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Nearly four and a half years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, July offered fresh evidence of how difficult it remains to disentangle Russia from the Western nuclear industry. Germany approved production of fuel for Russian-designed reactors using Russian technology, while new data from Europe and the United States showed that Rosatom retains a substantial share of Western uranium conversion and enrichment markets.

Meanwhile, at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the killing of the station’s Russian-appointed chief engineer underscored a different consequence of the war: the continuing danger faced by those working at Europe’s largest nuclear power station—

ZNPP chief engineer killed amid continuing military activity

On July 15, Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev said a drone strike on a service vehicle between the Zaporizhzhia plant and the neighboring city of Enerhodar had killed the station’s Russian-appointed chief engineer, Alexander Yakovlev, and his driver. Russia blamed Ukraine, while Kyiv denied responsibility and said there was no independent confirmation of Moscow’s account.

The incident quickly became the subject of competing claims. A Telegram channel subsequently alleged that Yakovlev had opposed allowing Russian personnel access to Westinghouse nuclear fuel stored at the plant and suggested that a dispute over that access might have contributed to his death. The claim has not been independently established.

Bellona nuclear expert Alexander Nikitin cautions against drawing conclusions from such speculation.

“Both sides (Russia and Ukraine) predictably accused each other of the killing,” Nikitin writes. “Who killed one of the several hundred people who die every day in Ukraine, and what the specific reason for this killing was, will never be established. The reason could have been anything, including domestic, financial or other motives, so there is no point in guessing or trying to investigate it. The war will write everything off.”

For Nikitin, Yakovlev’s death instead illustrates the larger danger created by the continued militarization of the plant and surrounding area. “Not only facilities are being destroyed, but people are also being killed, including personnel working at ZNPP and their families living in Enerhodar,” he writes.

Germany allows VVER fuel production using Russian technology

Germany, meanwhile, has approved a controversial plan that will preserve another form of Russian involvement in Europe’s nuclear industry.

On July 22, authorities in Lower Saxony approved an application by Advanced Nuclear Fuels, a subsidiary of France’s Framatome, to expand its Lingen plant to manufacture hexagonal fuel assemblies for Russian-designed VVER reactors.

The fuel will be manufactured under Russian licenses and using Russian technology through cooperation with Rosatom’s fuel subsidiary TVEL. The decision came despite objections from some 11,000 people and concerns about espionage, sabotage, cyberattacks and Russian access to critical German infrastructure. Authorities imposed safeguards, including restrictions on access by Rosatom and TVEL personnel and security inspections of Russian equipment.

Bellona nuclear expert Dmitry Gorchakov calls the decision “rather strange” and warns that it undermines efforts to reduce European dependence on Russia.

“Unfortunately, this shows the absence of a single clear policy and principles regarding contacts with official Russian structures, both within Germany itself and within the EU,” Gorchakov writes.

More importantly, he argues, allowing Framatome to meet its VVER fuel commitments with Rosatom’s involvement “may slow the development of its own French VVER fuel independent of Rosatom and prolong Rosatom’s dependence and influence on this market in Europe.”

“Bellona does not approve of this decision by the German authorities or of this cooperation between Framatome and Rosatom,” Gorchakov concludes.

Western uranium markets remain dependent on Russia

New figures published in July show why severing those ties remains difficult.

The Euratom Supply Agency reported that European suppliers significantly expanded uranium enrichment services in 2025, increasing their share of the EU market from 63.9% to 72.9%. The volume of Russian enrichment services also increased by 11.6% in physical terms. However, their share of the total volume of European orders declined by 22.55% compared with 23.55% a year earlier and 37% in 2023. Russia supplied nearly 16% of the EU’s natural uranium and 24.4% of its conversion services.

The situation is likewise complicated in the United States. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Russia remained the largest single source of enrichment services purchased by American nuclear operators in 2025, providing 3.284 million SWU — about 26% of the total. That was more than the share supplied by U.S. enrichment capacity itself.

“The published statistics in the EU and the US show the continuing dependence of Western nuclear power plant operators and nuclear fuel cycle enterprises on Russian supplies of uranium and its conversion and enrichment services,” Gorchakov says.

“Despite the existence of major European competitors to Rosatom and technical alternatives, up to 20–25% of nuclear materials and nuclear fuel cycle services in European and US markets still originate in Russia.”

