Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Amnesty International –

A year on from the detention of Fidel Antonio Zavala Pérez, a member and spokesperson for the Unidad de Defensa de Derechos Humanos y Comunitarios (UNIDEHC), Amnesty International expresses its concern regarding his prolonged pre-trial detention and the abusive use of criminal law against defenders and community leaders to criminalize the defence of human rights in El Salvador.

“What we are witnessing in the case of UNIDEHC spokespersons is evidence of a worrying trend of unlawful use of criminal law against those working to defend the rights of communities,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International. “When justice becomes a weapon for intimidation, the rule of law is undermined and a message of deterrence sent to those reporting abuses.”

When justice becomes a weapon for intimidation, the rule of law is undermined and a message of deterrence sent to those reporting abuses.”

Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Source: Amnesty International –

Chinese authorities must stop blocking access to medical treatment for a land rights activist, Amnesty International said, as the annual ‘Two Sessions’ meetings of China’s government opened in Beijing.

The family of woman human rights defender Yang Li, who recently spent 15 months in detention for her advocacy on land rights, say that her condition has deteriorated to end-stage kidney failure following prolonged inability to access medical care during and following her time in custody.

According to the family, since her release police have repeatedly blocked her travel to Beijing to receive potentially life-saving dialysis treatment, restricting her freedom of movement to her home in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

The ‘Two Sessions’ – annual meetings of Chinese Party and government leadership that set the tone for political, social and economic reforms for the year to come – began on Wednesday 4 March with the elite Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, while the regular, rubberstamp National People’s Congress (NPC) annual session started on Thursday.

“Keeping Yang Li from essential treatment is unconscionable. Denying urgent care to a critically ill woman – seemingly in retaliation for her peaceful advocacy – is a glaring violation of China’s duty to respect and fulfil  the right to health of all,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director.

“As China’s leaders gather for the ‘Two Sessions’, we expect to hear about their commitment to improving peoples’ lives and ensuring social services; this must be matched by action and applied to all.

“The authorities must enable Yang Li’s safe transfer to a trusted hospital — including outside Jiangsu or abroad — and guarantee no reprisals against her or her relatives.”

Source: Greenpeace Statement –

A new scientific study has provided the most comprehensive look at how our attachment to oil and gas is killing people and making us sick. President Trump, of course, wants more oil, more drilling, less renewable energy, and fewer protections against pollution. The science shows that if he gets his way, Trump will flood our environment with even more pollution and end up making America sicker.

Of course, Trump says the opposite. In his loud, meandering style, he claims he is actually making America healthier:

“Keep the dangerous chemicals out of our food supplies, get toxic substances out of our environmentand deliver the American people the facts as to really where we’re going. […] And we want to be healthy. And we want to have a lot of good things happen. And I think we’re going to have that. I think this is just the beginning.” – President Trump, Make America Healthy Again Meeting, May 22, 2025

Up is down, fact is fiction, dirty is clean.

It is exhausting to continually fact-check the most powerful politician in the country, and sometimes it feels futile, but I believe the truth is still worth fighting for. So here’s the scoop.

Oil and gas pollution is bad for you

A 2025 study from Vohra et al. published in the journal Science confirms what countless other studies have found. Oil and gas production, processing, and combustion creates air pollution that harms the health of humans exposed to it – and that’s before we even factor in dangerous climate change.

The new study uses cutting-edge science on the health impacts of air pollution combined with a comprehensive survey of pollution across the oil and gas lifecycle, from oil well to the refinery to the places where the fuels are burned. All told, just one year of air pollution from the oil and gas lifecycle causes an astounding 91,000 premature deaths. And that is in addition to over 10,000 preterm births, over 200,000 childhood-onset asthma incidences and 1,610 lifetime cancers.

One figure from this report is worth a thousand words.

The Downstream sector refers to facilities that refine and process oil and gas, with the Gulf Coast being the largest pollution hotspot associated with this sector.

The final End-use sector is the largest, showing the places where we use oil and gas products every day. This includes car and truck traffic along our roads and highways, in countless industrial facilities, and even in our own homes. The pollution hotspots for this sector sprawl across the country, closely tracking population patterns.

