On Tuesday, Energy Fuels Resources, the company that owns a uranium mine near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, began hauling ore to a mill in southern Utah.

In a statement, the company said the shipments are safe, have low levels of radiation and have been permitted by state and federal regulators.

But the transport route includes a large swath of the Navajo Nation, which opposes the mine and has outlawed uranium hauling through its lands.

Navajo President Buu Nygren quickly sent out Navajo police in an effort to turn the trucks back, but the shipments eventually passed through the reservation on highways regulated by state agencies.

The president has vowed to stop any future uranium hauling and spoke with KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius about the tribe’s response.

full article

the president mentioned setting up roadblocks bc the company, Energy Fuels, failed to fulfill its promises of notifying the tribe before sending shipments of uranium through their territory. the tribe did not know abt the shipment until the trucks were already gone

by Astrid Arellano

• The Sierra del Divisor Occidental Indigenous Reserve, created in May 2024, spans over half a million hectares (over 1.2 million acres) in the Peruvian departments of Ucayali and Loreto.
• The Indigenous People’s Regional Organization of the Eastern Amazon (ORPIO) described the creation of the reserve as a victory — not only for the Indigenous people who call it home, but also for those who defend human rights and the environment in Peru.
• Indigenous activists say the government must now create a protection plan for the reserve in order to guarantee not only the protection of Indigenous people living in isolation and initial contact, but also to support the communities surrounding the reserve in fulfilling their basic needs.

In May 2024, Indigenous organizations in Peru’s Amazon achieved a milestone in a campaign that lasted for almost two decades. Indigenous peoples living in isolation and initial contact (PIACI) will be protected within the recently declared Sierra del Divisor Occidental Indigenous Reserve, a territory they’ve long inhabited — and place where they have historically faced pressures that threaten their existence.

The Indigenous reserve spans 515,114 hectares (over 1.2 million acres) in the Peruvian departments of Ucayali and Loreto. The Peruvian government officially recognized several isolated Indigenous communities that will be protected within the reserve: the Remo (or Isconahua), the Mayoruna (Matsé and Matís), and the Kapanawa.

“We are going to pay attention and fight for the defense of our PIACI brothers and their rights. We want this wonder of the human race, which still exists in this corner of the world in which we live, to be respected for decades,” said Apu Beltrán Sandi Tuituy, the president of the Indigenous People’s Regional Organization of the Eastern Amazon (ORPIO). ORPIO is a collection of 40 Peruvian Indigenous federations and is one of the Indigenous organizations that promoted the creation of the reserve.

Full article

Following Haniyeh’s killing in Iran, we take a look at his life and legacy.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Iran’s capital Tehran.

Haniyeh, 62, had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday shortly before he was assassinated.

full article

Tanzania has been forcibly evicting Indigenous Maasai from their ancestral lands, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report says.

The report, published on Wednesday, found that the Tanzanian government aims to relocate more than 82,000 people from lands it has earmarked for “conservation and tourism purposes”.

The programme, launched in 2022, aims to move people living in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), home to the Maasai for generations, to Msomera village, which is roughly 600km (370 miles) away.

Amid the push, tension has erupted between the authorities and the nomadic community, at times resulting in deadly clashes.

HRW interviewed nearly 100 people, including community members who had already moved to Msomera village and others who were facing relocation, between August 2022 and December 2023.

While Tanzania’s nomadic community has been allowed to live within some national parks, authorities say that as the population increases, it encroaches on wildlife habitats.

full article

Australia has sanctioned a number of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, joining a growing number of countries to introduce penalties for illegal acts against Palestinians.

This comes days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a nonbinding opinion that all Israeli settlement activity on Palestinian land is illegal and must stop as soon as possible.

In February, the administration of United States President Joe Biden blacklisted four Israeli settlers for their roles in attacking Palestinians and Israeli activists, which would mean a freeze on any potential US-based assets.

On July 11, Washington sanctioned three more Israeli settlers and four illegal outposts in addition to a violent umbrella group for settlers.

The European Union joined in several days later, approving “restrictive measures” against five people and three entities responsible for “serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank”.

The sanctions freeze assets, block provision of funds or economic resources, and impose a travel ban to the 27-nation bloc.