For Gorchakov, market forces alone are unlikely to break that dependence. “Only official restrictions and sanctions can break this trend,” he writes, arguing that firm limits would both force reductions in Russian purchases and give Western suppliers confidence that investments in new capacity will pay off.

Taken together, the developments underline a contradiction that has persisted since the beginning of the war. Russia’s occupation of Zaporizhzhia has created unprecedented nuclear safety risks in Ukraine, yet Rosatom remains deeply embedded in nuclear supply chains in the countries supporting Kyiv. Europe and the United States are developing alternatives, but July’s figures — and Germany’s decision in Lingen — suggest that breaking those ties will require political decisions as much as new technology and production capacity.

The post Russian nuclear ties persist in the West as war claims another life at Zaporizhzhia appeared first on Bellona.org.

EWG statement on UN confirming PFAS contamination is a global human rights crisis Monica Amarelo September 14, 2026

WASHINGTON – The United Nations Human Rights Council today presented a landmark report saying the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS are found in the blood of nearly every person on the planet, posing health threats that justify phasing out non-essential uses of PFAS.

The report, presented at the council’s ongoing 63rd session, in Geneva, also calls for a legally binding global strategy to ultimately stop using the entire chemical class of PFAS. It also says governments should adopt stronger domestic protections and advocates for urgent medical monitoring and remedies for frontline communities living in “PFAS sacrifice zones.” 

The report is unambiguous that PFAS contamination prevention, not cleanup, has to be the goal.

The Environmental Working Group stands with North Carolina’s Clean Cape Fear, the National PFAS Contamination Coalition, and communities across the U.S. and around the world in urging governments to act on the report’s findings without delay.

But rather than strengthening protections, the Environmental Protection Agency is rolling back drinking water limits for several PFAS. At the same time, the agency is fast-tracking approval of new PFAS pesticides, with the current administration greenlighting five in less than two years. That’s despite EPA data showing serious, unresolved questions about the pesticides’ health and environmental risks.

The following is a statement from Melanie Benesh, EWG’s vice president for government affairs:

The United Nations report confirms what frontline advocates and scientists have known for decades: Toxic PFAS contamination is a global human rights crisis.

PFAS are everywhere, because that’s exactly how the industry designed them. These forever chemicals were engineered never to break down, and they spread across water, soil, food and the bodies of virtually every person alive today.

The science on the harm they cause is clear: PFAS have been linked to kidney, liver, pancreatic and testicular cancers; as well as immune system suppression, thyroid disease, reduced vaccine efficacy, reproductive and developmental harm, low birth weight, increased cholesterol, weight gain in children and dieting adults, and a growing list of serious health effects.

PFAS pollution crosses borders. For decades, U.S. regulators have let industry set the pace on PFAS. Communities pay the price, like in North Carolina, where Emily Donovan’s group Clean Cape Fear is leading the fight to make polluters pay.

The United States helped create this crisis. It has a responsibility to help end it.

The world cannot filter its way out of the forever chemicals crisis. Drinking water treatment helps, but it puts the burden of a problem industry created onto the communities and utilities left to clean it up. 

Real accountability means stopping non-essential PFAS production at the source. That requires the international community to finally treat this chemical class the way the evidence has demanded for years: as a single, urgent problem, not a chemical-by-chemical negotiation industry can slow-walk for another generation.

The world’s governments now have a UN report telling them exactly what needs to happen. The only question left is whether they’ll act on it. We must stop making the problem worse and ensure that polluters – not contaminated communities – pay for the damage.

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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.

Areas of Focus Water Toxic Chemicals Chemical Policy PFAS Chemicals North Carolina New report says ‘forever chemicals’ in almost everyone’s blood, calls to phase out PFAS uses Press Contact Monica Amarelo monica@ewg.org (202) 939-9140 September 14, 2026

“We joke that we became a food hub overnight,” said Laura Torres, the Director of the Smoky Mountain Harvest Hub (SMHH) in Waynesville, NC. This food hub, which aggregates from farmers across the region, distributes most of their produce via Haywood Christian Ministry (HCM), the highest volume food pantry in MANNA FoodBank’s service area. What […]

The post If You Give a Food Hub a Chance appeared first on RAFI.

