Chris O'Connell

Leading global scholars sign letter urging UK to end Palestine Action ban Exclusive: Naomi Klein and Angela Davis among those demanding stop to ‘attack on fundamental freedoms’ of assembly and protest * Letter: Palestine Action ban is an attack on fundamental freedoms Naomi Klein and Angela Davis are among dozens of international scholars and writers who have signed a letter to the Guardian calling on the UK government to reverse the ban on Palestine Action. The letter applauds what it describes as a “growing campaign of collective defiance” against the ban and commends the “courageous stand” of hundreds of people who plan to risk arrest by declaring their support for Palestine Action during a mass protest in London on Saturday. Continue reading...

Leading global scholars sign letter urging UK to end Palestine Action ban

‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe

Next time someone says data centres are necessary.

Microsoft data centres in Ireland & Netherlands were used to store terrabytes of Israeli military data used for mass surveillance in the West Bank and identification of strike targets in Gaza.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

1/ In March Govt approved a costly, polluting state-owned LNG terminal. Now Minister O'Brien is leaving door open to dangerous US backed LNG project in Kerry. This breaks climate commitments, raises new geopolitical risks and does nothing for energy security.

The European Commission went full on radio silence on the EU-Mercosur trade deal.

That's probably because there is a lack of consensus over the deal.

Maybe they also realised how bad it is.

Take action to #StopEUMercosur!
➡️ caneurope.org/take-action-...

Our partner, B'Tselem has concluded, based on rigorous research: Israel is committing genocide in #Gaza.

This is a historic moment in the fight for accountability and justice for Palestinians.⤵️
www.btselem.org/publications...

"a coordinated attack aimed at annihilating all facets of life in
the Gaza Strip".

'Our Genocide', the new report from B'tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories

www.btselem.org/publications...

EU Council’s key changes to sustainability laws would limit protections for human rights and the environment The Council of the European Union (EU) has proposed key changes to previously agreed legislations that would weaken corporate accountability for (…)

The Council of the EU's proposed changes to previously agreed laws like the #CSDDD would weaken corporate accountability for abuses to people & the planet.

FIDH warns lawmakers about the serious impacts these amendments would have on sustainability norms: www.fidh.org/en/issues/bu...

✅❌True or False: does the #EUMercosur trade deal really protect forests?

If you've been following us, you probably already know the answer. But a reminder never hurts 😉

From weak commitments to fake promises, the deal fuels deforestation & undermines the EU’s own deforestation regulation.

A 🧵

📻 New #podcast episode just dropped!
🌶️ It's summer, so we decided to stay hot and talk about the trade tariffs the US will impose on the EU starting August 1st, and how that is linked to the EU Commission's deregulation wave

🎧 Teaser below + full epiode here 👉 open.spotify.com/episode/35PG...

Whipping up disaster: how Brazil became a lab for financial agro-investments How does Brazil become an agribusiness laboratory? The alliance between finance capital and large estates threatens future dispossession. Landless, homeless and waterless majorities could receive rent...

A new regulation in Brazil opens the door for over US$22bn to flow into risky agribusiness funds, known as FIAGROS (grain.org/e/7138) Globally, pension funds increasingly invest in agribusiness, yet food producers and workers struggle in retirement. (grain.org/e/7267) @financialization.bsky.social

As mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away Exactly two months since the Israeli government-controlled scheme, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating, 109 organisations are sounding the alarm, urging governments to act.

With supplies now totally depleted in Gaza, humanitarian organisations like @oxfaminternational.bsky.social are witnessing their colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes. 100+ INGOs are urging governments to act.

Good news on corporate accountability in Ireland!⬇️
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enteprise, Tourism & Employment calls on Minister Peter Burke and @ec.europa.eu to defend the core of #CSDDD. Time to act to put human rights and the planet ahead of corporate profits. #NotoOmnibus

Business models based on human rights and environmental abuses are being enabled by the European Commission and EU member states, at the behest of corporate lobbyists. This is the reality of the 'competitiveness' agenda being touted in Dublin, Brussels and beyond. #NoToOmnibus #CSDDD

Will Denmark Lead Europe Towards a Super-Rich Tax? Despite past failures, growing public support and recent international initiatives offer Copenhagen an opportunity to push for wealth taxation.

Ultra-rich are taxed less than ordinary people.

