How ramshackle housing made Mayotte vulnerable to cyclone assault


By AFP

December 17, 2024

Mayotte's shantytowns never stood a chance against the cyclone - Copyright AFP MIGUEL MEDINA

Simon AVON

The dismal quality of housing across Mayotte has compounded the devastating impact of Cyclone Chido on the poverty-stricken French Indian Ocean territory where hundreds, or maybe thousands, are feared dead.

Before the storm hit, around a third of the island’s population was living in iron-sheeted huts that never stood a chance against the powerful cyclone.

By the time it was gone, all of Mayotte’s shantytowns were flattened, burying lives — and livelihoods — beneath them.

“We fear there will be a considerable number of deaths,” a French government official told AFP. “Several hundred, or maybe several thousand.”

Mayotte is the poorest part of France, of which it is an integral part.

Recent official data on the state of housing in Mayotte are hard to come by but 2017 data published by the national statistics institute said 40 percent of the island’s homes are built with metal sheets and around a third have no access to running water.

– Flimsy –

“They’re made of wood, corrugated iron, and situated on hills, on beaten earth,” said Florent Vallee, who runs the French Red Cross branch’s emergency operations.

“You can easily imagine the wind barrelling into them, and the rain creating mudslides.”

Over the decades, French authorities have tried to improve housing conditions for the island’s population which numbers 320,000 according to official data, but is in fact much greater because of an influx of undocumented migrants who do not show up in government statistics.

As recently as the late 1970s, modern building materials were virtually unknown in Mayotte, said Megane Aussedat, a sociologist and expert on informal housing on the island.

Despite government programmes to replace precarious shelters with solid housing, the number of available homes is still inadequate compared to the size of the population, and the migration influx.

They are also out of reach for many people in Mayotte where the median monthly income is 260 euros ($273), compared with around 2,600 euros pretax on the French mainland.

Subsidised housing projects have also been slow to materialise, said Aussedat.

However, since 2018 the authorities have been allowed to raze substandard housing provided they immediately offered inhabitants new homes.

Such clearing operations, involving massive police contingents, are sometimes thought to have the secondary objective of flushing out undocumented migrants, but Aussedat observed that telling illegals from legals can be a challenge.

“There is almost no family in Mayotte,” she said, “where everybody’s status is either documented or undocumented”.



– Comoros influx –



Mayotte’s immigration issue is almost entirely due to an influx from the Comoros, an archipelago whose closest shores are just 70 kilometres (44 miles) from Mayotte, and that declared independence in the 1970s while Mayotte opted to remain French.

As poor as Mayotte is by French standards, the Comoros are even poorer, tempting many there into a perilous journey across the water in search of a better life in Mayotte.

They often end up living in makeshift areas consisting mostly of so-called “bangas” — small houses made of cloth and thatch.

When Chido hit, many refused to leave their homes, taking their chances with the cyclone rather than face the danger of their homes being looted or of being picked up by the authorities.

Vallee said emergency services had rescued “entire families, and also a lot of children who were left alone”.

Sanitary conditions, already precarious, have worsened since, mostly because of patchy access to clean water that could prompt another cholera outbreak like the one in the spring of 2024 that killed seven people, said Jean-Francois Coty, president of the Medecins du Monde NGO.

– ‘Brakes on healthcare access’ –

Undocumented migrants’ “fear of moving is putting the brakes on healthcare access”, he said.

A French government scheme allowing undocumented people access to state healthcare is not available in Mayotte.

Coty said he hoped that French officials will pause forced deportations so immigrants can seek help without fear of expulsion.

“This is a time for humanitarian aid, not for a crackdown,” he said.

Thousands Feared Dead in Impoverished French Territory of Mayotte After Cyclone Chido

"You feel like you are in the aftermath of a nuclear war," said one resident. "I saw an entire neighborhood disappear."


A photo taken on December 15, 2024 shows residents sitting among piles of debris of metal sheets and wood after homes were destroyed by the cyclone Chido that hit France's Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte.
(Photo: Kwezi/AFP via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Dec 16, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Undocumented migrants living in informal settlements in the French territory of Mayotte were among those whose lives and livelihoods were most devastated by Cyclone Chido, a tropical cyclone that slammed into the impoverished group of islands in the Indian Ocean over the weekend.

Authorities reported a death toll of at least 20 on Monday, but the territory's prefect, François-Xavier Bieuville, told a local news station that the widespread devastation indicated there were likely "some several hundred dead."

"Maybe we'll get close to a thousand," said Bieuville. "Even thousands... given the violence of this event."

Mayotte, which includes two densely populated main islands, Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre, as well as smaller islands with few residents, is home to about 300,000 people.

The territory is one of the European Union's poorest, with three-quarters of residents living below the poverty line, but roughly 100,000 people have come to Mayotte from the nearby African island nations of Madagascar and Comoros in recent decades, seeking better economic conditions.

Many of those people live in informal neighborhoods and shacks across the islands that were hardest hit by Chido, with aerial footage showing collections of houses "reduced to rubble," according toCNN.

