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Mosquitoes found in Iceland for first time as climate crisis warms country
Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the first time as global heating makes the country more hospitable for insects.
The country was until this month one of the few places in the world that did not have a mosquito population. The other is Antarctica.
Scientists have predicted for some time that mosquitoes could establish themselves in Iceland as there are plentiful breeding habitats such as marshes and ponds. Many species will be unable to survive the harsh climate, however.
Studies have shown that the Arctic region is warming at four times the rate of the rest of the planet, and Iceland has experienced record heat this year. Glaciers have been collapsing and fish from warmer southern climes, such as mackerel, have been found in the country’s waters.
As the planet warms, more species of mosquito have been found across the globe. In the U.K., eggs of the Egyptian mosquito (Aedes aegypti) were found this year, and the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) has been discovered in Kent. These are invasive species that can spread tropical diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika virus.
Read Next A deadly mosquito-borne illness rises as the US cuts all climate-health funding Zoya TeirsteinMatthías Alfreðsson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, confirmed the findings there. He identified the insects himself after they were sent to him by a citizen scientist.
He said: “Three specimens of Culiseta annulata were found in Kiðafell, Kjós, two females and one male. They were all collected from wine ropes during wine roping aimed at attracting moths.”
The species is cold-resistant and can survive Icelandic conditions by sheltering through winter in basements and barns.
Björn Hjaltason found the mosquitoes and posted about it on the Facebook group Insects in Iceland. “At dusk on October 16, I caught sight of a strange fly on a red wine ribbon,” Hjaltason said, referring to the trap he uses to attract insects. “I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly. It was a female.”
He caught two more and sent them to the science institute where they were identified.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Mosquitoes found in Iceland for first time as climate crisis warms country on Oct 25, 2025.
Pity the Nation/ Whose Shepherds Mislead Them
Amidst plunging polls and righteous rage at his Epstein Memorial Ballroom, the inept manchild faces growing resistance, sublime to ridiculous, to his nascent kingship. Cue anti-ICE whistle kits - “Form a crowd, stay loud" - rainbow church steps, Newsom hawking knee pads, D.C. Jedi suing individual goons, and a successfully mobilized Bay Area, including his iconic bookstore's revival of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's howling edict that his people not "allow their rights to erode/and their freedoms to be washed away."
Trump was already underwater with the lowest approval rating for any president, even him, at this point in his reign - see no jobs, high prices, cancelled SNAP benefits, murdered innocents, rounded-up brown neighbors - before his abrupt, illegal obliteration of the East Wing for a gilded obscenity to host his billionaire suck-ups. For many, the travesty is a bitter echo of what in part got us here: Obama's mocking, gaudy, then-hilarious 2011 vision of a lurid purple "Trump White House, Hotel, Casino, Golf Course" with glitzy tyrant chandeliers and half-naked women welcoming you. Now, of course, we are about to have the execrable real thing, a tacky "abomination," born of his "poisonous bravado," bearing the "bombast (of) a dictator-for-life megalomania vibe."
Despite widespread horror at a now-$300-million, White-House-dwarfing atrocity for fat cats, smirking, clueless Press Barbie touted the ballroom as "of course the main priority" of the "builder-in chief" with a lifetime of bankruptcies to his tawdry name. Still, the outcry was loud enough for some flunkies to attempt an unhinged distraction: a new, racist, trolling Major Events Timeline on the ballroom that lurches from fake history - for 150 years, everyone has "longed for" it - to George Washington, the Oval Office, the Rose Garden to Clinton/Monica, Obama in a turban hosting Muslim Brotherhood extremists, debauched Hunter in a bath tub with cocaine, Biden with topless transsexuals to, straightfaced, Trump's hellacious, gold-blinged redecorating.
Reflecting the same crude regime run by a petty, vengeful bully - who hung along his new "Presidential Walk of Fame" not a portrait of the man he can't admit defeated him but the image of an autopen and just snarled, "You know nothing about nothing" at a reporter questioning him - comes the story from D.C. of Jedi knight Sam O’Hara, 35, who sometimes mocks the masked, armed, camoed thugs parading around his town by walking behind them, playing Star Wars' "The Imperial March" that marks the arrival of Darth Vader, and posts his videos online. Bemused millions have watched his personal protest, audible but not loud, against "a dystopian occupation," but last month he was accosted by one thin-skinned stormtrooper who was not amused.
