Global News and Analysis

The most striking feature of today’s uprising is that the gigantic rallies are peaceful and socially mixed, with men and women, old and young, taking part—and adamant in their resolve to get rid of the regime.

Source: The Intercept

IT’S FRIDAY AT DUSK on a long stretch of dirt road in Hidalgo County, Texas, about a mile north of the Rio Grande and Mexico. Orange light gleams through a single palm tree towering over hardwood mesquites. Land speculators imported palms to the Rio Grande Valley a century ago to attract white American settlers to the region, and they loom especially high above dense thornscrub below.

I’m walking to my car with Christopher Basaldú, who’s lived in a nearby tent for over a month in anticipation of wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border. Basaldú, of Brownsville, and about two dozen others formed the Yalui Village campsite on the site of the 19th century-era Eli Jackson Cemetery, a state-designated historical marker in the path of the proposed border barrier. A sign at the entrance of the camp announces the presence of the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe (Estók G’na), a reference to groups indigenous to the valley. The occupation began in late January, shortly before Customs and Border Protection said wall construction could begin. read more

Source: In These Times

Manoomin (wild rice) now has legal rights.  At the close of 2018, the White Earth band of Ojibwe recognized the “Rights of Manoomin” as a part of tribal regulatory authority.  The resolution states, “It has become necessary to provide a legal basis to protect wild rice and fresh water resources as part of our primary treaty foods for future generations.” White Earth, the largest Ojibwe tribe in Minnesota, relies on wild rice for sustenance, not only monetarily, but as “food for the spirits.” This new White Earth law is similar to one adopted by the 1855 Treaty Alliance, and reflects traditional laws of Anishinaabe people. read more

Israel has begun to bomb from the sky.

Republicans are doing everything in their power to kneecap the country’s ability to respond to climate change.

Sustained demonstrations in Ecuador got the government to back down—at least for now.