‘Recipe for Catastrophe’: Trump Moves to Weaken Arctic Drilling Safeguards
Article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“We should be banning drilling in the Arctic Ocean, not making it easier for industry to exploit and pollute.”
The Trump administration on Monday proposed weakening Obama-era safeguards for fossil fuel drilling in the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf, a move condemned by environmental groups as another industry handout that would make disastrous oil spills more likely.
The US Interior Department characterized the proposed changes, which will face a 90-day public comment period, as “targeted revisions” aimed at reducing “unnecessary regulatory burdens” that are limiting resource extraction off Alaska’s coast. The new proposal, according to the agency, “would update requirements related to blowout preventer real-time monitoring, Arctic source control and containment equipment, relief rig capability, subsea isolation devices, mudline cellars, oil spill response plan-holder reviews, crane operations on artificial islands, and suspensions of operations and production.”
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The Trump administration unveiled the proposal as it pushed for a massive expansion of offshore drilling, even as the climate impacts of fossil fuel extraction continued to intensify across the US and worldwide. Joseph Gordon, campaign manager at Oceana, called the combination of expanded drilling and weakened safety standards “a recipe for catastrophe.”
“This attempted rollback would make it even harder to prevent oil spills or tackle the horrors that inevitably follow in the remote and fragile Arctic,” said Gordon. “Giving oil companies a pass on safety measures like blowout preventers would set a dangerous precedent that will put Alaska’s waters, wildlife, and people at risk.”
Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that “weakening rules for Arctic Ocean drilling is a truly terrible idea that threatens coastal communities and wildlife like bowhead whales and polar bears.”
“Arctic oil drilling is one of the most dangerous extractive activities out there, and cleaning up a spill would be nearly impossible,” Freeman added. “Stronger safeguards for Arctic offshore drilling came on the heels of the Deepwater Horizon blowout, where we learned that just one mishap can cause a catastrophe.”
President Donald Trump, whose 2024 campaign was boosted by fossil fuel industry donations, began targeting Alaska drilling regulations on the first day of his second White House term, signing an executive order attacking “punitive restrictions implemented by the previous administration that specifically target resource development on both state and federal lands in Alaska.”
In November, the Interior Department—led by Big Oil ally Doug Burgum—released a drilling plan targeting “every available offshore area in Alaska, including the High Arctic, which stretches 200 miles into the Arctic Ocean, with over 20 lease sales through 2031.”
“We should be banning drilling in the Arctic Ocean, not making it easier for industry to exploit and pollute,” Freeman said Monday.
Article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
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SEC Urged to End Trump Push to Eliminate Climate Disclosure Rules for Major Companies
Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“Rescinding the rule would not eliminate climate risk from the market—it simply blindfolds investors to it, at their own expense,” said one critic.
Consumer and environmental advocates on Monday called for the Securities and Exchange Commission to end its push to rescind rules requiring companies to disclose risks related to climate change.
The SEC first adopted the climate disclosure rules in 2024, with the commission describing them as a response to “investors’ demand for more consistent, comparable, and reliable information about the financial effects of climate-related risks on a registrant’s operations.”
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But in June, the SEC—now under the leadership of President Donald Trump-appointed chair Paul Atkins—proposed scrapping the rules, which the commission described as “an overreach of statutory authority and unsound policy.”
Elyse Schupak, climate policy advocate for Public Citizen, said that ending the disclosure rules would reflect “the desire of Paul Atkins’ SEC to ignore growing financial risks from climate change and to deprive investors of essential information.”
“For polluting industries that seek to downplay their role driving the climate crisis and their exposure to related risks, finalizing the proposed rule would be a victory,” said Schupak. “The SEC should withdraw this proposal as it contradicts the commission’s responsibility to facilitate transparency for investors and promote well functioning capital markets.”
Alex Martin, climate finance policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, noted that many investors spoke up in favor of the disclosure rules when they were first proposed because they saw climate risk assessment as a valuable information to have before making major financial decisions.
If the new proposal is finalized, Martin added, it “will hurt workers saving for retirement by depriving people of information needed to assess companies’ financial risks due to climate change—and by endangering other critical disclosures as well.”
Benjamin Schiffrin, director of securities policy for Better Markets, similarly argued that scrapping the SEC rules “will deprive investors of material information essential to making informed investment decisions.”
“There can no longer be any serious dispute that the climate-related risk companies face matters greatly to their future prospects,” Schiffrin emphasized. “An SEC that was serious about protecting investors would be facilitating investors’ access to this information, not preventing them from understanding how climate-related risks are impacting the companies in which they invest their hard-earned money.”