Going home after work, O’Hara was following four Ohio National Guardsmen when Sergeant Devon Beck turned back to threaten him with calling D.C. cops to "handle" him. The Empire quickly struck back: Police arrived, tightly handcuffed him, argued "this isn't a protest" when he explained himself, and held him for a while before letting him go without charges. Now O'Hara and the ACLU are suing four police and Guardsmen under a law that renders individuals liable for punitive damages for infringing on a plaintiff's Constitutional rights. "The law might have tolerated government conduct of this sort a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," argued O'Hara, citing the First and Fourth Amendment and a D.C. prohibition on false arrest, but not "in the here and now."
In his complaint, in which he demands a jury trial, O'Hara calls the deployment of military police "a waste of tax dollars, a needless display of force, and a surreal danger" that shouldn't be normalized. Likewise citing a 200-year-old tradition of civilian law enforcement, ACLU senior attorney Michael Perloff defended O'Hara's right to play "The Imperial March" as a "quintessential exercise of free speech." "The government doesn't get to decide if your protest is funny, and can’t punish you for making them the punchline," he said. "That’s really the whole point of the First Amendment." Or, paraphrasing Justice William Brennan on a free nation vs. police state, If you act like an autocrat when you're called an autocrat, you probably are one.
Many others are rising up and acting out in the belief that, argues Rev. Rachel Griffin-Allison, "Silence is not neutral. Silence in the face of harm always sides with the oppressor." The senior pastor of Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dallas, she and her congregation took to painting their church steps in rainbow colors after an inane order from Gov. Greg Abbott banning "all political ideologies from our streets," including existing rainbow crosswalks or other "political" pavement designs; he said he wanted to "keep roads safe and free from distraction" - a claim, under threat of cut funding, many called "highly questionable" and, given his law requiring the Ten Commandments in schools, deeply hypocritical. The reverend called it "political bullying."
"A rainbow is not a political statement," she said. "It’s a universal symbol of inclusion, hope, and pride in diversity (representing) a safe space for a community that’s been marginalized. The rainbow is for everyone." Undercutting Abbott's brazen fear-mongering, she noted the multi-hued crosswalks were funded by private donations and approved by the city, and their re-painting action was "not one of defiance, but of faith, a visible witness to the gospel we preach...When the forces of power try to erase symbols of inclusion, the Church has a choice - to retreat into comfort or to step forward in courage. We choose courage. This is not a political act; it’s a pastoral one. It says, 'The love of God meets you exactly as you are.'"
Many elsewhere are also fighting back with courage. In and around besieged Chicago, organizers have rallied groups of hundreds of volunteers to create 30,000 anti-ICE kits packed with warning whistles for ICE sightings, handouts about how and when to use them, and bilingual flyers detailing migrants' rights: "Immigrants keep us moving forward." Last week, when masked agents descended on a Chicago suburb - variously claiming they were looking for an escaped dog, gang member, sex offender - residents texted one another - “ICE IS HERE," "Fucking helicopters," "On our way" - before emerging to scream, film, tail and honk at them. "You don’t belong here,” one yelled. "Our neighbors, our community members, they do belong here.”
In California's diverse, liberal Bay Area, which just won a billionaire-bought reprieve from ICE invasion, officials and residents were organized and mobilized after months of Trump threats and his announcement troops were finally going there to bring down its record-low crime rate and "make it great." Good luck on that With Marvin Gaye blaring, pre-dawn protesters at Alameda's Coast Guard base blocked the entrance, bore signs urging "Protect Our Neighbors/ Protegemos Nuestros Vecinos," and faced off against about 100 agents already there who quickly fired flash-bang grenades, injuring several. Are we great yet? "In the Bay we're involved, and our kids know what's happening," said one father. "They’re going to see they’re not wanted here."
