Dr Erin O'Donnell (she/her) 🇵🇸

Western US states fail to negotiate crucial Colorado River deal: ‘Mother nature isn’t going to bail us out’ Negotiators disbanded on Friday without a plan for the basin supplying water to 40m people, thrusting the region into uncertainty

“It’s not just a pipeline,” he said, “it’s a living river.”

Crisis intensifies for the Colorado River.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

"Continuing to clutch at the myth, aqua nullius provides the colonizer a distinct advantage in the “competition” for the water integral to the colonial project and thus remains a structural feature of... settler-states, water law, governance and science."

"invader-settlers’ separation of water and land, facilitating the extractive and exploitative understanding of water as a resource, is far removed from First Nations recognition of the inseparability of Country... and reciprocal, relational understandings of water as living entities or kin"

Aqua Nullius

An excellent overview of aqua nullius. I will be using this as a core reading in my future classes and I encourage everyone to read it.

link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/...

Why Transgender People Are Not Feeling Gavin Newsom We have seen this song and dance before.

There seems to be a lot of discussion about Gavin Newsom today.

I wanted to re-share this piece that I wrote, because I have a lot of center-to-left Dems that follow me that want to understand.

There are very good reasons transgender people do not like Gavin Newsom.

Fresh video shows police pushing protester before fight broke out A new video filmed by a bystander and shared with ABC NEWS Verify shows the full minute before two police officers began punching a protester, shedding light on the beginning of the altercation.

Incredible footage - a new video shows a full minute before an incident where an protest attendee was repeatedly punched by police. Both the Premier and NSW Police have told us not to judge 30 second videos because we don't know what preceeded them. Well...

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

Reminder: In light of Bad Bunny's Superbowl performance spotlighting Latino culture, here's a hefty list of Latino speculative fiction authors I curated if anyone wants to take a gander and read some phenomenal work. Much love to all!
go.bsky.app/6BAmgpi

There are some great threads going about how awful sugar plantations were.

I just want to add something as a historical romance author: every time you see someone adding a sugar cube to tea in a historical romance, think of those threads and the blood-soaked cost of the sugar.

Good turn up at Canberra protesting against Herzog and the genocide

Vale, John Kudelka. Your work made a huge impact on Australian life.

Just because good news is worth celebrating:

There is now a Prep medication that is an *every six month* injection.

HIV has, effectively, a vaccination.

Again, if you were alive in the 1980s, this is among the most wonderful & truly incredible things you have ever witnessed in your lifetime.

“Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).”

DHS said that the woman CBP shot in the chest in Portland was “involved” in a gang shooting.

Her ~involvement~ was that suspected gang members sexually assaulted and robbed her.

A new study from Anthropic finds that gains in coding efficiency when relying on AI assistance did did not meet statistical significance; AI use noticeably degraded programmers’ understanding of what they were doing. Incredible.

When I resigned as co-chair of the National Association of Black Journalists convention after their decision to platform Trump, I took a lot of heat for it.

I was told “Black journalists are going to expose his racism and save America”

Today, the Trump regime is arresting Black journalists.

Report calls for nature to 'have a seat at the table' in decision-making Adam Johannes Wales could lead the way in protecting the environment, as a call is made for nature to have an official seat at the table in public sector decision-making. A new report, Developing Prin...

"National Infrastructure Commission for Wales (NICW), says something big needs to change. Nature itself should have a voice when the government makes important decisions."

nation.cymru/news/report-...

NDP urges territory to grant Yukon River personhood | CBC News Personhood is a concept where entities in nature — be it mountains, animals, forests or rivers — are afforded rights akin to human beings.

