Headlines June 23, 2023 from Democracy Now!

In Mexico, human rights advocates are demanding justice for two environmentalists assassinated in separate attacks in the state of Mexico earlier this month. Álvaro Arvizu and Cuauhtémoc Márquez were forest and water defenders who fought against extractivism in the region. Márquez, who was also a beekeeper, was shot dead near his home on June 12. A day later, Arvizu died after being brutally assaulted by a group of unknown assailants with what appeared to be an ax. Mexico continues to be one of the deadliest countries for environmentalists in the world.

Back in the U.S., the Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation over claims the federal government has failed in its duty to address the tribe’s water rights. Writing for the majority in Thursday’s 5-4 ruling, Justice Brett Kavanaugh ruled that the 1868 treaty that established the Navajo Reservation said nothing about an “affirmative duty” for the United States to secure water. The court’s three liberal justices joined Neil Gorsuch in dissent, writing that the government has a duty to properly manage the water it holds for the tribe. Thousands of Navajo Nation members lack access to running water in their homes, even though the Colorado River runs along the northwestern border of their reservation.

The government of France has ordered the shutdown of the direct-action environmental group Earth Uprising, wielding powers that it previously used to outlaw far-right movements. The order came after the French interior minister accused Earth Uprising of carrying out “eco-terrorism” at several recent high-profile protests. The group responded in a statement, “Trying to silence Earth Uprising is a vain attempt to break the thermometer instead of worrying about the temperature.” The crackdown drew criticism from Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who spoke Thursday from Paris.

Greta Thunberg: “All over the world we are experiencing this, not the least, for example, here in France just the other day, and that activists are being systemically targeted with repression and are paying the price for defending life and for the right to protest.”

Greta Thunberg was speaking at this week’s Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris, where climate activists are demanding world leaders mobilize trillions of dollars to finance a transition to clean energy and a “loss and damage fund” to help the Global South deal with the worst effects of a climate catastrophe they did not cause. This is Ineza Grace, a youth climate activist from Rwanda.

Ineza Grace: “We have recently seen the flooding in Italy, the wildfire in Canada. But the developing world is hit the hardest because they have the least resources to cope. For countries like mine, business as usual is a death sentence.”

 

In New York, immigration advocates have vowed to keep fighting after state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie refused to hold a vote on legislation that would have allowed undocumented people to enroll in New York’s Essential Plan, government-subsidized health insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act. The “Coverage for All” bill had passed the state Senate earlier this month. Both chambers are controlled by Democrats. Nearly half a million New Yorkers are currently excluded from Medicaid in the Essential Plan healthcare coverage due to their immigration status. Click here to see our interview with New York Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, who sponsored the bill.