Officials were just as adamant. If ICE was loosed on them, state and city attorneys would be "in court within hours, if not minutes." Newsom, slamming voter suppression and "a direct assault on the rule of law,” vowed to sue "within nanoseconds"; he also added to his satirical, union-supplied Patriot Shop "KNEE PADS FOR ALL CEO’s, UNIVERSITIES, AND GOP BENDING THE KNEE TO DONALD TRUMP." Meanwhile, Steve Bannon's witless, flip-flopping "vehicle of divine providence" called off his "surge" after some tech oligarchs told him to - what, no Fox or Loomer or Goebbels? - and San Francisco's mayor "very nicely" asked him to. At immigration court the next day, Aztec dancers led a cleansing ritual and defiant protesters called for a general strike.
The crisis also sparked the return of a seminal voice as City Lights Books unfurled banners quoting co-founder, poet, veteran, pacifist and "philosophical anarchist" Lawrence Ferlinghetti's “Pity the Nation,” a 2007, George W-era lament against tyranny. Beginning in 1953 and over seven decades - he died age 101 in 2021 - Ferlinghetti nursed the hub of free speech and Beat poets, thinkers and dissenters that was City Lights; he also fiercely defended Allen Ginsberg's 1955 Howl - "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked" - in an obscenity trial that ended in a landmark victory for the First Amendment. Despite "the iron circumstances of the world," Ferlinghetti was always seeking "a renaissance of wonder," and he was not afraid. Be like him, and California, Chicago, D.C., all the rest.
Update: A federal judge in Portland, Oregon rejected Trump's request to lift her order blocking the deployment of goons there, at least for now. And a judge in D.C is still hearing arguments to remove over 2,000 troops from there.
185K views · 5.8K reactions | This is how Fox News indoctrinated a whole generation. | Bill Jubran www.facebook.com
PITY THE NATION
Pity the nation whose people are sheep
And whose shepherds mislead them
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars
Whose sages are silenced
And whose bigots haunt the airwaves
Pity the nation that raises not its voice
Except to praise conquerors
And acclaim the bully as hero
And aims to rule the world
By force and by torture
Pity the nation that knows
No other language but its own
And no other culture but its own
Pity the nation whose breath is money
And sleeps the sleep of the too well fed
Pity the nation oh pity the people
who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away
My country, tears of thee
Sweet land of liberty!
– Lawrence Ferlinghetti (after Lebanese American poet Kahlil Gibran)
Reconnecting the River: How Sediment Diversions Fit into Louisiana’s Coastal Future
It’s no secret that river diversions work. Reconnecting the Mississippi River with nearby wetlands to build and sustain those areas has long been recognized as a key tool in Louisiana’s restoration toolbox, and places like Neptune Pass and the Wax Lake Delta are a testament to the Mississippi River ‘s ability to build land. River diversions have been included in plans to restore the coast for decades, including all of the state’s previous Coastal Master Plans. The 2029 Coastal Master ...
Read The Full StoryThe post Reconnecting the River: How Sediment Diversions Fit into Louisiana’s Coastal Future appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.
Economic Experts React to CPI
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that headline CPI increased by 3.0% over the past year. Members of the Economic Speakers Bureau shared their reactions and are available for interviews on inflation and how the Fed might respond at its meeting next week:
Alex Jacquez, Chief of Policy & Advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative and former Special Assistant to the President fo Economic Development and Industrial Strategy:
“Prices continue to rise, and families can feel it every time they check out at the grocery store or fill up at the gas pump. Trump’s chaotic economic policies continue to drive up costs for everyday essentials as the job market weakens. Working families are being pummeled by higher prices and the Trump administration has no intention of fixing it.”
Heather Boushey, Professor of Practice at Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, Senior Research Fellow at the Reimagining the Economy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, and former Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers:
“While the government shutdown has left us blind to most regular data releases, today's release of new consumer price index data shows an economy where prices continue to rise faster than the Federal Reserve's preferred pace. This is an unnerving economic moment: between high tariffs and the ways that ICE is rounding up employees at workplaces across the country, there are ongoing forces pushing prices upwards, while the lack of a coherent economic agenda from the Trump administration threatens to push the economy into reverse.”