Have the sanctions actually curbed the violence or stopped settlements?

The limited sanctions and the tame rhetoric have done nothing to deter the Israeli government or settlers, who have been attacking Palestinians and seizing land at an unprecedented rate since the start of the war on Gaza, which has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.

Since the war started on October 7, at least 563 Palestinians also have been killed in the occupied West Bank, mostly by Israeli soldiers, according to the United Nations.

There have been at least 1,143 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in that time resulting in casualties or damage to Palestinian property, the UN said.

Israeli authorities have demolished, sealed, confiscated or forced the demolition of 1,247 Palestinian structures across the West Bank since the start of the war, of which 39 per cent (481 structures) were inhabited homes, according to UN figures. At least 2,836 people, including 1,245 children, have been displaced.

Full article

On this day, July 27th, 1816, troops of the United States military assaulted and blew up an African-American and Native American settlement on the frontier of Spanish Florida during the Battle of Negro Fort. Negro Fort had served as a refuge for freed men and women, as well as those fleeing slavery in the South. Because of this, Georgian plantation owners feared it as a threat to the institution of slavery.

The battle that ensued in 1816 at the fort is remembered today as the beginning of General Andrew Jackson’s conquest of Florida and as either the forerunner to or first engagement of the Seminole Wars. The First Seminole War began in earnest the following year, 1817, and lasted until 1819, arising from the tension that resulted from Jackson’s expedition into Northern Florida. After the First Seminole War, the group was forced to move deeper into Florida for fear of additional reprisals.

Negro Fort, near the former British Fort Gadsden, was established after the War of 1812, when the British Royal Marines were pushed out of Georgia and settled along the Spanish side of the Apalachicola River. Initially, the fort and the surrounding area was a mix of British, African-Americans, and Native Americans. The African-American population present at Negro Fort was a detached unit of the Corps of Colonial Marines, Marine units composed of former slaves that served in the British Army.

After the end of the War of 1812, the British left the area and paid off the Marines, freeing the infantry to reside at the fort. The foundation of the black community with many former slaves so close to America loomed large in the minds of the slave owners across the border. Over the next months, hundreds of freed men and women migrated to the fort and settled there or in the area. Once word began circulating about the autonomous free black community, Georgian plantation owners sent letters to the U.S. government demanding that action be taken against them. Colonel Robert Patterson urged for the fort’s elimination, stating “The service rendered by the destruction of the fort, and the band of negroes who held it is one of great and manifest importance to the United States and particularly those States bordering on the Creek nation, as it had become the rendezvous for runaway slaves.”

In preparation to destroy Negro Fort, Jackson decided to build Fort Scott out of Camp Crawford in June of 1816 at the junction of the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers, where they joined to form the Apalachicola. To receive materials and supplies, boats going to Fort Scott needed to traverse the Apalachicola River–then Spanish territory–passing right next to Negro Fort on the way. During one of the deliveries, two gunboats stopped along the river and were met with an attack by the infantry at the fort. Almost all of the Americans were killed. The event is known as the Watering Party Massacre since they had stopped to refill their canteens. Much controversy exists today surrounding the event, specifically the idea that the event was planned by Jackson to use as justification for destroying Negro Fort. To retaliate, with the permission of the Spanish Governor and under the pretense of “national defense,”Jackson dispatched gunboats to Negro Fort. About 200 black militiamen began preparation for battle. They were accompanied by 30 Seminole warriors under a chief also ready to fight, along with 100 women and children housed in the fort.

After only a couple minutes of engagement, a cannonball entered the fort’s magazine, where ammunitions were kept, and caused an explosion that destroyed the entire post. The explosion killed 270 men, women, and children. The rest of the population suffered injuries. No casualties for the Americans were noted. General Edmund P. Gaines, who led the American troops, commented that “the explosion was awful and the scene was horrible beyond description.” Many of the survivors at the fort were taken prisoner and placed back into slavery under the claim that the Georgia plantation owners had owned their ancestors.