In the coastal bays of Ocean City, Maryland, a floating wooden raft has become a thriving nesting colony for hundreds of sleek, silver-grey Common Terns – a remarkable conservation success story...

AI “doomerism” is going mainstream. This week the heads of major frontier AI companies ratcheted up their rhetoric about how dangerous the technology they are building is, calling for a “pause” on AI development.

Digital rights group Fight for the Future, which has run many of the highest profile campaigns against the use of AI for surveillance and warfare, issued the following statement, which can be attributed to the group’s director, Evan Greer (she/her):

“We can’t trust the AI industry to regulate itself. We can’t really trust anything these self-interested billionaires say. But we should take them seriously that the technology they are building is dangerous. And we should act urgently to demand strict regulation that protects people and holds AI companies accountable for the harm they’ve already done, while also preventing future harm. It’s clear that these industry leaders think they are best positioned to craft AI policy for the good of all humanity. We think that’s horseshit. Lawmakers should be listening to independent experts, researchers, civil society, and the communities most impacted. They should craft policies that address AI harm without undermining open source models or entrenching the largest players. Whether humans use AI to kill each other or AI agent swarms do immense harm, it’s clear that unregulated AI poses an existential threat to human rights and liberty, if not humanity itself. Congress should act, but they shouldn’t just do whatever the AI bros tell them to.”

Solidarity Economy (TG) Members Anchors: Melanie Bush, Halwest Karim Description The Global of Alternative Solidarity Economy Thematic Group aims to: * Share experiences of alternative economy projects around the world; * Consider our commonalities and specificities; GTA

This summer, progress took shape across Crab Meadow Marsh as scientists, volunteers, community members, and partners came together to support the future of this vital coastal habitat.A Promising Sign...

Contact: kayla@unbendablemedia.com

Statement from Mar Zepeda, Legislative Director of the Climate Justice Alliance, on the Trump administration finalizing the repeal of federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants:

“Scrapping limits on climate pollution places public health and our communities at perilous risk . We just lived through the hottest summer on record, with communities across the country enduring health consequences due to brutal heat, floods, storms and drought, and the Trump administration’s response is to give the fossil fuel industry permission to make the crisis worse. Climate change reduces air quality leading to respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, while extreme heat and flooding can lead to illness, injury and death. These risks are not shared equally: they are often faced by the same communities that have spent generations living next to power plants and other polluting industries.

“The previous power plant rule was far from perfect. We said at the time that its reliance on dangerous and unproven carbon capture technology gave the fossil fuel industry another lifeline when we should be moving away from fossil fuels altogether. The answer should have been stronger protections and a faster transition toward clean, affordable energy: not scrap federal limits on greenhouse gas pollution and give polluters free rein.

“This is also a question of who pays. When pollution continues, the costs do not disappear, they are borne by families and communities, environmental damage, extreme-weather impacts and the public costs of responding to them. Federal policy should protect communities, not leave them and taxpayers carrying the cost that polluters are better positioned to prevent.

“People deserve affordable, reliable energy, and the right to live in healthy communities without having to choose between keeping the lights on and protecting their health. Instead, this administration is choosing to keep us tied to an expensive, polluting energy system because it benefits the corporations that profit from it.”

                                                                 ###

The post Trump Move to Scrap Climate Pollution Limits After Hottest Summer on Record Is Self-destruction appeared first on Climate Justice Alliance.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to announce today that it will stop regulating carbon dioxide released by power plants burning fossil fuels, according to reports. If allowed to go into effect, the second largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would be allowed to grow unchecked. In response, David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program issued the following statement:

“With this move, Trump again subverts the EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment. Allowing more climate-heating pollution from the U.S. power sector will deeply harm Americans’ health and our natural environment. It will also cost us money and put us further behind in the competition over the energy of the future, renewables.

“The EPA’s rationale, that greenhouse gas pollution doesn’t endanger human health or the environment, is absurdly wrong, and the courts should reject it.”

Registered nurses from the Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health systems will hold an joint protest on Sept. 16 to rally for strong contracts to improve patient care at two of the Bay’s biggest hospital systems. Combined at both systems, more than 35,000 nurses are represented by CNA/NNU in active contract negotiations.

According to published reports, the Trump Administration will finalize rules to rollback carbon pollution standards for power plants, as soon as today.