Liz Pancotti, Managing Director of Policy & Advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative:
“Grocery prices continue to rise for American families. Lunchbox staples like deli meat and peanut butter rose by 4.2% and 2.1%, respectively, in just the last month. This comes on the heels of the impending SNAP cliff as a result of the government shutdown that will leave 40 million low-income Americans without vital food assistance benefits unless the Trump administration acts.”
Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Advisor at Community Change:
"Today's inflation report confirms the continued strain on American families under this administration's radical ‘survival of the elitist’ agenda, where the president's wealthy and well-connected friends thrive and the rest of us suffer.
“Gasoline prices surged 4.1% in September, driving significant increases in energy costs that hurt working families the most, especially due to this administration's extremist pro-pollution agenda that undermines working families' wellbeing and freedom. Meanwhile, health care prices are climbing quickly — families now face annual health insurance premiums averaging nearly $27,000, with further sharp increases expected due to the administration's failure to extend health coverage subsidies.
“Instead, this administration and the Congress it controls have prioritized showering their billionaire friends with massive tax cuts while making it harder for regular people to afford basic necessities. Even this week, the administration has said that it will effectively break the law by refusing to fund vital food assistance, which tens of millions of struggling families rely on to manage the increasing cost of living imposed by the Trump Administration. Instead of addressing these economic hardships, they advance policies that enrich the wealthy and make life harder for everyday Americans."
Statement by Retiree Leader Richard Fiesta on the 2.8% COLA Increase for Social Security Beneficiaries
The following statement was issued by Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, regarding the announcement that there will be a 2.8% cost-of-living (COLA) benefit increase for millions of Social Security beneficiaries, disabled veterans and federal retirees next year:
“The 74.5 million Americans who rely on Social Security welcome any increase in their monthly benefits. But let’s be clear, millions of older Americans will still struggle to afford housing, food, utilities, and prescription drugs.
“The average retired worker will see about $52 more per month next year. Yet nearly half of that increase will be wiped out by the higher Medicare Part B premium, which is projected to rise to $206 a month in January. That’s $31 more than in 2025, and would be the first time the premium has exceeded $200.
“Strengthening and expanding Social Security must be a national priority. If billionaires and the wealthiest 1 percent pay their fair share, we can boost benefits for everyone and guarantee the program’s solvency for future generations.
“Instead of working to protect Social Security, too many members of Congress and Trump Administration officials are pushing to raise the retirement age, cut benefits, and even privatize the program. Older Americans have earned these benefits through a lifetime of work; they should not have to fight to keep them.”
UNCTAD 16: La Via Campesina Proposes a Food Sovereignty–Based International Trade Framework
It is time to change the unfair rules of international trade in order to protect the right to food for all. It is time to move toward food sovereignty.
The post UNCTAD 16: La Via Campesina Proposes a Food Sovereignty–Based International Trade Framework appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.
La Via Campesina Stands in Solidarity with the Peruvian People Amid Political Crisis and Violence
In the midst of an acute political crisis, the Peruvian government, instead of listening to the demands of the people, has responded with militarization, persecution, and death.
The post La Via Campesina Stands in Solidarity with the Peruvian People Amid Political Crisis and Violence appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.
Fossil fuel companies say they support the energy transition. New numbers suggest otherwise.
Every year, United Nations member states gather together at the Conference of the Parties, better known as COP, to negotiate international climate agreements and assess global progress toward emissions reduction. The 30th annual COP will begin November 7 in Belém, Brazil, a city of about 2.5 million on the edge of the Amazon. Depending on who you ask, COP is either the world’s best attempt to date at collective climate action or a massive forum for greenwashing: At last year’s COP29, the human rights NGO Global Witness found that oil and gas lobbyists significantly outnumbered negotiating officials from the 10 countries most threatened by climate change.
“We genuinely believe that COPs have been co-opted by the fossil fuel industry, to such an extent that we’re seeing thousands of lobbyists turn up each year,” said Patrick Galey, the head of fossil fuel investigations at Global Witness. “And they are not lobbying for green energy.”
One long-running argument for giving oil and gas companies a seat at the table at COP has been that, as the providers of the lion’s share of the world’s energy, they must be partners in global decarbonization. “Coalitions have to include the incumbent energy companies, and specifically the oil and gas companies,” Ernest Moniz, who was energy secretary under former president Barack Obama, told CNBC at COP28 in 2023.