Both the black commander Garson, a free black man, and the Choctaw chief survived the explosion, but were captured. Garson was killed by an execution squad of the American army, as he was blamed for the Watering Party Massacre, and the Choctaw chief was handed over to the Creeks, who killed and scalped him. The Battle at Negro Fort marks the beginning of the First Seminole War and in no way depicts the end of suffering for the Seminole population in Florida. It also highlights the end of a unique population of people who transcended oppression, forming their community in hopes of freedom and diversity. After mourning the losses at Negro Fort, the Seminole population would mobilize and continue in their pursuit of avenging the forthcoming American expansionism.

from: Massacre Unveiled: Remembering the Negro Fort

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The Israeli army killed three Palestinian military commanders – including one from Hamas’s Qassam Brigades and two from Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – and a mother and her child during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Monday, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.

Several army convoys and bulldozers also stormed Tulkarem refugee camp, where the five were killed, to destroy homes, markets and entire neighbourhoods during the attack.

Like all of the West Bank, Tulkarem has been subjected to Israeli army raids and settler attacks that intensified following the return of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm of a far-right government at the end of 2022. The devastation brought on by these raids intensified further after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7.

Israel claims that its nearly daily raids are necessary to capture Hamas cells and ensure Israeli security. But critics say that raids are exacerbating the root causes that fuel armed resistance – in particular, Israel’s decades-long occupation – declared last week as unlawful by the International Court of Justice.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel has killed 203 people in the West Bank between January and June 6 this year. That’s 75 more people killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers compared to the same period last year.

Activists and experts believe that Israel is playing up the threat of what it calls “terrorism” to justify the increasing violence, which leads to mass displacement and the expansion of illegal settlements.

Here is all you need to know about the uptick in violence as a result of operations in the West Bank.

Full article

Palestinian factions have signed a “national unity” agreement aimed at maintaining Palestinian control over Gaza once Israel’s war on the enclave concludes.

The deal, finalised on Tuesday in China after three days of intensive talks, lays the groundwork for an “interim national reconciliation government” to rule post-war Gaza, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The agreement was signed by long-term rivals Hamas and Fatah, as well as 12 other Palestinian groups.

“Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity,” said senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk at a news conference in Beijing. Blocking Israeli control of Gaza

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, one of the 14 factions to sign the accord, told Al Jazeera the agreement goes “much further” than any other reached in recent years.

He said its four main elements are the establishment of an interim national unity government, the formation of unified Palestinian leadership ahead of future elections, the free election of a new Palestinian National Council, and a general declaration of unity in the face of ongoing Israeli attacks.

The move towards a unity government is especially important, he said, because it “blocks Israeli efforts to create some sort of collaborative structure against Palestinian interests”.

Reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah would be a key turning point in internal Palestinian relations. The two main Palestinian political parties in the Palestinian territory have been bitter rivals since conflict arose in 2006, after which Hamas seized control of Gaza.

Full article

Minnesota keeps its place as the least bad state

As politicians laud US president’s character, critics say Biden will be remembered for his support for Israeli ‘crimes’.

Democratic politicians and commentators in the United States have heaped praise on President Joe Biden since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday.

Representative Maxine Waters, for instance, called Biden a “kind and decent man”. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, extolled his “vision, values and leadership”.

But while political leaders showered Biden with compliments, bombs continued to rain down on Gaza, killing dozens and sparking another wave of mass displacement in Khan Younis.

For many Palestinian rights advocates, the carnage and abuses in Gaza will define Biden’s place in the history books, as the US remains steadfast in its support of Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory.

“He’ll be remembered for the hundreds of thousands killed, injured and displaced in Gaza,” said Abed Ayoub, the executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).

“There is no way around it. ‘Genocide Joe’ is what he’s going to be remembered as.”

Full article

by Sonam Lama Hyolmo on 18 July 2024

• Aboriginal elders in the far north of Australia’s Queensland state are preparing the next generation of junior rangers to conserve endangered southern cassowaries, take care of their traditional land, safeguard their culture, and hold on to millennia of acquired knowledge.
• Along with declining southern cassowary numbers, traditional knowledge and values are diminishing in youth who put more attention on Western knowledge and technology.
• The young rangers not only spend time learning in classrooms; they also go out into the traditional country with elders who help shape their character and identity as caretakers of their people, land, Mother Earth and themselves.
• Ranger Manni Edwards says the way to effective conservation in his community, and in Australia, is by bringing together scientific and traditional ecological knowledge, which includes wisdom and values that forge a connection between people and nature.