And this study doesn’t even include air pollution from coal. An earlier study showed that if you included air pollution impacts from all fossil fuels (including coal, oil and gas), premature deaths from one year of air pollution could be as high as 355,000 people.

Destroying public health

Trump’s support for dirty energy is notorious, but his second-term attacks on our health don’t stop there.

Trump’s EPA has announced plans to weaken environmental rules for at least 13 cancer-causing pollutants. Nearly 160 million Americans are exposed to the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, but in May 2025 the EPA announced that it would abandon drinking water limits for them. Trump has even given coal plants and other polluting facilities a “two-year exemption from their Clean Air Act responsibilities.” The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 4.6 million people live within two miles of the polluters that received a Trump pollution pass.

Bizarrely, EPA officials have justified rolling back pollution rules by saying that we need to increase electricity derived from fossil fuels to help power AI data centers, so that AI can find more cures for pediatric cancer. No, it doesn’t make sense to us either.

We haven’t even talked about climate change yet. On February 12, 2026, Trump’s EPA revoked the scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health – a move that would end all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act with disastrous consequences. If Trump’s climate rollbacks are allowed to stand they would lead to an estimated 1.3 million more heat-related deaths worldwide.

To make it even more explicit, the EPA recently announced that it will just simply stop considering the benefits of saving lives when setting air pollution rules. All of this is a massive betrayal of the EPA’s mission “to protect human health and the environment”, but it could also start to expose deep fissures and contradictions in Trump’s coalition.

There are no doubt people in the MAHA movement who sincerely care about the many ways our modern economy is making us all less healthy. But increasing fossil pollution – much like firing scientists, eroding scientific integrity, elevating charlatans, dismantling the CDC, undermining vaccines, and ending health insurance subsidies – moves us in the wrong direction. 

Make honesty great again

A wise man once told me not to lie, because for every lie you have to tell ten more just to cover up the first one… and then ten more for each of those, and so on and so forth. Well, after a decade of the President lying about things big and small, the problem has grown exponentially into a vast alternate reality. It’s not surprising that someone who would lie about winning the 2020 election, or accuse immigrants of eating pets, would also lie about pollution and health. 

The cold truth is that ‘Drill baby, drill’ is a terrible idea, and the faster we can transition away from fossil fuels, the healthier we’ll all be.

Source: Amnesty International –

Responding to the launch of Molly vs The Machines, a documentary about Molly Russell, a 14-year-old British girl who died by suicide in 2017 after she viewed harmful online content while struggling with depression, Hannah Storey, Amnesty International’s Head of Children and Young People’s Digital Rights, said: 

“Molly is remembered by her family and friends for her kindness. She deserved protection from algorithms that fed her negative content. Social media companies have a responsibility to prevent Molly’s tragedy from happening again.   

“The documentary shows not only the profound harm young people can face on social media, but also the deeply problematic business model driving these platforms. Amnesty International has been raising the alarm about this for years, including in our TikTok research, which exposed how TikTok’s design can amplify depressive and suicidal content, putting already vulnerable young users at even greater risk. 

“Given the severity of the harms, we understand why some are proposing to ban teenagers from these platforms, but bans are a blunt tool. They fail to reflect the complex reality of children’s needs online, and they risk excluding children because companies have failed to fix designs that profit from capturing their attention. 

Hannah Storey, Amnesty International’s Head of Children and Young People’s Digital Rights

“It’s vital we hold these companies to account for the harm they cause and demand a fundamental overhaul to the way these platforms operate.  

“Governments need to move beyond debating bans and instead follow due process to put in place robust, well‑enforced legislation that genuinely safeguards young people. That must include measures to tackle addictive design and ensure platforms are built with children’s rights at their core.” 

Source: Amnesty International –

Across the world, governments and anti-rights movements are rolling back on decades of progress on gender equality, including access to abortion. But people are fighting back, determined to protect the rights so many have fought so hard to achieve. 