But a new study in the academic journal Nature Sustainability appears to bolster Galey’s side of the argument, by demonstrating exactly how little fossil fuel companies are investing in renewable energy. The study’s authors analyzed data from Global Energy Monitor, an open source database that tracks oil, gas, coal, and renewable energy use worldwide, to figure out just how involved major fossil fuel companies are in the deployment of renewables.
The researchers fully expected measures of fossil fuel producers’ investment in renewable energy to be low — but not this low: Of the 250 largest oil and gas companies, they found, only 20 percent were operating any renewable energy projects at all. Overall, fossil fuel producers own only 1.42 percent of global renewable energy projects, and those projects are responsible for a measly 0.1 percent of their total energy production.
Marcel Llavero Pasquina, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona who authored the study along with Antonio Bontempi, admits that he was surprised by how little renewable energy activity is supported by oil and gas companies, despite going into the research with low expectations. “They’ve been hammering this message that they are part of the transition, that they are an ally in the fight against the climate crisis for so long,” he told Grist. “I was expecting [oil and gas companies to own] around 5 percent.”
Llavaero Pasquina said that he hoped his research would be used to support excluding fossil fuel producers from any role in setting international climate goals.
The research comes as the World Meteorological Association announces that planet-warming carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have reached record highs this year. It also arrives on the heels of the oil major BP’s decision, earlier this year, to cut renewable energy investment by roughly 70 percent.
“We continually see fossil fuel producers over-promise and under-deliver when it comes to renewable energy spending,” said Galey from Global Witness. “Every COP we have that continues to allow thousands of people who are advocating for the continued use of oil and gas puts the Paris Agreement goals further out of reach. Every COP we allow them to infiltrate incurs a debt to future generations that will be paid in climate impacts.”
toolTips('.classtoolTips4','The process of reducing the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that drive climate change, most often by deprioritizing the use of fossil fuels like oil and gas in favor of renewable sources of energy.');This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Fossil fuel companies say they support the energy transition. New numbers suggest otherwise. on Oct 24, 2025.
A critical decade for climate
October 2025 Redrock Report
Keep Labyrinth Canyon Wild: Submit Your Comments by This Friday!
Right now, the Trump administration is proposing to greenlight more dirt bikes, side-by-sides, and off-road vehicles in Labyrinth Canyon—at the urging of the State of Utah and certain motorized groups that want to see wild places transformed into motorized playgrounds. This is happening despite the fact that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) finalized a Labyrinth Canyon Travel Management Plan in 2023 that struck a thoughtful and long overdue balance between motorized and non-motorized recreation. Comments are due this Friday, Oct. 24! Please take action below if you haven’t already.
SUWA worked with Cody Perry and Ben Kraushaar of Rig to Flip to create a short film—Keep Labyrinth Canyon Wild—about this remarkable landscape. At just under 10 minutes, it’s well worth the watch. You can watch the full-length film, along with four 1-minute shorts, on our website here (a version with captions is available on our YouTube page). Please share these on social media (and be sure to tag us on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky), along with our advocacy action.
>> Click here to take action now
Need more information? We’ve got a Frequently Asked Questions page as well as a helpful Story Map.
Take Action on Two BLM Oil & Gas Lease Sale Proposals
The Trump administration’s “energy dominance” agenda has definitely arrived in Utah as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) moves forward with two oil and gas proposals. The agency is accepting comments on both proposals through Monday, October 27—please take action at both links below.
First, the BLM is accepting scoping comments on its First Quarter 2026 oil and gas lease sale, which includes 59 parcels spanning nearly 72,000 acres in eastern Utah. The majority of parcels are in Utah’s wild Book Cliffs where development would threaten big game and black bear habitat, greater sage-grouse, and wilderness-caliber lands. There are several other lease parcels in the scenic White River corridor—a remarkable stretch of river that is managed for the protection of its stunning visual and riparian values.