"What we are experiencing is a tragedy, you feel like you are in the aftermath of a nuclear war," Mohamed Ishmael, a resident of the capital city, Mamoudzou, told Reuters. "I saw an entire neighborhood disappear."

Bruno Garcia, owner of a hotel in Mamoudzou, echoed Ishmael's comments, telling French CNN affiliate BFMTV: "It's as if an atomic bomb fell on Mayotte."


"The situation is catastrophic, apocalyptic," said Garcia. "We lost everything. The entire hotel is completely destroyed."

Residents of the migrant settlements in recent years have faced crackdowns from French police who have been tasked with rounding up people for deportation and dismantling shacks.


The aggressive response to migration reportedly led some families to stay in their homes rather than evacuate, for fear of being apprehended by police.

Now, some of those families' homes have been razed entirely or stripped of their roofs and "engulfed by mud and sheet metal," according to Estelle Youssouffa, who represents Mayotte in France's National Assembly.


— (@)

People in Mayotte's most vulnerable neighborhoods are now without food or safe drinking water as hundreds of rescuers from France and the nearby French territory of Reunion struggle to reach victims amid widespread power outages.


"It's the hunger that worries me most. There are people who have had nothing to eat or drink" since Saturday, French Sen. Salama Ramia, who represents Mayotte, told the BBC.

The Washington Postreported that Cyclone Chido became increasingly powerful and intense—falling just short of becoming a Category 5 hurricane with winds over 155 miles per hour—because of unusually warm water in the Indian Ocean. The ocean temperature ranged from 81-86°F along Chido's path. Tropical cyclones typically form when ocean temperatures rise above 80°F.

"The intensity of tropical cyclones in the Southwest Indian Ocean has been increasing, [and] this is consistent with what scientists expect in a changing climate—warmer oceans fuel more powerful storms," Liz Stephens, a professor of climate risks and resilience at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, told the Post.

People living on islands like Mayotte are especially vulnerable to climate disasters both because there's little shielding them from powerful storms and because their economic conditions leave them with few options to flee to safety as a cyclone approaches.

"Even though the path of Cyclone Chido was well forecast several days ahead, communities on small islands like Mayotte don't have the option to evacuate," Stephens said. "There's nowhere to go."

Record-breaking Philippines typhoon season was ‘supercharged’ by climate change

Ayesha Tandon

12.12.2024 | CARBON BRIEF

This year’s record-breaking typhoon season in the Philippines – which saw six consecutive storm systems hit the country in under a month – was “supercharged” by climate change, according to a rapid attribution study.

The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to extreme weather. Between late October and mid November 2024, the country was hit by a barrage of storms, starting with severe Tropical Storm Trami on 22 October, and ending with Tropical Storm Man-Yi which made landfall on 16 November.

“Typhoon” is the term used to describe a tropical cyclone – a tropical storm with wind speeds of at least 33 metres per second – that forms in the north-west Pacific. (If a tropical cyclone forms in the Atlantic Ocean or north-eastern Pacific Ocean, it is called a hurricane.)

Even for a disaster-prone country, such rapid “clustering” of typhoons was “unprecedented”, one Filipino expert told a press briefing.

By the end of November 200,000 individuals were displaced across six regions – many of whom had been forced from their homes multiple times in just one month.

The World Weather Attribution (WWA) service finds that climate change has exacerbated the conditions that enabled these powerful storms to form in the Philippine Sea, such as warm seas and high humidity.

Of the six major storms that hit the Philippines between the end of October and middle of November this year, three made landfall as “major typhoons” with wind speeds above 50 metres per second (112 miles per hour). This is 25% more likely to happen in today’s climate than it would have been in a pre-industrial world without human-caused warming, the study finds. 

The typhoons “highlight the challenges of adapting to back-to-back extreme weather events”, the study says. The authors add that “repeated storms have created a constant state of insecurity, worsening the region’s vulnerability and exposure”.

‘Unprecedented’ typhoon season

On 22 October 2024, severe Tropical Storm Trami made landfall on the Filipino island of Luzon – the country’s largest and populous island. The storm rapidly dumped one month’s worth of rain over parts of the island, with floods sweeping the country.

However, the residents were given little time to recover. Just days after Storm Trami subsided, the Philippines was hit by Super Typhoon Kong-Rey. More than nine million people were affected by the two storms and almost 300,000 displaced.

As the weeks progressed, the Philippines was hit by Typhoon Yinxing, Typhoon Toraji and Typhoon Usagi. Finally, Tropical Storm Man-Yi made landfall on 16 November, marking the end of the record-breaking month. 

Afrhill Rances works at the Asia-Pacific regional office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and is an author on the WWA study. She told a press briefing that, even for a disaster-prone country, the rapid “clustering” of typhoons in 2024 was “unprecedented”.

Dr Claire Barnes – a research associate at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute and an author on the study – added that in the Philippines, “in November we would expect to see only three named storms in the entire basin at any point, with only one of those reaching super typhoon status”. A super typhoon is defined as any typhoon with winds above 58 metres per second (130 miles per hour).