Following is reaction from Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):

“With millions of Americans facing wildfires, heat waves and deadly storms fueled by climate change, the Trump administration is cutting the biggest polluters loose to do more damage than ever.

“For the health of our families and good of our nation, this cannot stand. Ignoring the immense harm to the public from this power plant pollution is a clear violation of the Clean Air Act and of Supreme Court precedent. We will be seeing them in court."

According to reporting, Donald Trump’s administration will propose to repeal the Endangerment Finding for power plants today – a move that would permanently strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas power plants under the Clean Air Act. This action would strip EPA of one of its most powerful tools for combating climate change. Combined with the administration’s February repeal of the Endangerment Finding for motor vehicles, today’s proposal is part of a sweeping effort to dismantle the legal foundation for federal climate regulation, leaving the EPA legally unable to act on the two largest sources of carbon pollution in the country.

The proposal is another one of Donald Trump’s attempts to bolster the profits of a struggling coal industry and deliver directly on the promises EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made to the corporate executives at a National Coal Council meeting in July, where he vowed to fulfill the industry’s “wish list.” The administration has already given more than $700 million in taxpayer dollars to the coal industry, despite the immense public and environmental harms associated with burning coal for electricity, and the well-documented evidence that clean energy is now cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable than fossil fuels.

The handouts and regulatory giveaways come as renewable energy continues to outperform fossil fuel-burning power plants in the marketplace. It is now cheaper to build new solar energy than to build new coal or gas plants–even without subsidies for renewable projects. In May, solar energy generated more electricity than coal across the entire country. That same month, Utah generated more energy from solar than any other source. Despite Donald Trump’s best efforts, the coal industry cannot compete with solar—it’s being kept on life support by taxpayer subsidies and regulatory handouts, while ordinary families pay the price in higher electricity bills, dirtier air, and more extreme weather fueled by carbon pollution.

In response, Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender issued the following statement:

“While wildfires rage, floods devastate communities, and families struggle to afford skyrocketing electricity bills and insurance premiums, the Trump administration is handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting. This is full-throated climate denial while the climate crisis happens in real time and a shocking betrayal of the American public. The Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country.”

Background

The Endangerment Finding is a 2009 scientific determination by the EPA that greenhouse gasses pose a significant threat to public health and the environment. It is the legal cornerstone of the EPA’s authority to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act – the foundation upon which vehicle standards, power plant rules, and other climate protections have all been built. The nonpartisan National Academies of Sciences confirmed last year that the finding “was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence.”

Sierra Club has been at the front lines of the fight for federal climate standards longer than any other organization. In December 2002, the Club filed the first-ever climate case under the Clean Air Act in federal court, which ultimately led to the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Clean Air Act covers greenhouse gas pollution and to all of the federal climate standards that followed. Now, two-and-a-half decades later, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are trying to destroy those hard-won victories in an effort to double-down on the fossil fuels that are harming the climate and environment, and driving up costs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact

Milagros R. Elia

Program Manager, Climate and Clean Energy Advocacy

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

milagros@envirn.org

914.455.1165

 

Nurses Mark National Truck Driver Appreciation Week With Call for Cleaner Trucks as a Public Health Priority

[USA] — As National Truck Driver Appreciation Week begins, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) is joining organizations across the country in honoring the professional truck drivers who keep our economy and our health care system moving — and calling on trucking industry leaders and manufacturers to invest in a cleaner future for the people behind the wheel and the communities along their routes.

Truck drivers perform one of the country’s most essential jobs, delivering the food, medicine, and equipment communities and hospitals rely on every day. They also spend their working lives exposed to diesel exhaust, a pollutant classified as carcinogenic. Nurses see the downstream effects of that exposure firsthand: asthma attacks, cardiovascular strain, and respiratory illness that hit hardest in communities along heavily trafficked freight corridors.

In response to National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments Executive Director Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN issued the following statement: 

“Truck drivers deserve more than our gratitude, they deserve working conditions that support their health and allow them to return home safely to their families. Investing in cleaner trucks is a meaningful way to honor these essential workers while protecting children, older adults, and families in communities located near highways, warehouses, and freight corridors.”