>> Take Action: Tell the BLM to keep oil and gas leases out of Utah’s Book Cliffs
Second, the BLM has prepared a draft environmental assessment to “re-examine” prior leasing decisions made from 2015-2019 for 195 leases across nearly 240,000 acres of public lands throughout Utah. The vast majority of these leases have not been developed, in part thanks to successful lawsuits brought by SUWA and our partners. But the BLM is now poised to rubberstamp its prior leasing decisions and keep the leases—and the threat of development—alive for years to come.
>> Take Action: Tell the BLM to cancel the 195 leases
Please take action at both links above before Monday, Oct. 27. Read more on our blog and share widely!
Photo © Ray Bloxham/SUWA
BLM Again Considering Four-Lane Highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area
In early October, the Trump administration directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reassess a right-of-way application from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) for the four-lane Northern Corridor Highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area near St. George. The proposal has been rejected seven times, mostly recently in December 2024 by the BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
Building a highway through a congressionally protected landscape would permanently destroy critical habitat for the imperiled Mojave desert tortoise, violate bedrock environmental laws, and mar iconic redrock vistas—all while fueling sprawl and making traffic worse for local residents. It would also set a dangerous precedent for protected landscapes across the U.S. The most effective traffic solutions involve smarter planning and coordinated land-use decisions, not bulldozing protected habitat.
Read more in SUWA’s press release as well as the St. George News, Salt Lake Tribune, and KUER.
>> Click here to submit comments by Monday, November 3rd
Photo © Bob Wick
Trump Admin Pushes Coal Leasing Outside National Parks, Grand Staircase-Escalante
In early October, the Trump administration announced it is making previously off-limits public land available for coal leasing under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), including 48,000 acres in Utah administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This announcement signals the administration’s intent to push speculative coal development on public lands next to national parks and monuments. Analysis from SUWA’s GIS team shows parcels available for leasing directly adjacent to or near Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef National Parks and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
“The Trump administration views Southern Utah’s remarkable redrock country as just another place to exploit and plunder as they promote new coal mining. Nothing could be further from the truth. America’s national parks, national monuments, and wild public lands don’t deserve this fate and we’ll work tirelessly to stop it from happening,” said SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch.
>> See maps of the potential leasing in our press release. You can also read news coverage in the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News, and KSL.
Photo © James Kay
New Bad Bills from Senators Lee & Curtis
The government may be shut down, but that hasn’t stopped Utah Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis from introducing a slew of new bad bills for wilderness and public lands.
First up is an intentionally deceptively-named piece of legislation, the Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act, which prioritizes motorized recreation at the expense of natural and cultural resources. This appears to be another case of elected officials introducing legislation in the name of disability access but really using that argument as a Trojan horse to open more public lands to motorized vehicles. There are already provisions in federal law that enable people with mobility disabilities to access public lands with power-driven mobility devices. Read our joint press release with Disabled Hikers, Wilderness Inquiry, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and Winter Wildlands Alliance.
Next are two new bills that would open national parks to off-road vehicles (ORVs), fundamentally altering the visitor experience and damaging landscapes that draw millions of visitors each year: the State Motor Vehicle Laws in National Park System Units Act and the OHVs in Capitol Reef National Park Act. We issued a joint press release with the National Parks Conservation Association about the impact of these bills.
Senator Lee went it alone on the final bill, the Border Lands Conservation Act, which would undermine the 1964 Wilderness Act and impact millions of acres of public lands along the northern and southern United States border. It also removes any and all ability for land management agencies to limit U.S. Border Patrol activities on public lands within 100 miles of the border. Read more in our press release.
We’ll be closely tracking these bills and will provide updates in the future.
Photo: Adobe Stock (Serhii)
The post October 2025 Redrock Report appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
California Nurses Association condemns Trump administration plans to deploy ICE, National Guard to invade Bay Area
California’s largest union of registered nurses, an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the largest U.S. RN union, issued the following statement responding to recent announcements by the Trump administration that both ICE and the National Guard would be deployed to the San Francisco Bay Area:
Registered nurses across California condemn and reject the Trump administration’s recently announced plans to deploy ICE, border patrol agents, and the National Guard to the San Francisco Bay Area. President Trump so far has sought to misuse the National Guard and active-duty soldiers to attack five major Democratic-led cities: Washington, D.C; Los Angeles; Chicago; Portland, Ore.; and Memphis, Tenn.
