Jake Johnson

people holding signs and banners

The COP28 climate summit in Dubai ended with an agreement that, for the first time, explicitly endorsed a move away from fossil fuels, but is so full of loopholes that the fossil fuel industry will be allowed to persist and thrive, reports Jake Johnson.

End Fossil Fuels protest NYC

Tens of thousands poured into the streets of New York City, on September 17, for the largest climate mobilisation in the United States in years, reports Jake Johnson.

Brazil first round election result

Leftist former President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva fell just short of clearing the 50% threshold to win the Brazilian election outright, setting up an October 30 runoff against far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, reports Jake Johnson.

Campaigners

In an August 2 referendum, voters in Kansas resoundingly rejected a proposed amendment to remove the right to abortion from the state's constitution, reports Jake Johnson.

"The Amazon rainforest has been burning for three weeks! We are on the verge of losing it completely if the fire isn't put out. The loss of trees, the loss of biodiversity is what is accelerating climate change."

Hours after Governor Ricardo Rosselló resisted calls to step down over leaked messages — mocking victims of Hurricane Maria and attacking fellow politicians with misogynistic slurs — an estimated 400,000 Puerto Ricans took to the streets on July 22 and demanded Rosselló's resignation.

Jake Johnson takes a look at how the US women’s football (soccer) team was driven by their struggle for equal pay, and used their Cup win to escalate the fight.

Overcoming a flood of corporate money and New York’s powerful establishment machine, 28-year-old democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez toppled Democratic Representative Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th congressional district on June 26 with tireless grassroots organising and an ambitious progressive agenda of Medicare for All, housing as a human right, and abolishing the hated Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The result is being hailed as the biggest political upset of 2018.

As the United States’ largest corporations continue their unprecedented stock buyback spree in the wake of President Donald Trump’s US$1.5 trillion tax cut, new government data published on May 22 shows that US banks are also smashing records thanks to the Republican tax law. They raked in $56 billion in net profits during the first quarter of 2018 — an all-time high.

The man believed to have been behind a string of bombings that killed two people and injured five in Austin, Texas, died on March 21 after blowing himself up in his vehicle as law enforcement closed in.

Open internet advocates warned that “we’re running out of time” to save the web from corporate control. The call to action came after United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairperson Ajit Pai unveiled his long-awaited plan to scrap net neutrality on November 21.

The United Nations High commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on July 19 that an airstrike carried out by the US-backed Saudi-led coalition in Yemen killed 20 civilians — including women and children — who were fleeing violence in their home province.

The agency said in statement: “Most of those killed are believed to be from the same family.”