The back-to-back storms formed so rapidly that November saw four named storms forming in the Pacific basin simultaneously. Japan’s meteorological agency said this was the first time in seven years – and the first November in recorded history – where four named storms have formed in the Pacific at the same time.

Typhoon intensity

Typhoons are complex events, which can be intensified by climate change in many different ways, including their rainfall intensity, storm surge height and wind speed.

The authors of this study focus on a metric called “potential intensity”, which looks at temperature, humidity levels and sea level pressure over the Philippine Sea where the typhoons formed.

Ben Clarke, a study author from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, told the press briefing that potential intensity indicates the “theoretical maximum intensity for a tropical cyclone”. He explains that the metric is “based on the conditions in the atmosphere and the ocean which are crucial for cyclone development”.

The map below shows the average potential intensity of the Philippine Sea between September and November 2024, where red indicates high potential intensity and blue indicates low potential intensity.

The dotted lines show the tracks of different storms. The black square indicates the study area. Potential intensity is calculated as the potential wind speed of the typhoon in metres per second.

Average potential intensity in the Philippine Sea over September-November 2024, using ERA5 data. Source: WWA (2024).

To put this year’s record-breaking typhoon season into its historical context, the authors analysed a time series of average potential intensity in the Philippine Sea, using an observational reanalysis dataset stretching back to the year 1940.

The study says:

“Our best estimate is that the observed potential intensity has become about 7 times more likely and the maximum intensity of a potential typhoon has increased by about 4 metres per second.”

The authors also carried out attribution analysis to assess whether the increase in potential intensity can be linked to human-caused climate change.

Attribution is a fast-growing field of climate science that aims to identify the “fingerprint” of climate change on extreme-weather events, such as heatwaves and droughts. To conduct attribution studies, scientists use models to compare the world as it is today to a “counterfactual” world without human-caused climate change.

The authors find that the potential intensity in the Philippine Sea in 2024 was 1.7 times higher than it would have been in a world without climate change. They add that the maximum potential intensity of a typhoon has increased by about 2 metres per second due to climate change.

(These findings are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. However, the methods used in the analysis have been published in previous attribution studies.)

Landfall

Climate change is exacerbating the conditions needed for tropical cyclones to form. However, tropical cyclones are still fairly infrequent and there is a “short period of reliable observations” of tropical cyclones that make landfall, according to the study.

This can make it challenging for scientists to assess the impact of climate change on the frequency of tropical cyclones using traditional methods.

To address this problem, researchers from Imperial College London developed a “synthetic tropical cyclone dataset” called IRIS earlier this year. This dataset uses observations from 42 years of observed tropical cyclones to create a “10,000-year synthetic dataset of wind speed”.

The database includes millions of synthetic tropical cyclone tracks. Each track maps the wind speed of the tropical cyclone from its formation to its landfall, to describe how its power changes throughout its lifetime.

The team has already used this method to attribute the extreme winds of Typhoon Geami and Hurricane Beryl, which hit China and Jamaica, respectively, earlier this year. 

Of the six major storms that affected the Philippines in the month-long period, three made landfall as “major typhoons”, according to the WWA. The authors define a major typhoon as a category three or above, indicating sustained wind speeds above 50 metres per second.

Using the IRIS dataset, the authors assessed how likely it is for three typhoons to make landfall in the Philippines in a single year under different warming levels. They find that in today’s climate – which has already warmed by 1.3C as a result of climate change – the Philippines could expect three major typhoons to make landfall in a single month roughly once every 15 years. This is 25% more frequent than in a world without climate change.

They add that if the planet warms to 2C above pre-industrial temperatures, “we expect at least three major typhoons hitting in a single year every 12 years”.

‘Supermarket of disasters’

The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to extreme weather events and natural disasters, and is already facing deadly impacts from climate change.

The country’s location in the Pacific ocean makes it highly vulnerable to typhoons, volcanoes and earthquakes. The WWA study adds that the country “is experiencing sea level rise more than three times faster than the global average”. And the Philippines is facing deadly heatwaves, which have been made more intense as a result of climate change. 

Rances told the press briefing:

“In the Red Cross we call the Philippines a ‘supermarket of disasters’, because you name it – we have it.”

The Philippines is struck by more typhoons every year than almost any other country in the world. It has “gradually shifted its approach from reactive to proactive risk management with a significant focus on preparedness and resilience building”, according to the World Bank.

For example, warning and pre-emptive evacuation orders were sent out ahead of many of the typhoons this year. Schools, ports and airports were closed in many regions. And disaster response teams were mobilised. 

Families seeking shelter at the Bagong Silangan Evacuation Center, Philippines, due to the expected flooding in low-lying areas caused by Super Typhoon Man-yi, local name Pepito, on 17 November 2024. Credit: Imago / Alamy Stock Photo.

