Starmer says that that they've got a genocide to achieve, forced marches like the Nazis did, hospitals to bomb into obliteration, journalists, healthcare workers and starving people queuing for food to mass-murder and that they have to murder all Gazans for Zionism.
    Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide. He berates Palestine Action for upholding international law and prevent his – Labour and Israel’s – Gaza genocide. Starmer says that that they’ve got a genocide to achieve, forced marches like the Nazis did, hospitals to bomb into obliteration, journalists, healthcare workers and starving people queuing for food to mass-murder and that they have to murder all Gazans for Zionism.
    Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine 'Private Eye'.
    Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.
  • Dry weather sewage discharges soar as water companies face scrutiny

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    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/01/dry-weather-sewage-discharges-soar-as-water-companies-face-scrutiny

    Southern Water sewage outflow, Kent, England. Photograph: Dylan Garcia Travel Images/Alamy

    Exclusive: 7,280 suspected illegal spills in rivers and sea recorded in first five months of 2026

    The number of suspected illegal discharges of raw sewage into rivers and seas by water companies during dry weather increased significantly during the first five months of 2026.

    Dumping raw sewage into waterways during dry spells via overflows amounts to pollution. It is considered a breach of the permits given to water companies and is illegal. Discharging during dry weather increases the toxicity of the sewage pollution entering waterways. Rivers have less flow and volume, and there is no rainwater to dilute the sewage pollution entering the waterway.

    Last year, in what regulators said was tougher action on sewage pollution, water companies in England were for the first time required to report to the Environment Agency the number of times they discharged raw sewage from combined sewer overflows during dry weather. A dry day spill is flagged when an overflow operates despite little to no rainfall that day and the previous day.

    In 2025, water companies in England and Wales reported 8,576 dry spill pollution discharges. But according to freedom of information requests submitted by Environment Agency whistleblower Robert Forrester, the pollution is getting worse, not better, despite the regulator’s promise of tougher action.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/01/dry-weather-sewage-discharges-soar-as-water-companies-face-scrutiny

    UK Prime Minister Burnham U-turns over Thames Water nationalisation

    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s abrupt abandonment of his flagship pledge to bring Thames Water into public ownership exposes the emptiness of his promises to “reverse Thatcherism.”

    Last week Burnham backed down at the very moment the criminal pollution record and financial collapse of Britain’s most distrusted and environmentally destructive privatised utility demanded decisive action and the prosecution of those responsible. He now insists nationalisation would be “too costly,” “too complex,” “too disruptive.”

    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
    April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)