“Nurses care for patients whose asthma, heart disease, and respiratory conditions are worsened by transportation pollution. The trucking industry and vehicle manufacturers have both the ability and the responsibility to reduce these preventable health harms. Delaying clean truck progress prolongs harmful exposures and shifts the health burden onto drivers, patients, families, and already overburdened communities.”

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The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments is the only national nursing organization focused solely on the intersection of health and the environment. The mission of the Alliance is to support nurses in promoting planetary health and equity globally by educating and leading the nursing profession, advancing research, incorporating planet-safe practice, and influencing policy. http://enviRN.org

The post Nurses Mark National Truck Driver Appreciation Week With Call for Cleaner Trucks as a Public Health Priority appeared first on ANHE.

During National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments joins people across the country in recognizing the professional truck drivers who keep our communities, economy, and health care system moving.

Truck drivers perform essential work every day. The food on grocery store shelves, medications in pharmacies, and equipment and supplies used in hospitals and clinics reach their destinations because professional drivers transport them. Their work supports nearly every part of daily life, often requiring long hours on the road and extended periods away from their families. As nurses, we believe that appreciation should be demonstrated through meaningful investments in their health, safety, and working conditions, and in the health of the communities along the routes they travel.

For generations, diesel exhaust has been treated as an unavoidable part of working in and around the trucking industry. Professional drivers may spend thousands of hours each year inside or near diesel-powered vehicles, freight facilities, warehouses, ports, and distribution centers. This occupational exposure is compounded by long hours, demanding schedules, and limited opportunities to avoid polluted air.

Diesel exhaust is classified as carcinogenic to humans. It also contains fine particulate matter and other pollutants associated with respiratory and cardiovascular harm. Nurses witness the human consequences of air pollution in clinics, hospitals, schools, and communities from children struggling to breathe during an asthma attack to adults experiencing worsening heart and lung disease.

The risks extend beyond the people behind the wheel. Communities located near highways, ports, warehouses, and heavily traveled freight corridors often face disproportionate exposure to transportation pollution. Many of these communities are already affected by cumulative environmental hazards, inadequate access to health care, and other social and economic conditions that increase their vulnerability to illness.

The good news is that we have the technology to begin changing this reality. The transition to cleaner, zero-emission trucks can reduce harmful tailpipe pollution, improve air quality, and protect the health of drivers, freight workers, and nearby communities. Clean air is a fundamental condition for protecting health and preventing disease. 

Transition to clean technologies also presents an opportunity to strengthen the trucking industry. Investments in cleaner vehicles, charging infrastructure, workforce development, and dependable supply chains can help create an industry prepared to compete in a rapidly changing global market. Drivers must be included in this process so that the technologies placed into service are safe, practical, reliable, and responsive to the conditions they encounter on the road.

Achieving a cleaner freight system will require leadership across the entire trucking sector. Truck manufacturers must fulfill their clean-vehicle commitments and make cleaner trucks available at the scale and pace necessary to reduce pollution. Fleet operators must prepare for the transition while ensuring that workers have appropriate training, workplace protections, and a meaningful voice in implementation.

Industry associations also have an important responsibility. The American Trucking Associations should help its members prepare for a healthier and more competitive future instead of opposing policies intended to accelerate clean-truck deployment. Efforts to weaken or delay protections such as California’s Advanced Clean Trucks framework risk prolonging harmful exposures for drivers and communities while creating uncertainty for businesses already investing in cleaner technology.

Accountability does not mean placing the burden of this transition on individual drivers or small operators. Policymakers and industry leaders must ensure that funding, infrastructure, technical assistance, and workforce protections are available so the transition is practical and equitable. The people who keep goods moving should benefit directly from cleaner vehicles and healthier workplaces.

National Truck Driver Appreciation Week is an important opportunity to celebrate the skill, dedication, and sacrifice of professional drivers. But appreciation cannot end when the week does. Truck drivers keep America moving throughout the year. They deserve an industry that values their health as much as their productivity and recognizes clean air as an essential workplace protection. Communities along freight routes deserve relief from pollution that has affected their health for far too long.

Nurses have a role in advancing this vision. We can educate patients and decision-makers about the health consequences of diesel pollution, support evidence-based clean-truck protections, advocate for equitable infrastructure investments, and elevate the experiences of drivers and communities most affected by freight-related pollution.