However, the unrelenting barrage of typhoons this year overwhelmed many of the country’s disaster preparedness systems, exhausting supplies and overstretching emergency responders. It also left communities with little time between storms to recover and prepare.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that, at the end of November 2024, more than 200,000 individuals were displaced across six regions, hundreds of fatalities and injuries had been reported and more than 250,000 homes had been damaged. The damage to livestock, agriculture and infrastructure was estimated to be around $47m at the end of November.

The Filipino government spent more than $17m on food and other aid for the hundreds of thousands of storm victims. It has also sought help from neighbouring countries, the US and the United Nations. 

The consecutive typhoons “highlight the challenges of adapting to back-to-back extreme weather events”, the study says. It adds:

“With 13 million people impacted and some areas hit at least three times, repeated storms have created a constant state of insecurity, worsening the region’s vulnerability and exposure.”

The authors warn that “major investment is needed to help the Philippines adapt to extreme weather”.

Buildings ‘pancaked’ in Vanuatu as 7.3 magnitude quake hits off capital Port Vila

Witnesses have appealed for help, describing chaotic scenes, widespread damage and people trapped in the rubble.

Stefan Armbruster & Harry Pearl
2024.12.17
Brisbane and Sydney

Rescue operations underway on a commercial building flattened by the earthquake in Port Vila’s CBD, pictured on Dec. 17, 2024.
 [Michael Thompson/Vanuatu Zipline Adventures


A strong 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Vanuatu on Tuesday, U.S. geologists said, severely damaging a number of buildings in the capital, crushing cars and briefly triggering a tsunami warning.

Witnesses described a “violent shake” and widespread damage to Port Vila, located about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) northeast of the Australian city of Brisbane.

The Pacific island nation is ranked as one of the world’s most at-risk countries from natural disasters and extreme weather events, including cyclones and volcanic eruptions.

Michael Thompson, an adventure tour operator based in the capital, said the quake was “bigger than anything” he’d felt in his 20 years living in Vanuatu.

“I was caught in the office with my colleague,” he told BenarNews. “When we came outside, it was just chaos everywhere. There have been a couple of buildings that have pancaked.

“You can hear noises and kind of muffled screams inside.”

The building housing the U.S., British, French and New Zealand diplomatic missions in the capital Port Vila partially collapsed during the earthquake, pictured on Dec. 17, 2024. [Michael Thompson/Vanuatu Zipline Adventures]

Video footage taken by Thompson outside the U.S. embassy showed the bottom floor of the building in downtown Port Vila had partially collapsed. Its windows are buckled and the foundations have been turned to rubble.

“We stood there yelling out to see if there was anyone inside the building,” Thompson said. “It looks really dangerous.”

The building also hosts the British, French and New Zealand missions.

Just down the main road from the embassy building, search and rescue teams were trying to force their way into a commercial building through the tin roof, Thompson said, but at the pace they were going it would be a “24 hour operation.”

“We need help. We need medical evacuation and we need qualified rescue personnel. That's the message,” he said.

A number of buildings in Port Vila’s CBD have sustained serious damage, pictured on Dec. 17, 2024. [Michael Thompson/Vanuatu Zipline Adventures]

The quake was recorded at a depth of 43km and centered 30km west of the capital Port-Vila, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The U.S. Tsunami Warning System cancelled an initial tsunami warning for coastal communities in Vanuatu within 300km of the epicenter.

The quake hit the island nation not long after midday, coming into peak tourist season, when the streets of Port Vila were packed with people shopping and eating in restaurants, Thompson said.

He had seen at least one dead body among the rubble.

“The police are out trying to keep people back,” he said. “But it’s a pretty big situation here.”

In other videos posted online people can be seen running through the streets of the capital past shop fronts that had fallen onto cars. Elsewhere, a cliff behind the container port in Port Vila appears to have collapsed.

Dan McGarry, a Port Vila-based journalist, described the earthquake on social platform X as a “violent, high frequency vertical shake” that lasted about 30 seconds, adding the power was out around the city.

Vanuatu, home to about 300,000 on its 13 main islands and many smaller ones, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because it straddles the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

Vanuatu’s government declared a six-month national emergency early last year after it was hit by back-to-back tropical cyclones Judy and Kevin and a 6.5 magnitude earthquake within several days.

Bodies seen in Vanuatu capital after major quake'

SYDNEY

Rescue workers are seen at the site of a collapsed building after a powerful earthquake struck Port Vila, the capital city of Vanuatu, on Dec. 17, 2024

A powerful earthquake hit the Pacific island of Vanuatu on Tuesday, smashing buildings in the capital Port Vila including one housing the U.S. and other embassies, with a witness telling AFP of bodies seen in the city.

The 7.3-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 57 kilometres (35 miles), some 30 kilometres off the coast of Efate, Vanuatu's main island, at 12:47 pm (0147 GMT), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The ground floor of a building housing the U.S., French and other embassies had been crushed under higher floors, resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone after posting images of the destruction on social media.

"That no longer exists. It is just completely flat. The top three floors are still holding but they have dropped," Thompson said.

"If there was anyone in there at the time, then they're gone."

Thompson said the ground floor housed the U.S. embassy. This could not be immediately confirmed.