Ahead of International Women’s Day, we spoke with five courageous activists from Tunisia, Mexico, Burkina Faso, Poland and the United States who shared their strategies to protect access to abortion, their hopes for the future and the reasons why they believe that, despite the many increasing challenges, humanity must always win. 

My name is Selma Hajri, I’m 71 and I am Tunisian. I am a doctor and a feminist. About fifteen years ago, I was the founder of an association dedicated to sexual and reproductive rights: the TAWHIDA Ben Cheikh Group. I am an endocrinologist specialising in reproductive health, and I am still the General Secretary of this association. 

A few years ago, I created a regional network of activists and health professionals for abortion rights and access. This network focuses on the southern Mediterranean region, but with a view to exchange experiences with the northern mediterranean region more. I am very proud because it is the first and only network in this region that directly addresses abortion rights. 

Source: Greenpeace Statement –

Jayapura, 5 March 2026. Marind Indigenous people from the south of West Papua today filed a legal challenge against a 135-kilometre access road planned to facilitate a government National Strategic Project (PSN) to convert their tropical forest, savannah and wetlands into rice paddies and commodity plantations in Merauke district.

The five plaintiffs, Simon Petrus Balagaize, Sinta Gebze, Liborius Kodai Moiwend, Kanisius Dagil, and Andreas Mahuse, arrived at the at the Jayapura State Administrative Court in traditional Marind dress, accompanied by West Papuan youth and student groups carrying banners reading “Save Indigenous Papuans’ Forests” and others in Indonesian, including one translating to “Customary Land is not Terra Nullius — Resist Colonialism.” Before entering, the plaintiffs performed a traditional prayer ceremony, smearing white mud on their bodies in mourning for the ongoing destruction carried out in the name of the PSN.

“We are filing this lawsuit because we are grieving. We have lost our land, our mother, the place where we find our food. We were born on this land, but now it is hard to find food because the forest is being torn apart. Investors entered without permission, like thieves, and tore the forest apart with excavators. We erected traditional blockades but they ignored them. We spoke out against them but we are afraid, because the military worked there and brought their firearms,” said Marind woman Sinta Gebze, one of the five plaintiffs.

Indonesia’s Prabowo-Gibran administration says the 135km road is designed to support its food and energy estate plans (PSN) for South Papua province. The road runs alongside a rice paddy project in Wanam, Ilwayab District, led by the Ministry of Defence in partnership with PT Jhonlin Group owned by South Kalimantan mining businessman Andi Syamsudin Arsyad.

The road cuts through Indigenous customary forest from Wanam village to Muting, and construction has proceeded in violation of the law from the outset. The first 56 kilometres have already been cleared, and phase two is now being overseen by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing through several state-linked construction companies.

“This 135-kilometre road project reflects the chaos of the PSN regime that began under Joko Widodo and has continued under Prabowo Subianto. Land clearing began illegally in September 2024, before any environmental feasibility documents existed. The Merauke Regent’s environmental permit was only issued in September 2025, and we believe it was issued to retroactively justify violations that had already taken place,” said Tigor Hutapea, a member of the Merauke Solidarity Advocacy Team at Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Foundation.

Not only is it procedurally flawed, the permit is also invalid in that it ignores the rights of affected Indigenous communities who have actively opposed the project. “On the international stage the Indonesian government declares its commitment to peace, but its PSN project is generating conflict within West Papuan communities on the ground. A PSN backed by the military only entrenches the threat of violence and trauma for the Papuan people,” said advocacy team member Emanuel Gobay of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).

Sekar Banjaran Aji, also a member of the legal team and Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia, added: “While roads destroyed by the disastrous floods in Sumatra are still in urgent need of repair, the government is instead clearing forest in Merauke for a road that will primarily serve to accelerate the seizure of Papuan lands. Destroying forests during a climate crisis is not a shortcut to food and energy self-sufficiency. Instead it drives us toward the loss of those forests and the Indigenous knowledge they contain.”