Janet Ranganathan, managing director at the World Resources Institute, said repealing the rule was particularly nonsensical at a time when the country is dealing with multiple climate-related disasters, including wildfires in the Pacific Northwest.
“Rescinding the rule would not eliminate climate risk from the market—it simply blindfolds investors to it, at their own expense,” said Ranganathan. “Climate risk should not become the exception to smart financial management simply because it has become politically contentious.”
Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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.Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
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Arron Banks ‘hired private detective’ to look into journalist who investigated Reform UK
Asked whether he targeted reporter who investigated party finances, Brexit campaigner says: ‘When you live by the sword, you die by the sword’
The prominent Reform UK member and Brexit campaigner Arron Banks is said to have set private investigators on a Sunday Times journalist after he broke a series of stories about Nigel Farage.
Banks is alleged to have paid for the services of investigators to examine Gabriel Pogrund, editor of the paper’s Insight investigations team.
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The Sunday Times and the Guardian have broken a series of stories in recent months revealing how cash has poured into Reform and Farage personally from donors and wealthy benefactors.
Pogrund is believed to have been targeted after a story in the Sunday Times last month revealed that Farage has received financial support from the convicted criminal George Cottrell, known as “Posh George”.
In response to the New Statesman report, Banks said: “We believe the Sunday Times used hacked information and that was an area of interest. We do have an investigative arm that’s got advanced capabilities.”
Asked directly whether he had paid investigators to look into Pogrund, he said: “When you live by the sword, you die by the sword.”
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Israel’s Brutal Retaliation Against Imprisoned Palestinian Doctors Seeking Legal Appeals
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/doctor-hussam-abu-safiya-prison-abuse-medical-gaza
The escalated abuse against Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya following a legal challenge to his detention has sent a chilling message to the families of detained medical workers in Gaza.
Ismail Nofal Aug 08, 2026
GAZA CITY—Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the former director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, suffered multiple injuries, including fractured ribs, after enduring severe beatings by Israeli prison authorities on July 27, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office. The group described it as the “most difficult day” of his imprisonment since being detained without charge over a year and a half ago.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the office said Abu Safiya, who suffers from heart disease and high blood pressure, has been subjected to “brutal torture” since June 24, when he was transferred to Rakevet—an underground detention facility within the Ramla prison complex in central Israel—including spending 21 days in solitary confinement.
Previously, Abu Safiya told his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, during a prison visit on July 2, that following an appeal filed with the Israeli Supreme Court at the end of April, the assaults and abuse against him escalated dramatically. Abu Safiya told Odeh that after a court hearing in June, where he appeared via a video link looking gaunt, several prison guards entered his cell and beat him with batons and a hammer.
Abu Safiya’s son, Elias, 27, told Drop Site News that Odeh found his father in extremely critical condition during the July 2 visit—unable to breathe normally and speaking with great difficulty, with marks of beatings and torture visible on his face and body.
According to Elias, Abu Safiya told Odeh that this might be the last time he would see him. For the family, it felt like “a farewell message from a human being who feels his life is nearing its end,” said Elias. “Since that moment, we have been living every day in genuine fear of receiving the news of his martyrdom at any moment.”
The apparent repercussions against Abu Safiya in prison following the legal challenge to his detention and similar cases involving detained medical workers have sent a chilling message to the families of Palestinian detainees—particularly doctors—that seeking justice, either through legal means or public campaigns, can have severe consequences.
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Article continues at https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/doctor-hussam-abu-safiya-prison-abuse-medical-gaza
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Gaza health chief urges action to ‘save’ Dr Abu Safia before it’s too late
Fears mount for life of Hussam Abu Safia detained by Israel amid reports of torture and lack of medical care.
The director general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health has called for urgent action to “save” the life of detained Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safia before it is “too late”.
The paediatrician has been held by Israel since 2024 and “serious concerns are mounting” over his life and health, Dr Muneer al-Boursh posted on X on Saturday.
He noted reports that Abu Safia has been assaulted while in an Israeli detention facility and has sustained injuries to his eye, head and chest.
Abu Safia’s ongoing detention and lack of medical care have made his health condition a “source of extreme alarm that demands urgent action not postponed statements,” al-Boursh added.
Abu Safia was the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital who led the facility, one of the last functioning in northern Gaza, through an 85-day siege before Israeli forces raided it and detained him on December 27, 2024.
He has been held without charge under Israel’s unlawful combatant law, which permits indefinitely renewable detention; Israel’s supreme court rejected an appeal for his release in June. His lawyer, who visited him last month, reported new signs of beatings and torture. Rights groups, including Amnesty International and the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, have warned that his life is in imminent danger.d
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