Manni Edwards credits his journey to preserving the wisdom of his elders to an encounter with goondoi 40 years ago.

At the age of 8, Edwards says, he saw up to 14 colorful goondoi, or southern cassowaries (Casuarius casuarius) moving together in herds, socializing and breeding across the vast wetlands of the cassowary coast in Dyirribarra Bagirbarra Country, what is today the far north of Australia’s Queensland state.

But over the years, these sights have become rare. Along with the bird’s declining numbers, traditional knowledge and the cultural significance of cassowaries have diminished among the young. Also fondly known as a “rainforest gardener” for spreading the seeds of the fruits that it eats, the southern cassowary is listed as endangered in Australia, with only 4,400 left in the wild in the wet tropics region there.

To stop the ongoing loss of knowledge and culture, local leaders bought part of their ancestral land from the state in 1982. They then created a conservation area where the young act as rangers and are taught the traditional ways to conserve it.

full article

Several countries call on international community to pressure Israel in wake of ‘watershed’ opinion by top UN court.

International reaction has poured in since a ruling by the top United Nations court that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should swiftly be brought to an end.

Palestinian officials have hailed the International Court of Justice ruling as a “watershed moment” in their decades-long fight for justice. Israel quickly condemned Friday’s decision, while its top ally the United States criticised the ruling on Saturday after initial silence.

While nonbinding, the advisory ruling by the 15 judges found that Israel has no right to sovereignty over the occupied territory, has violated international laws against acquiring territory by force and is blocking Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

It further determined countries are obligated not to “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territory.

Here’s how the world has reacted:

full article

by Ruth Kamnitzer on 16 July 2024

• Canada’s tar sands are the fourth-largest oil deposit in the world, but separating the bitumen creates large volumes of toxic wastewater, which is stored in tailings ponds that now cover 270 km² (104 mi²). Many experts warn that contaminants from mining and the tailings ponds are entering the environment
• In 2023, 5.3 million liters (1.4 million gallons) of industrial wastewater breached a tailings pond at a tar sands site in Alberta province, raising fears in an Indigenous downstream community. Then the town learned a second tailings pond had been leaking toxic wastewater for at least nine months.
• In March 2024, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation sued the Alberta Energy Regulator over its poor handling of the spills along with alleged regulatory failures. The case is ongoing.
• The incident highlights continuing concerns about the impacts of the tar sands industry on human health and the environment. Experts say government and industry plans for tailing pond cleanup and landscape restoration are far behind schedule, with no viable options now on the table to deal with the fast-growing volume of stored toxic wastewater.

Living downstream from one of the world’s largest industrial projects isn’t easy — especially when things go wrong. When the community of Fort Chipewyan in Alberta, Canada, learned there had been a major spill of toxic wastewater from Imperial Oil’s Kearl tar sands site, it was chaos, says Melaine Dene, acting director of the Mikisew Cree First Nation’s department of government and industry relations.

The remote community of nearly 800 mostly Indigenous people, better known simply as Fort Chip, sits on the southwest shore of Lake Athabasca, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) downriver from the oil sands, a sprawling industrial complex of open-pit mines, smokestacks and tailings ponds in the boreal forest.

In January 2023, 5.3 million liters (1.4 million gallons) of toxic water filled with mining waste, or tailings, overflowed from one of the drainage ditches at the Imperial facility.

But the public didn’t learn of the spill until days later, when the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), the provincial agency that oversees energy development, posted an environmental protection order (EPO) on its website. And the EPO came with another shocking surprise: a second drainage ditch had been seeping toxic wastewater into groundwater for at least nine months.

Neither AER nor Imperial Oil directly notified Indigenous leadership about the spill or the ongoing leakage.

Full article

There is growing concern that a culturally significant and nationally important wetland is under threat from Adani’s controversial coalmine in Queensland, with an Indigenous group demanding the government investigate alleged breaches of the conditions that protect the site.

Scientists say drops in water levels in bores around the Doongmabulla Springs have been detected hundreds of times since mining started, and allege hydrocarbons associated with coal have been found in bores and the springs themselves.

Adani rejected the claims, saying the springs had not been damaged by the Carmichael coalmine, operated by Bravus – a subsidiary of the Indian-owned Adani Group – and the company was fully compliant with environmental conditions.