The United States has closed the embassy until further notice, citing "considerable damage" to the mission, the U.S. embassy in Papua New Guinea said in a message on social media.

"Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this earthquake," the embassy said.

The New Zealand High Commission, housed in the same building, suffered "significant damage", a statement from Foreign Minister Winston Peters' office said.

"New Zealand is deeply concerned about the significant earthquake in Vanuatu, and the damage it has caused."

Roof collapsed on cars

Thompson, who runs a zipline adventure business in Vanuatu, said: "There's people in the buildings in town. There were bodies there when we walked past."

A landslide on one road had covered a bus, he said, "so there's obviously some deaths there".

The quake also collapsed at least two bridges, and most mobile networks were cut off, Thompson said.

"They're just cracking on with a rescue operation. The support we need from overseas is medical evacuation and skilled rescue, kind of people that can operate in earthquakes," he said.

Video footage posted by Thompson and verified by AFP showed uniformed rescuers and emergency vehicles working on a building where an external roof had collapsed onto a number of parked cars and trucks.

The streets of the city were strewn with broken glass and other debris from damaged buildings, the footage showed.

Nibhay Nand, a Sydney-based pharmacist with businesses across the South Pacific, said he had spoken to staff in Port Vila who said most of the store there had been "destroyed" and that other buildings nearby had "collapsed".

"We are waiting for everyone to get online to know how devastating and traumatic this will be," Nand told AFP.

A tsunami warning was issued after the quake, with waves of up to one metre (three feet) forecast for some areas of Vanuatu, but it was soon lifted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Earthquakes are common in Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people that straddles the seismic Ring of Fire, an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most susceptible to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, flooding and tsunamis, according to the annual World Risk Report.

Amnesty Welcomes Release of Uncharged Guantánamo Detainee, Urges Biden to Free Others


"President Biden must transfer these men before he leaves office, or he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the U.S. government."


Demonstrators at a January 12, 2018 Amnesty International protest outside the White House in Washington, D.C. call for the closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
(Photo: Safvan Allahverdi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Dec 17, 2024
COMMON DREAMS
Human rights defenders led by Amnesty International on Tuesday welcomed the Pentagon's announcement that a Kenyan man imprisoned in the notorious Guantánamo Bay military prison in Cuba for nearly 18 years without charge or trial has been released and repatriated to Kenya, while imploring U.S. President Joe Biden to transfer other uncharged Gitmo inmates before leaving office next month.

"We welcome the news that Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, who has been indefinitely detained without charge at Guantánamo for more than 17 years, is finally being transferred out of the prison," Daphne Eviatar, director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement. "The U.S. government now has an obligation to ensure that the government of Kenya will respect and protect his human rights."




Twenty-nine men now remain imprisoned at Guantánamo, which became a symbol of deadly torture, extraordinary rendition, illegal indefinite detention, and an allegedly "rigged" military commissions regime during the so-called War on Terror launched after 9/11 by the George W. Bush administration and ongoing to this day.


"Transferring Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu is certainly a move in the right direction, but it isn't enough," Eviatar stressed. "We hope to see more transfers in the coming days. Fifteen men remain who have never been charged with any crimes and have long been cleared by U.S. security agencies to leave Guantánamo, some for more than a decade. As a matter of justice, they should be transferred as soon as possible."

"President Biden must transfer these men before he leaves office, or he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the U.S. government," Eviatar added. "It has been 23 years; President Biden can, and must, put an end to this now."

Sanders Rips Lawmakers Saying 'We Don't Have the Money' While Backing $900 Billion for Military

"I think it's time to tell the military-industrial complex they cannot get everything they want," said Sen. Bernie Sanders. "It's time to pay attention to the needs of working families."


U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on November 19, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
(Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Dec 17, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday derided those of his colleagues who claim it's too expensive for the federal government to take ambitious action on national crises in housing and healthcare while simultaneously supporting a military budget that's approaching $1 trillion a year.

"I find it amusing that any time we come to the floor and members point out that we have a housing crisis, that we have some 600 million Americans who are homeless, that we have millions and millions of people in this country spending 40, 50, 60% of their limited incomes on housing and that we need to invest in low-income and affordable housing, what I hear is, 'We don't have the money,'" Sanders (I-Vt.) said on the floor of the Senate.

"When we talk about increasing Social Security benefits, well, 'we just can't afford to do that. We just can't afford to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, or vision. We just cannot afford to make higher education in America affordable.' That's what I hear every single day. When there's an effort to improve life for the working class of this country, I hear, 'No, no, no, we can't afford it.' But when it comes to the military-industrial complex and their needs, what we hear is 'yes, yes, yes' with almost no debate."

Watch Sanders' full remarks:




Sanders' floor speech came shortly before the Senate—in an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 83-12—advanced the $895 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025. Sanders was among the dozen senators who voted no.

The legislation, which would authorize roughly $850 billion for the Pentagon despite its inability to pass an audit, is expected to pass the Senate as early as Wednesday.