As advocates for the health and safety of all patients, regardless of their immigration status, nurses warn that increased militarization of our neighborhoods actively endangers public health. Armed federal agents on our Bay Area streets and in our communities, not immigrant workers, are the biggest threat to all of our safety. Immigrants are our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, are us, and we stand in solidarity with all immigrants as working people.
Across the United States, we have been outraged to see violent raids, kidnappings, and indiscriminate racial profiling of Black and Brown people, resulting in physical harm and immense trauma to our patients — as well as disruption to critical community resources, including hospitals.
Nurses know that when ICE attacks immigrants and other activists, it often takes patients they injure to our hospitals. These federal agents bring fear and panic to places that must remain safe spaces for healing. On Tuesday, Oct. 21, an ICE agent in Los Angeles shot two people — something that never would have happened if they weren’t attacking immigrant workers who are just trying to make a better life for themselves. This resulted in ICE converging on California Hospital and the entire facility being locked down, with visitors and ambulances being turned away. Nurses reject any ICE presence at our health care facilities and will be holding our employers responsible for ensuring that we can continue to do our jobs saving the lives of all patients.
Trump has also violated the due process and Constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, who have been detained, beaten, tased, and shot by immigration agents (at least 170 U.S. citizens, according to Pro Publica) during these violent raids and military deployments. A registered nurse and former member of our union was among those detained in Los Angeles.
California nurses demand an immediate stop to the violence the Trump administration has already inflicted on our state and on our nation, and we will be standing in solidarity to resist and say, “No!” to this outrageously unjust attack on the Bay Area. Our communities are not war zones, and we understand that when this administration comes after the most vulnerable, we all lose.
Top Shell Marketing Executive to Chair US Ad Industry Trade Group
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the main U.S. advertising trade association, is under fire from climate campaigners after naming a senior Shell executive as its new chair.
The appointment of Dean Aragón, CEO of Shell Brands, comes as the global oil and gas company has scaled back its climate commitments over the last two years, dropping plans to reduce oil production and scrapping a key 2035 emissions target.
Climate campaigners say the move, which was first reported by Adweek, raises questions about the ANA’s commitment to climate pledges forged prior to the Trump administration’s moves to gut climate policies and aggressively expand fossil fuels.
The role of ANA chair confers a prominent voice on ad industry issues.
“The ANA is made up of companies whose business models are fundamentally threatened by climate change, which is caused by Shell’s products — from Piedmont Healthcare and the American Heart Association dealing with diseases caused by extreme heat, or Mars and Anheuser-Busch struggling with higher commodity prices caused by flood and drought,” said Duncan Meisel, director of Clean Creatives, an organisation that works to cut ties between advertising agencies and the fossil fuels industry
“Shell has recommitted to producing more oil and gas, and less clean energy. Their marketing has been the subject of lawsuits, regulatory action, and widespread consumer backlash across the world. Appointing the CEO of Shell’s marketing as chair is a guarantee of the ANA losing credibility in the eyes of regulators and organisations with sustainability agendas worldwide,” Meisel told DeSmog.
Aragón is the CEO and vice-chairman of Shell Brands International AG — a Shell subsidiary that develops and protects the Shell trademark, for licencing to Shell companies and third parties, according to the Conference Board.
He is also global vice-president of branding for the entire Shell group, leading the development of overall brand strategy, brand policies and standards.
Aragón replaces Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer at Proctor & Gamble, who had led the ANA since 2016.
The ANA was a founding member of Ad Net Zero USA, an initiative launched in 2023 during the previous Biden administration to “decarbonise advertising operations” — meaning reducing the amount of emissions generated by producing and displaying adverts. At the time, ANA CEO Bob Liodice called the reduction and measurement of carbon “a top priority for our industry.”
The ANA published research last year showing major brands reduced their operational emissions by as much as 38 percent by using sustainable media planning. The ANA represents brands that spend more than $400 billion annually in marketing and advertising, according to figures on the ANA’s website.
The ANA and Shell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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