The springs, located mostly on a nature refuge, are a nationally important wetland and a culturally important site for Wangan and Jagalingou people, and their protection was a condition of the project’s 2016 federal approval by the then environment minister, Greg Hunt.

Burragubba, who has long campaigned against the mine, said the springs, lagoon and a nearby ochre deposit were a sacred place for Indigenous ceremonies.

“We go to reconnect with our ancestors and to hand on the stories of how we began,” he said. “The [state] government’s job is to make sure our human rights are not limited.”

Burragubba’s Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodians group is in Queensland’s supreme court trying to force the state government to act on their warnings about risks to the springs. Part of the push for a judicial review argues the group’s human rights are being restricted.

full article

Israel has illegally seized more land this year than over the past 20 years combined.

In 2024, Israel illegally seized 23.7sq km (9.15 sq miles) of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, amid its ongoing war on Gaza.

That’s more than the land it took over the past 20 years combined.

On July 2, Israeli authorities announced the largest single seizure in more than 30 years – 12.7sq km (4.9sq miles) in the Jordan Valley.

It was the latest in a series of land grabs announced this year by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who oversees settlement planning.

Israel has seized more than 50sq km (19.3sq miles) of Palestinian land since 1998 according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog.

In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera unpacks the land Israel has stolen from Palestinians.

full article

Federal rules and a lack of protection for sacred places left the Indigenous nation with an impossible choice.

When Yakama Nation leaders learned in 2017 of a plan to tunnel through some of their ancestral land for a green energy development, they were caught off guard.

While the tribal nation had come out in favor of climate-friendly projects, this one appeared poised to damage Pushpum, a privately owned ridgeline overlooking the Columbia River in Washington. The nation holds treaty rights to gather traditional foods there, and tribal officials knew they had to stop the project.

Problems arose when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency in charge of permitting hydro energy projects, offered the Yakama Nation what tribal leaders considered an impossible choice: disclose confidential ceremonial, archaeological and cultural knowledge, or waive the right to consult on whether and how the site is developed.

This put the Yakama Nation in a bind. Disclosing exactly what made the land sacred risked revealing to outsiders what they treasured most about it. In the past, disclosure of information about everything from food to archaeological sites enabled non-Natives to loot or otherwise desecrate the land.

Even now, tribal leaders struggle to safely express what the Pushpum project threatens. “I don’t know how in-depth I can go,” said Elaine Harvey, a tribal member and former environmental coordinator for the tribal fisheries department, when asked about the foods and medicines that grow on the land.

The process known as consultation is often fraught. Federal laws and agency rules require that tribes be able to weigh in on decisions that affect their treaty lands. But in practice, consultation procedures sometimes force tribes to reveal information that makes them more vulnerable, without offering any guaranteed benefit.

full article

• In the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora, Mario Luna Romero faces constant threats to his life for fighting to protect his community’s rights to its water in the region.
• Within the Yaqui Territory are the remnants of the Yaqui River, which is sacred to the Indigenous tribe and has been drained of all its water after decades of overexploitation, unequal water distribution and droughts.
• Luna was arrested in 2014 and spent a year and 11 days in a maximum-security prison; meanwhile, other colleagues have been harassed by government officials or killed by criminals.
• Mexico, including the Yaqui Valley, is experiencing a deadly heat wave, drought and water shortages.

YAQUI VALLEY, Mexico — On Sept. 11, 2014, Mario Luna Romero was arrested by state judicial police in Obregón, a city on the periphery of his tribe’s territory in Sonora, and transported to a maximum-security prison. They accused him of being involved in the kidnapping of a man with links to the state government and car theft. Despite presenting little evidence to back up those claims, they kept him in an isolated cell for one year and 11 days.

A few months before his arrest, Luna had led a ferocious campaign against the construction of the Independencia Aqueduct that would drastically decrease the Yaqui River’s waters from reaching his tribe’s land, known as the Yaqui Territory. The 172-kilometer (107-mile) aqueduct was approved by the Mexican government to satisfy the water needs of Hermosillo, the state’s capital and largest city. This was done without the consent (or the free, prior and informed consent — FPIC) of the affected Yaqui tribe, as later confirmed by a Supreme Court ruling. The Yaquis, along with other affected groups, organized protests and legal actions to halt its construction.

full article

The Raven, the story goes, alighted on the beach and heard sounds coming from a giant clamshell. He found creatures cowering inside but, ever the trickster, he cajoled them out into the world. Liberated, they became the first people of the islands of Haida Gwaii.