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has openly celebrated the federal government's prioritization of military spending over social programs, wrote for Foreign Affairs ahead of Monday's vote that the roughly $900 billion the U.S. spends annually on its military is "not nearly enough" and urged the incoming Trump administration to "commit to a significant and sustained increase in defense spending."

According to the National Priorities Project, militarized funding such as the Pentagon budget, foreign military aid, and nuclear weapons programs already account for close to two-thirds of all federal discretionary spending, resulting in "consistent under-investment in human needs."

In his floor speech on Monday, Sanders said that "when it comes to the needs of the military-industrial complex and their lobbyists and that industry which makes millions in campaign contributions, we give them what they want, despite the overwhelming evidence of waste and fraud."

"I think it's time to tell the military-industrial complex they cannot get everything they want," the senator added. "It's time to pay attention to the needs of working families."

HERE IT COMES AGAIN

'Calculated Cruelty': Report Details Lasting Harms of Trump Family Separation Policy

Up to 1,360 children who were separated from their parents under the Trump administration have not been reunited six years later, according to the new report from a trio of human rights groups.


Family members embrace after a six-year-old boy who was separated from his mother returned from the United States on August 8, 2018 near San Marcos, Guatemala.
(Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)



Jake Johnson
Dec 16, 2024

COMMON DREAMS

A report published Monday by a coalition of human rights groups estimates that as many as 1,360 children who were separated from their parents under the first Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy have yet to be reunited, causing immense suffering for families ensnared in the punitive effort to deter border crossings.

The 135-page report was produced by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), and the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, and it comes as immigrant rights advocates brace for President-elect Donald Trump's return to power alongside officials who helped develop and implement the large-scale family separations.

"Forcible separation of children from their families inflicted harms that were severe and foreseeable," states the report, which examines public and internal government documents, materials from legal proceedings, and the findings of government investigations and features interviews with parents and children who were forcibly separated by the Trump administration.

"Once parents realized they would not be immediately reunited with their children, they were distraught," the report continues. "Some children sobbed uncontrollably. Many felt abandoned. Nearly all were bewildered, not least because immigration officials would not tell them where their parents were or gave responses that proved to be lies."

The groups estimate that the first Trump administration separated more than 4,600 children from their families during its four years in power, and nearly 30% of the children are unaccounted for and "may remain separated from their parents."

"A government should never target children to send a message to parents."

While family separations predated Trump's first term and have continued under President Joe Biden, experts argue the Trump administration's policy was uniquely expansive and cruel. The groups behind the new report said the Trump administration's family separation efforts "constituted enforced disappearance and may have constituted torture."

"We need to take away children," Jeff Sessions, then Trump's attorney general, reportedly said during a May 2018 call with five federal prosecutors, the report observes, citing handwritten notes from one of the prosecutors.

Michael Garcia Bochenek, senior children's rights counsel at HRW and an author of the new report, said in a statement Monday that "it's chilling to see, in document after document, the calculated cruelty that went into the forcible family separation policy."

"A government should never target children to send a message to parents," Bochenek added.

The separations traumatized both parents and children, according to the report.

"Migrant children who have been forcibly separated from their parents demonstrate greater emotional and behavioral difficulties than children who have never been separated," the report notes. "Parents repeatedly told Al Otro Lado, a legal services organization based in Tijuana, that forced separation from their children was 'the worst thing they had ever experienced' and reported 'continued disturbances in sleep, nightmares, loss of appetite, loss of interest, fear for the future, constant worry, hopelessness, and loss of the ability to concentrate.'"

"In May 2018," the report adds, "a man killed himself after [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] agents forcibly separated him from his children."

HRW, TCRP, and the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic called on Congress and the Biden administration to "put in place comprehensive measures to remedy the wrongs these families suffered" and urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—soon to be led by far-right South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem—to "adopt standards that presumptively keep families together, separating them only when in a child's best interest."

Trump campaigned during the 2024 election on a pledge to launch the "largest domestic deportation operation in American history," and he said during an interview aired last week that "we don't have to separate families."

"We'll send the whole family, very humanely, back to the country where they came," Trump said, suggesting he'll also deport children who are U.S. citizens.

When pressed on whether he intends to revive the "zero tolerance" policy, Trump said, "We need deterrence."

"When somebody comes here illegally, they're going out. It's very simple," he added. "Now if they come here illegally but their family is here legally, then the family has a choice. The person that came in illegally can go out, or they can all go out together."

The ACLU, which has represented separated families in court, has pledged to take swift legal action if the incoming Trump administration brings back "zero tolerance."

"I am hopeful that the Trump administration recognized the outpouring from the American public and the worldwide revulsion to ripping little children away from their parents and will not try to separate families again," ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt toldTIME magazine last month. "But if it does we will be back in court immediately."

More Than 120 House Democrats Call On Biden to Ratify ERA

"Solidifying your legacy on equal rights with a final action on the ERA would be a defining moment for the historic Biden-Harris administration and your presidency," said the lawmakers.