This lawsuit at the Jayapura State Administrative Court is one part of a wider struggle. West Papua’s Indigenous communities are simultaneously challenging PSN-enabling provisions of the Job Creation Law at the Constitutional Court, while in their villages they continue to erect traditional blockades in protest. 

Notes to Editor:
Photos and videos from the court case lodgement are available for use.

Contacts:
Sekar Banjaran Aji, Greenpeace Indonesia, +62 812-8776-9880
Tigor Hutapea, Pusaka Bentala Rakyat, +62 812-8729-6684
Igor O’Neill, Greenpeace Indonesia, +61 414-288-424

Source: Oxfam –

Source: Oxfam –

We, the Regional Directors of 14 INGOs, express our profound concern at the accelerating military escalation across the Middle East and the wider region. What we are witnessing is a dangerous expansion of violence with devastating consequences for civilians. 

There must be an immediate end to this spiral of military violence, to the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, and a return to the pursuit of diplomatic solutions. The continued exchange of attacks across borders is deepening instability, heightening tensions, and placing entire populations at unacceptable risks. Every new strike increases the broader regional crisis that will be borne primarily by civilians, especially children and women who have already been disproportionately impacted. 

We are gravely concerned by the ongoing and repeated possible violations of international humanitarian law, which demand independent and impartial review. In situations of international armed conflict, the full body of international humanitarian law applies. These rules exist to limit suffering and to protect those who are not, or are no longer, participating in hostilities. 

This violence is the foreseeable consequence of years in which violations of international law have gone insufficiently checked. At a time when international humanitarian law is already undermined, all parties should fully return to and uphold their obligations under it. 

Our humanitarian workers across the region are responding to urgent humanitarian needs wherever access is possible and until funds are available, in close coordination with our partners. However, humanitarian assistance alone cannot keep pace with the scale and speed of suffering generated by ongoing hostilities. Aid cannot substitute for political solutions. 

What is urgently required is decisive political will to de-escalate tensions, uphold international law, protect civilians, and commit to meaningful pathways toward peace. Without immediate action, the human cost will continue to rise, and the consequences of inaction will reverberate across generations. 

We call on all parties to prioritize the protection of civilians, humanitarian workers, and civilian infrastructures, in particular health facilities, schools and water infrastructure, adhere strictly to international humanitarian law, and take immediate steps to end the violence across the Middle East.

 Signed: 

1. Caroline Bedos Esteban, MENA Unit Manager, Médecins du Monde / Doctors of the World 

2. Laure Baudin,MENA Regional Director, Terre des hommes Foundation 

3. Myriam Abord-Hugon, Mashreq Regional Director, Humanity&Inclusion-Handicap International 

4. Lilu Thapa, MEAE Executive Director, DRC 

5. Flutra Gorana, Middle East Regional Director, War Child Alliance Foundation 

6. Angelita Caredda, MENA Regional Director NRC 

7. Carlo Gherardi, EurAsia Regional Director NRC 

8. Ahmad Alhendawi, Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, Save the Children 

9. Arnaud Quemin, Vice-President for MENA, Europe, and Asia, Mercy Corps 

10. Sally Abi Khalil, Regional Director MENA, Oxfam 

11. Fiona Gannon, Regional Director – Middle East, Concern Worldwide 

12. Stephanie Yousef, Senior Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, CIVIC 

13. Benjamin Thiberge, Emergencies and oPt Coordinator, Médicos del Mundo/Doctors of the World 

14. Eleanor Monbiot, Regional Leader at World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe

/Ends

Source: Greenpeace Statement –

There are a lot of things about the wild west-style expansion of AI that are unbelievable. One of the worst is the resurgence of coal to power new data centers. Coal power has been on the decline in the US since the mid-2000s, and despite the historically low price of renewables, data center developers, tech companies, and the Trump administration are so eager to get data centers online and operating that they are pulling coal plants out of retirement.

In the last year, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) ordered five coal plants that were scheduled for retirement to keep running. These five coal plants have been estimated to cause 124 deaths per year as of 2019. Resurrecting coal plants is meant to help meet the rising demand for electricity driven primarily by data centers, but also part of Trump’s stated goal of bailing out the dying coal industry. In February, the DOE approved $175 million to upgrade seven more coal plants to keep them polluting for longer as part of public-private partnerships with the utility companies operating the coal plants. 