The Haida people have lived for thousands of years on Haida Gwaii, a remote archipelago in the Pacific Ocean off Canada’s western coast, just south of Alaska.

Nearly wiped out by smallpox after the arrival of Europeans, the Haida clung to their land — so rich in wildlife it is sometimes called Canada’s Galápagos, coveted by loggers for its old-growth forests of giant cedars and spruce.

For decades, despite their geographic isolation, the Haida’s unwavering fight to regain control over their land drew outsize attention in Canada, raising questions about the country’s long unacknowledged, brutal colonial history.

The Haida opposed clear-cut logging, building ties with environmentalists. They forged alliances with non-Haida communities at home and found common cause with other Indigenous groups across the world.

They sued British Columbia for title to their land in 2002, and supported their claims of ancient ties to the archipelago with a museum that showcased their art, artifacts and foundation myths, like the story of the Raven.

Their methodical and painstaking quest came to fruition in May when the government of British Columbia passed a law — the first of its kind in Canada — recognizing the Haida’s aboriginal title throughout Haida Gwaii. No provincial or federal government in Canada had ever willingly recognized an Indigenous people’s title to their land.

Over the next few years, the provincial government’s authority over the land and resources is expected to be handed over to the Council of the Haida Nation, the Haida people’s government.

“On our side, we knew exactly what we wanted, who we were and why we were doing what we did,” said Frank Collison, 89, a hereditary chief who recalled facing unresponsive provincial and federal governments for decades. “They just weren’t interesting in doing anything and quite satisfied to keep us under their thumb.”

full article

Leonard Peltier, the 79-year-old Indigenous activist who has spent nearly 50 years in prison for the 1975 murders of two FBI agents, has been denied parole. Many fear the ruling all but ensures that the longest-imprisoned Indigenous American will die behind bars.

Peltier has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in connection with the deaths that occurred at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota. For decades, advocates such as Coretta Scott King, Nelson Mandela, Pope Francis and James H Reynolds, the US attorney who handled the prosecution and appeal of Peltier’s case, have fought for his release.

Despite evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and due process violations throughout his trial, Peltier will now remain in prison at least until 2026, when the US Parole Commission set his next hearing. His health has severely declined over the past few years, and his supporters considered his most recent hearing, which occurred last month, his last chance of not dying in prison.

On 26 June 1975, years-long tensions between Oglala Lakota traditionalists, who sought to govern in customary ways, and assimilationists, who wanted to adapt to American standards of governance, culminated in a standoff at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Two FBI agents in unmarked cars pursued a vehicle they believed to be operated by Jimmy Eagle, for whom they were serving an arrest warrant, onto a part of the reservation that was occupied by traditionalists.

In the chaos, a shootout erupted and the FBI agents were soon joined by more than 150 Swat team members and other law enforcement. By the end, two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian movement (Aim) – a cold war-era liberation group that supported the traditionalists – had been killed.

Peltier was among the four men who were indicted in connection with the agents’ murders.

full article

Indigenous land is disproportionately affected by wildfire and their isolated nature makes aid access difficult

When Robert Laboucan pictured his son taking his first steps he imagined it would be at home, maybe even in front of a camera in their living room. Instead, the one-year-old first walked in the hallway of the Flamingo Inn in High Level, the tiny Alberta town where the family have been living for more than a year after escaping the massive wildfires that devastated the Indigenous-owned Fox Lake Reserve.

“It was really hard,” said Laboucan, a member of the Little Red River Cree Nation.

Laboucan, his partner Jennifer, and their five children, aged one-16, are among dozens of fire evacuees still living at the hotel. While they will not get an exact replacement of the home they lost, Laboucan has been told that a new home will be ready for the family by July – approximately 14 months after the 2023 Paskwa fire tore through the Little Red River Cree Nation.

Last year saw Canada’s worst wildfire season ever: 6,132 blazes erupted across the country, destroying 16.5m hectares of land, according to Statistics Canada. A thousand of the fires broke out in Alberta.