Yet, G20 millionaires support higher taxes on wealth & believe extreme wealth is a threat to democracy.

Our colleague Isabelle Brachet writes what @eu2025dk.bsky.social can easily do to advance to #TaxTheSuperRich. Denmark, can you score?

📣Pass the Occupied Territories Bill in full!

Today we took to the streets as part of the National March For Palestine.

We urge the Irish Government to pass the OTB in full, including services, without delay.

Trócaire's Garry Walsh outlines what's at stake as Ireland stands at a crossroads.

"War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength"... and peace activists are terrorists, Orwell might have added.

No unfettered access for international journalists to Gaza for 650 days.

Local journalists are documenting international crimes and being killed in unprecedented numbers.

Journalists, aid supplies, medics, international crimes investigators - all need access

A quote on a blue background emphasizes the impact of EU and Irish government decisions on women working in global supply chains. The quote reads: "Decisions made in Brussels and backed in Leinster House have direct consequences for the women stitching our clothes, farming our food, or extracting the minerals in our phones." — Cillian Quinn, Policy and Programme Coordinator, ActionAid Ireland Below the quote, a call to action reads: "Ireland must reject the Omnibus rollbacks and defend the core of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive."

🔴The EU promised to protect workers' rights and the planet. Now those promises are under threat.

👉 Read our blog to understand what’s at stake: actionaid.ie/eu-environme...

The Fallacy of Endless Economic Growth What economists around the world get wrong about the future.

The Fallacy of Endless Economic Growth

The idea that economic growth can continue forever on a finite planet is the unifying faith of industrial civilization, uniting left right and liberals
Yet its a nonsense that will kill us all

psmag.com/magazine/fal...

Corporate-manufactured drought as a product of 'saving the planet'...

"The mega-drought is considered the most prolonged and widespread in a century, and the local population and mining companies are fighting for the right to water"

Reeves says rules and red tape are ‘boot on the neck’ of business At the Mansion House dinner she calls for regulators to allow more risk to clear the way for economic growth

Cutting "red tape" (aka public protections), as Reeves is doing, does not save money. Instead, it transfers costs from the rich to the poor. Other people pay for financial recklessness, filthy rivers, air pollution, lax building standards and consumer rip-offs.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"FFMP is produced in factories by spray-drying skimmed milk, a waste product from butter production, and is then supplemented with vegetable fats, such as palm or coconut oil."
Practices in line with the corporate neocolonial playbook here from Irish agribusiness companies...

The Foreign Affairs Committee has been asked to waive pre-legislative scrutiny of the Arbitration Amendment Bill, potentially allowing Ireland to ratify #CETA and permit corporations to sue Ireland under #ISDS. This video explainer from ‪@uplift.ie‬ also permits you to email the Committee members:

Email members of the Foreign Affairs Committee and let them know that we insist on Pre-legislative scrutiny ✊️

#speirgorm

action.uplift.ie/campaigns/re...

Today, CAN Europe and the other Green10 organisations met with Ursula von der Leyen to deliver a clear and urgent message: civil society must be safeguarded and supported, and the European Green Deal must be protected. Read our key asks here: caneurope.org/can-europe-a...

🚨 SOMO stands with UN Rapporteur @franceskalbs.bsky.social following US sanctions aimed at silencing her work.

An attack on her is an attack on international rule of law.

States must act with:
- sanctions
- arms embargo
- corporate accountability

No business as usual during genocide!

#Palestine

The rules that protect us are under threat❗
Though designed to ease administrative burdens, the EU’s six Omnibus packages risk undermining vital social and environmental safeguards.
👉 Hear from civil society & trade unions on why #RulestoProtect matter.

As the US tries to shoot the messenger, the message is as vital as ever...

What does the Omnibus story of this week tell us? | Frank Bold

This frightening conclusion on #Omnibus #CSDDD:

"And this is the saddest: there is no evidence-based decision-making in the three EU institutions at the moment...

The far-right in the EU is getting what they asked for: A dismantling of the Green Deal."

en.frankbold.org/news/what-do...

Read our CEO @karolbalfe.bsky.social’s letter in @irishtimes.com urging the Irish Government to ensure that the new bill-based on the #OccupiedTerritoriesBill -delivers on its original intent: to ban all trade and investment of goods and services with illegal settlements
actionaid.ie/write-commit...