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Reuters in September 2025, fueling AI data centers is a major driver for keeping existing coal capacity running. As the New York Times reported, DOE officials claim this is “just the beginning”. DOE has been ordering plants to stay open using authority from the Federal Power Act Section 202(c), which is reserved for “emergency” conditions.

The phasing out of U.S. coal power has had tremendous benefits for health, environmental justice, and the climate. Coal power comes with devastating air pollution, groundwater contamination, and health risks for children, workers, and local communities. Fine particulate air pollution from coal is responsible for an estimated 460,000 deaths between 1999 and 2020 in the U.S. alone. One study estimated that closing coal power plants between 2005-2016 saved over 22,000 lives as coal-related pollution dropped. 

Research shows that closing a significant emissions source like coal plants have immediate and long-term benefits in the region. After the Shenango coal coking plant closed in 2016, researchers saw a 20.5% decrease in weekly respiratory emergency visits and 41.2% decrease in emergency visits for pediatric asthma immediately after the shutdown, and respiratory emergency visits continued to drop for months. In 2023, coal accounted for just 16% of U.S. power supply, down from 53% in 2000, and retirement rates were accelerating. Although many existing coal plants are nearing their retirement age, the current administration has recklessly decided to attempt to revive the industry.

Most of these plants are also more than 50 years old and in need of expensive repairs to stay open, on top of the major health and climate impacts they bring with them. In case the world has forgotten, let’s tour twelve of the major coal power plants in the U.S. that are being reanimated or upgraded to service the reckless dash to build more AI.

The Coal Plants

Affordability

A major driver of coal plant closures is simple economics. Many of the coal plants across the country have become too expensive to operate, as the revenue they generate doesn’t make up for their repairs and maintenance costs.

Consider the case of the J.H. Campbell coal plant in western Michigan and its operator, Consumers Energy. Consumers Energy had planned to retire all coal generation by 2025 – 15 years faster than it had previously projected – because phasing out coal would be easier on the pocketbooks of consumers without sacrificing reliable power. The original plan claimed it would “save customers an estimated $600 million through 2040” on top of the environmental and health benefits.

But who pays when coal plants stay open? Utilities fund coal upgrades and repairs, and these costs get passed on to ratepayers. Consumers Energy, for example, has recently stated that they expect the cost to operate the J.H. Campbell plant be spread among ratepayers across the Midwestern regional grid, even outside of Michigan. Tri-State, the operator of Colorado’s Craig station, made it clear that reopening the plant will force ratepayers to “unnecessarily bear the full cost of complying”.

According to a report from Grid Strategies, preventing the nation’s aging coal and fossil-fired power plants from retiring over the next three years could cost consumers at least $3 billion per year. And the healthcare costs for people suffering the pollution of coal plants is far worse. Health-related costs from coal cost billions of dollars per year – 13 times more than the amount ratepayers pay for electricity alone. The Rocky Mountain Institute estimates that between 2015 and 2023, coal power racked up a staggering $236 billion in health costs for families and communities. The EPA just announced they will weaken even more regulations on limits for hazardous pollutants from coal plants, including mercury, which will further ramp up the health toll.

A genuine commitment to affordability would mean embracing the phase-out of costly coal and fossil fuels. Luckily, today renewables are best for consumer affordability, health, and the climate. For example, by co-locating renewable energy infrastructure with data centers, ratepayers would be spared the burden of expensive utility upgrades, prevent thousands of air pollution-related deaths and illnesses, and save millions of dollars spent each year, per plant, on direct health impacts.

It’s unclear how successful the Trump administration will be at prolonging coal’s lifespan. But what is desperately clear is what’s at stake: lifelines for coal pose serious threats to human health, the climate, and our wallets. Coal is an expensive, dirty fuel that has become an economic burden and an environmental harm. It’s time to say goodbye to coal.