And a year later, as Canada braces for another hot summer, many Indigenous communities in the northern parts of the western provinces are still displaced.

“It’s a pretty substantial challenge, actually, for our establishment,” said Flamingo Inn manager Tyceer Abou Moustafa. “At the beginning our suppliers didn’t have enough stock on hand to even maintain feeding the people. So that was a pretty hard challenge of finding new suppliers and new people who could keep up with what we needed.”

Research has shown that Indigenous land in Canada is disproportionately affected by wildfires. A 2019 study from the Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction found that 80% of Indigenous communities are located in fire-prone regions. Matters are further complicated by the isolated nature of many communities which are often outside the jurisdiction of local firefighters and lack infrastructure such as all-weather roads.

A tight-knit community of just over 2,000 people, Fox Lake sits in the forest along the south side of Peace River. After the spring thaw, access is only possible by water.

On 2 May, the blooming Paskwa wildfire drew closer and the population scrambled to evacuate. Residents were told they had just 30 minutes before the flames reached the ferry landing and were urged not to take anything except their families and essentials.

full article

At least six Palestinians have been killed in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and several homes have been destroyed as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the city and pressed further into Shujayea in northern Gaza.

Israeli tanks, which re-entered Shujayea four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave, residents said. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from Shujayea in recent days.

For those who remain, “our lives have become hell”, said 50-year-old resident Siham al-Shawa.

She told the AFP news agency that people were trapped as strikes could happen “anywhere” and “it is difficult to get out of the neighbourhood under fire”.

“We do not know where to go to protect ourselves,” she said.

full article

The Congo Civil War, or Congo Crisis, was a complex political tumult that began just days following Belgium’s granting of Congolese independence in 1960. Lasting four years, the associated violence claimed an estimated 100,000 lives including the nation’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, and UN Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld, who was killed in a plane crash as he attempted to mediate the crisis. Escalating with the secession of the southernmost province of Katanga, the conflict concluded five years later with a united Congo emerging under the dictatorship of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu.

On June 30, 1960, Belgium negotiated post-colonial mining rights in declaring an independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Yet within days, soldiers of the Congolese army mutinied, demanding increased pay and the removal of white officers from their ranks. When Belgium intervened militarily, more soldiers rebelled. Many of these soldiers gravitated toward the radical nationalist Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba.

Then, dominated by Belgian business interests, the mineral-rich Katanga province under the leadership of Moïse Kapenda Tshombe seceded from the DRC with Belgian support. Congolese President Joseph Kasavubu and Prime Minister Lumumba asked and received a peacekeeping force from the United Nations (UN).

The conflict also became the site of a dangerous Cold War “proxy” contest between western powers led by the United States and the Soviet Union-led Communist bloc. Under pressure from western nations and in exchange for UN support, President Kasavubu purged his government of radical elements including Prime Minister Lumumba. The ultra-nationalist Lumumba, though supported by the Congolese, was viewed by Western business leaders as an obstacle to their continued investments in Congolese diamond mines. Fearing Lumumba was secretly a Communist, the United States was particularly adamant about his removal from power.

Lumumba responded by firing Kasavubu as both leaders claimed control over the country, and Army Chief of Staff Joseph Mobutu in turn orchestrated a military coup d’état which ousted the two leaders. Mobutu’s government was supported by western governments. The Soviet Union and other Communist nations supported Lumumba who ultimately was killed by Katangan rebels.

With his chief rival removed, Mobutu pledged nominal support to President Kasavubu and the two led the successful effort to end the Katanga secession. UN forces eventually recaptured all of Katanga province. In 1964, a new rebellion began in the Eastern Congo when armed fighters (“Simbas”) began to spread across the region. Ironically, Moïse Tshombe, who had led the secessionist Katanga province, was made prime minister with the mandate to defeat these rebels and end other regional revolts. The Simbas were defeated in November 1964.

One year later, Mobutu seized power from President Kasavubu after having persuaded Western leaders that he was the most effective leader in the fight against communism. Kasavubu and Tshombe were exiled as Mobutu set up a one-party dictatorship, controlling the nation until 1997. Nonetheless, for the first time since independence, all of the country was ruled by one government.

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