“It's really our commitment to revitalize our relationship with the river and assertion of Indigenous laws, self-determination and rights" - Darren Taylor, Hähkè (chief) of Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Five women stand together with their arms around each other. They are wearing a football uniform and smiling proudly. A wedge-tailed eagle chases an Australian Rules football. Banner text says: c'mon AFL Victoria let the Kyneton women's football club play! Visit www.kwfc.com.au to show your support

Support the Kyneton women's football club! They deserve to be able to play in a safe and welcoming league of their choice.

www.kwfc.com.au (sign the petition here)

Thorpe urges anti-racism action and expanded royal commission following Boorloo rally bombing attempt The federal government must implement the recommendations of the National Anti-Racism Framework and expand the Bondi Royal Commission to examine all forms of racism and hate, Independent Senator Lidia...

When attacks have occurred against other communities, the government has spoken out strongly and acted quickly.

First Peoples are asking why this attack against us is being treated so differently.

Here's what they should do:

nit.com.au/30-01-2026/2...

"Landmark moment:" Prices plunge as renewables supply half of grid, batteries surge and coal hits new low Record renewables and storage, falling prices and emissions, lowest coal and plunging gas delivers much needed boost for federal government's energy transition.

For the first time, clean energy has supplied the majority of electricity in our main grid for a full three months. And, because renewables are dominating new supply and easily the cheapest source of new energy, our bills were cheaper as a result. Win, win! reneweconomy.com.au/landmark-mom...

The muted response to the Perth bombing exposes a pattern of national indifference A failed bomb attack in Perth on Invasion Day drew little attention from the media and public. It shows Australia has long been selective in its sense of danger.

The coverage and response from the commentariat and our political leadership to the pipe bomb attack at the Invasion Day rally was so muted, that even I didn’t find out about until the next day. But I know about it now and what it says about us a country, so I’ve written about it here for Crikey.

'We deserve the same Australia other Australians receive when they face threats' On 26 January, my mum, sister, daughter, four of my daughter's friends, and many thousands (mob and allies alike) stood in peaceful solidarity on Whadjuk Boodja in recognition of the anniversary of In...

"Australia has demonstrated - repeatedly and recently that it knows how to respond to terror against certain communities.

Australia simply chooses not to do so when the targets are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and those standing in solidarity with them."

nit.com.au/28-01-2026/2...

Layoffs over the last year:

UPS: 48,000
Amazon: 32000
Intel: 27,159
Microsoft: 15,387
Nestle: 16000
Verizon: 15000
Google: 12000
Chevron: 8000
Paramount: 7000
Walmart: 7000
P&G: 7000
Estée Lauder: 7000

Your reminder that massive corporate tax cuts don’t create jobs, they create profits.

Not just any journalist, she won the goddamn Triple Crown of broadcast journalism (an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Murrow) in 2024 for her reporting on Gaza.

This is textbook censorship of the highest degree

The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprised | George Monbiot It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem.
Thank you.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The earlier incident started when he stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle, according to a source who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution. Pretti later told the source that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back – an encounter that left him with a broken rib. The agents quickly released him at the scene. “That day, he thought he was going to die,” said the source.

My gosh. Alex Pretti was notifying neighbors that Trump and Vance's agents were chasing a family. A mob of agents then tackled him and broke his rib.

He thought he was going to die.

Then the very next week, he came back out to support his neighbors.

And a mob of agents killed him.

CHARLES RAFFERTY The Problem with Early Warnings People don't like to leave a party unless the house is actually on fire. Even then, if the flames are far enough away to be pretty, they'll finish their drink, take one more pass at the hors d'oeuvres. How things happen has always been unclear. Hurricanes begin in a place where no one lives. Agents of the government start to wear masks. Fascism is a word my neighbors won't use yet. They are following the law, they say, and the sirens are coming for someone else.

This hit so fucking hard today.

Four million salmon died prematurely at Tasmanian fish farms in 2025, government data reveals Death toll sparks calls for companies to be fined under animal welfare legislation over mass fish deaths

Almost all salmon in Australia is from Tasmania, and the industry there is essentially unregulated - and dangerously unhealthy.
Do not eat it.

Invasion Day 2026. Tens of thousands marching down Bourke St in Naarm/Melbourne now. 'No justice, no peace. No racist police!' ✊🖤💛❤️