Investing in cleaner trucks is an investment in disease prevention, healthier workers, more resilient communities, and a stronger transportation system. It is also one of the most meaningful ways to recognize the people whose work connects our hospitals, businesses, and homes.

This week, we thank America’s truck drivers. For the years ahead, let us invest in their health—and ours.

 

The post Thanking Truck Drivers Means Investing in Their Health—and Ours appeared first on ANHE.

The Trump administration continues its attacks on public lands in its latest push to rescind the Roadless Rule, one of the country’s most important legal safeguards for undeveloped national forests. In August, the U.S. Forest Service moved to the next phase of its rulemaking process, releasing a dangerous proposal to put nearly 45 million acres of roadless public lands nationwide at greater risk of logging, roadbuilding, mining, and other industrial development.

In Utah, the Roadless Rule protects roughly 4 million acres of forest—from the Wasatch Front to the West Desert to southern Utah’s redrock forests—including wildlife habitat, quiet recreation, the headwaters for entire watersheds, and the large, unfragmented landscapes that make the West wild.

Please tell the Forest Service to protect our nation’s wild forests by keeping the Roadless Rule intact © Tim Peterson

Utah does not need more roads. National forests already contain hundreds of thousands of miles of roads nationwide, and there’s a multibillion-dollar maintenance backlog for these existing roads. The Roadless Rule does not close these roads, prevent people from reaching trailheads, or end outdoor recreation. Roadless areas remain open for hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, and other recreation while striking a balance that protects the wildlife and cultural resources many visitors are there to experience and enjoy.

This proposal is really about opening public lands to more industrial development, extraction, and privatization. New roads make commercial logging, mining, drilling, and other damaging development easier while fragmenting habitat, eroding soils, degrading streams, spreading invasive species, and increasing human disturbance in places that have remained largely whole. Opening these areas to new roads doesn’t address wildfire safety and may even increase ignition risk. The Roadless Rule already permits fire suppression, fuels work, and emergency roads when necessary in wildland firefighting.

In Utah, roadless national forest lands help connect Bureau of Land Management landscapes proposed for protection in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act. Together, these public lands support wildlife migration and climate resilience across Utah’s mountains, plateaus, and redrock country. Fragmenting one part of that system severely weakens the whole.

The deadline for public comments on the Roadless Rule rescission is Tuesday, October 6. Click here to tell the Forest Service why roadless areas matter to you and to the redrock.

Thank you for standing up for Utah’s forests!

The post Speak Up for Wild Forests: Tell the Forest Service to Preserve the Roadless Rule appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Two national activist groups, Progressive Democrats of America and RootsAction, announced today that they will launch a campaign soon after the November midterm elections calling for Reps. Ro Khanna and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to enter the race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.

“As the prospective field comes into view, it’s crucial to have a strong progressive at the top of the Democratic ticket in 2028,” the two groups said in a joint statement. “Most of the Democrats whose names now crowd the field have been war enablers, go-slow reformers or status quo protectors. AOC and Khanna, meanwhile, have shown a willingness to blaze unusual and much-needed trails on Capitol Hill beyond the constraints of the Democratic Party establishment and bipartisan corporatism.”

The groups said: “Majorities of voters, not just Democrats, are angry about nonstop war, runaway inflation, corporate greed and a government dominated by billionaires. The voices of Khanna and/or AOC are needed in the presidential campaign to ensure that voters hear serious solutions. Without a progressive populist advocate atop the ticket, the Democratic response would be woefully underwhelming -- enabling right-wing demagoguery to push voter unrest in dangerous and divisive directions.”

Progressive Democrats of America launched the “Run, Bernie, Run” campaign in 2013, which successfully drafted independent Senator Bernie Sanders to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 -- a campaign that sparked a big part of the contemporary progressive movement.

In November 2022, RootsAction launched the “Don’t Run Joe” campaign calling for President Biden not to seek re-election. RootsAction was the first national group to announce support for Zohran Mamdani in his successful run for mayor of New York.

The joint statement called Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez “proven leaders and voices of clarity at a time of grave peril for our country and the world.” The groups said “we believe their presence in the race is crucial to foster debate on healthcare, jobs, AI, militarism and the U.S. relationship with Israel, along with many other issues important to a wide range of voters.”