U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) are seen as a news conference on November 13, 2023 in Washington, D.C.
(Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Dec 16, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

With weeks to go until President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office with a Republican trifecta in the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, more that 120 Democratic lawmakers on Sunday called on President Joe Biden to take a crucial step toward protecting millions of Americans from Trump's far-right MAGA agenda by ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.

The ERA was passed by Congress in 1972, and met the requirement for it to be ratified by three-fourths of U.S. states in 2020, when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment.

Yet during his first term, Trump and the Republican party blocked the implementation of the ERA, claiming that since nearly 50 years passed in between the amendment's passage and the meeting of the ratification requirement, the threshold was not achieved by the deadline set by Congress.

"No Republican would care about" the deadline, said journalist Emma Vigeland, "if roles were reversed."





Citing the U.S. Code, Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment—led their colleagues in telling Biden that the national Archivist, Colleen Shogan, is required to certify an amendment "when the National Archives and Records Administration receives official notice that a proposed amendment to the Constitution has been approved by enough states."

All Biden has to do to ratify the amendment, which would explicitly outlaw sex and gender discrimination, is direct Shogan to publish the ERA, said the lawmakers.

"Solidifying your legacy on equal rights with a final action on the ERA would be a defining moment for the historic Biden-Harris administration and your presidency," wrote the representatives, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), and James McGovern (D-Mass.).

Earlier this month, 46 U.S. senators joined the call for Biden to ratify the ERA.


As Trump has bragged about his hand in the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade and Republicans have advocated for a national abortion ban, reproductive right advocates have said that after being officially added to the U.S. Constitution, the ERA could be invoked by judges to overturn anti-abortion laws.


In Utah, a state-level ERA was invoked in September to place an abortion ban on hold.

"A constitutional guarantee against sex discrimination would strengthen the protection of reproductive rights, ensuring that people have the right to make decisions about their own bodies without political interference or unequal treatment," wrote the lawmakers.

The signatories noted that portions of the Civil Rights Act and Education Amendments protect people from government-based sex discrimination, but gender equality is still "vulnerable to changes in the political landscape, judicial interpretations, and shifts in public opinion" because the Constitution does not explicitly protect it.

"By adding the ERA to the Constitution, it would establish an unambiguous guarantee that sex-based discrimination is unconstitutional," wrote the lawmakers. "The ERA would help eliminate gender-based pay gaps, improve workplace protections, and ensure that gender biases no longer affect hiring, promotions, or job security. With the ERA enshrined in the Constitution, people who experience sex-based discrimination would have a clearer legal path to challenge discriminatory laws or policies. California's state ERA did just that, securing protections for women in the workforce and ensuring equal treatment in education and healthcare."

By directing Shogan to ratify and publish the ERA, they added, Biden would be throwing his unequivocal support behind an amendment supported by 78% of Americans, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center poll.

Biden said on August 26, Women's Equality Day, that he has "long supported the ERA" and called on Congress "to act swiftly to recognize ratification of the ERA and affirm the fundamental truth that all Americans should have equal rights and protections under the law."

But by simply "directing the archivist to publish the ERA," said the lawmakers, Biden would "leave an indelible mark on the history of
this nation, demonstrating once again that your legacy is one of expanding rights, protecting freedoms, and securing a more inclusive future for all Americans. We urge you to take this final, transformative step toward ensuring the full promise of equality for every person in the United States."

Senators Urge Biden to Grant Palestinians Special Status to Avoid Deportation

The group says a Temporary Protected Status designation would give Palestinians the “strongest possible protection.”

By Sharon Zhang ,

Truthout

December 17, 2024

Sen. Bernie Sanders, joined by fellow senators Sen. Jeff Merkley (center) and Sen. Peter Welch, speaks at a news conference on restricting arms sales to Israel at the U.S. Capitol on November 19, 2024, in Washington, D.C.Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

Agroup of senators is urging President Joe Biden to designate the occupied Palestinian territories for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in order to grant Palestinians in the U.S. the “strongest possible protection” against moves like deportation.

In a letter effort led by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont), the senators say that neither Gaza nor the occupied West Bank are safe for Palestinians to return to, making the need for the TPS designation clear.

“Congress established TPS to allow noncitizens who are unable to return home safely to remain in the United States for a temporary, but extendable, period. The ongoing conflict in Gaza and the West Bank is precisely the kind of crisis Congress envisioned when crafting TPS,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter was signed by eight senators, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).

In February, the Biden administration issued an 18-month Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) program for Palestinians that, similarly to TPS, allows people from certain places to remain in the U.S. and apply for employment. The administration granted the status after over 100 members of Congress and a number of rights groups wrote to Biden asking for TPS or DED for Palestinians in November 2023.

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However, the senators note that DED may not be enough to protect Palestinians amid Israel’s genocide of Gaza and escalated attacks in the occupied West Bank.

“DED may be insufficient in this instance. It derives from a president’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and thus does not offer the strongest possible protection for this vulnerable population. TPS, on the other hand, is firmly rooted in statute and therefore more durable,” the senators explain. “It can and should be applied here to protect Palestinians present in the United States.”