Progressive Democrats of America and RootsAction commented: “The announcement of this campaign will come as a surprise to both Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez. We did not give them any advance notice of it, and they have never suggested to us that we do any such thing.”

“Our organizations do not always agree with Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna, and no doubt they don’t always agree with us,” the groups said. “But we definitely want to see one or both of them in the race.”

Both RootsAction and PDA are committed to helping the Democratic Party win the midterm elections, after which this campaign will launch. The groups added, “Party unity will be stronger with the expectation that the party’s full spectrum of views will be well-represented on presidential debate platforms in 2027 and ’28.”

PDA executive director Alan Minsky said today: “The success of progressive candidates across the country was the story of the 2026 primary season. Yet almost all of the high-profile prospective Democratic presidential candidates are Big Money-backed status quo centrists -- at a time when the Democratic voting base overwhelmingly supports progressive policies that lift the lives of working people. We need at least one progressive champion on the presidential debate stage to counter the corporatists’ cacophony of bland incrementalism. Americans want change. Reps. Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez are two brilliant advocates for an America as great as its promise."

RootsAction senior strategist India Walton commented: “Working people are hungry for leadership that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected -- leaders who do not capitulate to corporate power, who reject endless wars, and embrace policies that mean we can live healthy, happy lives. AOC and Ro Khanna can bring that vision to the presidential stage."

TXNM unwound a Blackstone stock sale ruled illegal, but the state Department of Justice is seeking more information related to potential indirect costs to PNM ratepayers.

Eliminating federal limits on power-sector emissions could undermine local climate goals and increase risks to infrastructure and public health, city and environmental leaders warn.

This is a guest blog by Rodrigo Leitão, environmental lawyer and member of Coletivo Pororoka, and Alexandre Anderson, of Rede Ahomar — a nationwide organization representing fishermen and fishing communities in the Guanabara Bay region, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and throughout the country. On October 7 2026, Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP) is set to hold its next oil block auction — including further expansion of exploration areas in the Foz do Amazonas basin.

The confirmed discovery of oil off the coast of Oiapoque, at the mouth of the Amazon in northern Brazil — an area known as the Foz do Amazonas basin, puts the region on a slippery path that fishers in Guanabara Bay already know well. A path that, once travelled, leaves marks impossible to erase.

Rodrigo Leitão is an environmental Lawyer; member the Amazonian organization Pororoka and Representative of the Brazilian Institute of Environmental Law (IBDA). Photo: AHOMAR

Guanabara Bay, in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, knows what it looks like when the oil industry arrives. The story began in 1954, when the Manguinhos Refinery started operating. In 1961 came the Duque de Caxias Refinery, known as REDUC. After that came the pipelines, the terminals, the petrochemical plants, the support structures for the offshore industry, the vessels and the new facilities. Decade after decade, the industry took up more of the Bay, competing for space with the people who already lived there. 

Separate licences, accumulated impacts

In Guanabara Bay, the destruction caused by oil didn’t happen all at once — it built up slowly, one project at a time. Each new project was licensed on its own, so no one ever assessed the full, combined impact. By the time the damage became visible, a great deal had already been lost. 

In January 2000, a ruptured of a pipeline spilled around 1.3 million litres of oil, roughly 340,000 gallons, into Guanabara Bay. Mangroves, beaches, fish, birds and thousands of fishers were hit. But the violence against small-scale fishing did not begin at that moment. It had  already been under way for years: in the shrinking fishing grounds, the exclusion zones, the traffic of large vessels, the dredging, the pollution and the steady transformation of the territory.

A participatory mapping carried out with small-scale fishers in Guanabara Bay showed the scale of that loss. The study by Carla Ramôa Chaves, developed at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), found that only 12% to 25% of the bay remained free of restrictions on fishing. The oil industry stood out as the largest single user of the water surface.

Territory and life

Losing a fishing territory is not simply losing an area on a map. Territory means income, food, knowledge and spirituality. Even the definition used by Brazil’s Federal Government recognizes that life in these communities is organized around the waters and their cycles. It took many generations to learn the right time to take from nature what nature offers. And for that, fishers depend on mangroves, rivers, estuaries and seas that are still alive.

So when a fishing territory disappears, what disappears is far more than an economic activity that could easily be swapped for another source of income, as many people assume. It is a form of violence, because it wipes out a way of life handed down from parent to child, built in community and in respect for nature. It is violence because it destroys what people learned to love and to value, in the name of a development that never arrived and never will.

It is impossible to look at this history and not think about the mouth of the Amazon.

Fishing industry leaders from Rio de Janeiro join forces with leaders from the Amazon against well drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River. Photo: AHOMAR

Block 59 is only the first

On August 14 2026, Petrobras confirmed that it had found oil in the main well of Block FZA-M-59 – the first confirmed discovery of oil in the mouth of the Amazon River. As soon as the news broke, several foreign oil companies applied for permission to drill in the area. The block, with four wells planned, can be presented as an isolated business venture 175 kilometres (about 109 miles) off the coast of Amapá. But we are not talking about a single project.

In 2025, contracts were signed for 19 new blocks in the Foz do Amazonas basin, at the mouth of the Amazon River. In June 2026, Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP) listed another 36 blocks in the same basin for study, with a view to including them in future auctions. What these facts show is the opening of Foz do Amazonas basin as a new frontier for oil exploration.

Once production begins, what comes with it are support vessels, shuttle tankers, helicopters, subsea structures, safety zones, logistics bases, port facilities, fuel, waste, workers, storage, pipelines and terminals.

That is how the occupation of Guanabara grew, little by little, until it stopped being a set of separate projects and became a permanent dispute over territory.

Fishers in the Foz do Amazonas basin do not need to wait twenty or thirty years to find out what fishers in Guanabara learned over the course of their own lives: oil does not only occupy the seabed. It moves into living territories and destroys them.

A mangrove that wraps around the planet

Unlike the generations before us, our greatest challenge is no longer to control nature. It is to join it, if we want any chance of surviving climate change. In the delicate balance of the world, mangroves play a key role. They are important sinks for carbon dioxide, one of the gases responsible for global warming. At the mouth of the Amazon lies the largest mangrove belt on the planet and most of Brazil’s mangroves, stretching across the states of Amapá, Pará and Maranhão – a huge carbon sink.

Mangroves are also fundamental to local life. They are nurseries for countless marine species that provide food and income for traditional communities, something already recognized by Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment. IBAMA, the federal environmental agency, has classified the region as extremely sensitive in social and environmental terms, pointing to Indigenous Lands and protected areas that shelter Indigenous villages, threatened species and one of the greatest concentrations of biodiversity known.

IBAMA has also warned that assessing a project in isolation, as in the case of Block 59, does not answer the question of whether the region is suited to receiving the entire oil production chain.

“May the wind blow strong in Guanabara Bay”

That is the motto of the Association of Men and Women of the Sea of Guanabara Bay (AHOMAR), a kind of omen that comes before a great victory. AHOMAR, founded in 2007, today brings together 11 associations and around four thousand fisherpeople who are fighting for formal recognition of their community territories and against the steady loss of fishing grounds in Guanabara Bay. The group stands up to chronic pollution, to the pressures created by REDUC’s operations and by the logistics expansion linked to COMPERJ, the Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex project, in a context of serious socio-environmental conflict and threats against fishers.

The experience of Guanabara can help strengthen a wide alliance of small-scale fishing in the Foz do Amazonas basin: to map fishing territories, to record traditional fishing spots and routes, to track changes in the quantity and quality of the catch, to monitor impacts, to produce information through the communities themselves, and to fight so that these peoples have a voice before decisions are taken and not only after the damage is done. To fight so that an economy that may last a few decades does not destroy a socio-bioeconomy that has sustained generations and could sustain many more.

Alexandre Anderson de Souza is a fisherman and president of the Association of Men and Women of the Sea (AHOMAR). Photo: AHOMAR

May the wind blow strong in Guanabara Bay, and may it reach the peoples of the mouth of the Amazon.

The post Oil Exploration at the Mouth of the Amazon: a Warning from the Guanabara Bay appeared first on 350.

Declaração sobre Autonomia, Democracia Radical e Autodeterminação [ English ] [ Español ] [ Français ] [ Português] Emitida na “Confluência Global sobre Democracia Radical, Autonomia e Autodeterminação”, Port Edward, África do Sul, 2-6 de fevereiro de 2025. Organizada pela Global of AlternativesGTA