The Biden administration has previously acknowledged that TPS grants stronger protections. In October, Biden granted TPS to Lebanon, despite having already granted DED to people from Lebanon in July. As immigration experts have explained, it is harder for presidents to take away TPS benefits than DED protections, while TPS also allows people who have recently reached the U.S. to receive protections.

Incoming president Donald Trump has previously threatened to implement inhumane, fascist immigration policies regarding Palestinians, including bringing back his travel ban and extending it to Gaza. He has pledged to deport supposed “pro-Hamas radicals” — meaning anyone who supports Palestinian rights, regardless of whether or not they actually support Hamas.

Republicans have also been gearing up for a huge deportation campaign. Trump has promised to revoke TPS for a number of countries, some of which have been in place for decades; Trump had tried to revoke TPS for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan during his first term, but the effort was temporarily blocked in the courts after rights groups sued.

Palestinian Families Sue US for Sending Israel Arms Despite “Gross Violations”

The U.S. “has irresponsibly embraced, ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,’” toward Israel, the lawsuit says.

By Sharon Zhang , 

Truthout

December 17, 2024

Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on December 7, 2024.Majdi Fathi / NurPhoto via Getty Images


As we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation, your support is urgently needed. Please make a year-end gift to Truthout today.

Agroup of Palestinians in Palestine and the U.S. have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, accusing officials of breaking domestic law by continuing to send Israel weapons despite numerous “gross violations” of human rights in the past year in Gaza and for decades beforehand.

The lawsuit was filed by five Palestinians who have lost family or face threats due to the U.S.’s weapons transfers to Israel. The lead plaintiff, under pseudonym Amal Gaza, is a teacher in Gaza who has lost 20 of her family members in the genocide and has been forcibly displaced by Israel seven times since October 2023.

Also among the plaintiffs is the executive director of Al-Haq, a West Bank human rights group, and Palestinian Americans who have lost numerous family members or risk losing family due to the U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza.

The lawsuit says that the plaintiffs’ fear over the threats to their families would be diminished if the U.S. adhered to the Leahy Law, which prohibits the U.S. from sending assistance to foreign military units credibly accused of human rights violations.

“The State Department’s calculated failure to apply the Leahy Law is particularly shocking in the face of the unprecedented escalation of Israeli [gross violations of human rights] since the Gaza War erupted on October 7, 2023,” the lawsuit says.

It goes on to list numerous allegations of human rights violations from sources like the International Court of Justice and UN experts, saying, “Despite this overwhelming record of [gross violations of human rights] committed by Israel’s security forces, the State Department has irresponsibly embraced, ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,’ in contempt of the Leahy Law.”

“If the State Department had done its job and sanctioned U.S.-funded Israeli military units for arbitrarily detaining Palestinians for years without evidence or charge based on secret evidence, including myself, it could have prevented my suffering in prison and deprivation of liberty,” said Shawan Jabarin, the head of Al-Haq. Israeli forces have imprisoned Jabarin on no charges for six years and continue to restrict his movements.

“Instead, I continue to live in fear of imminent harm by abusive, U.S.-funded Israeli units who know that they can get away with anything because the State Department will ignore the U.S. law prohibiting aid to them,” Jabarin said.

The lawsuit is backed and advised by numerous former State Department and other U.S. government officials, including former Leahy Law vetter Josh Paul and Tim Rieser, a former foreign policy adviser for Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), after whom the legislation is named, who helped draft the legislation.

“Despite years of credible reports of gross violations of human rights by Israeli defense and police units, including in the State Department’s own annual Human Rights Reports, as far as we are aware not a single unit has been denied U.S. aid under the Leahy Law,” said Rieser. “[The senator] repeatedly made the point that the Leahy Law applies equally to all countries that receive U.S.aid. While the State Department claims that to be the case, the facts show otherwise.”

It’s also backed by U.S.-based human rights group DAWN, which notes that, if the Leahy Law were implemented, “most, if not all, of Israeli security force units would be found ineligible for U.S. military assistance in light of the vast scale of Israeli security force abuses,” especially in Gaza.

The lawsuit highlights how the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum (ILVF), as experts have said, is not designed to determine whether or not Israeli units are eligible to receive assistance under U.S. law, but rather to give the Israeli military a pass no matter the violations they allegedly commit.

“The ILVF operates under a unique, complex, lengthy, high-level Leahy vetting process that is arbitrary and capricious, and is not rationally related to advancing the purpose of the Leahy Law,” the lawsuit says, pointing out that the ILVF has never once deemed a unit ineligible for assistance. “On the contrary, the ILVF appears designed to frustrate the 2019 Leahy Amendment, and avoid designating any Israeli unit ineligible for military assistance.”

Advocates have long said that the U.S. is violating not just the Leahy Law, but also numerous other domestic and international laws regarding foreign military aid in sending Israel arms. Recently, Amnesty International found that Israel is indeed committing genocide, meaning that ending arms shipments to Israel would be acting in accordance with international law.