GULAG AMERIKA

Opinion

Trump Pays Eye-Watering Amount to Build Biggest Immigration Camp Ever

Edith Olmsted

THE NEW REPUBLIC
Tue, July 22, 2025 



Donald Trump’s administration has signed off on building the country’s largest immigrant detention center, a sprawling tent camp at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

The Department of Defense awarded the Virginia-based company Acquisition Logistics a nearly $232 million contract to establish and operate a 5,000-bed short-term detention facility, according to a contract notice Monday. In total, however, the contract is worth closer to $1.26 billion, two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named publicly told Bloomberg.

The new tent camp is estimated to be completed by the end of September 2027. Sitting close to the Mexican border, and with its own airport, the new facility would serve as a deportation hub for the Trump administration’s purge of immigrants from the United States.

For scale, an estimated 700 detainees are currently held at “Alligator Alcatraz,” but the Trump administration’s wetland-themed concentration camp in the Florida Everglades is also expected to have a capacity of up to 5,000 people, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Acquisition Logistics has no experience in detention, according to Bloomberg. The company specializes in supply chain and project management, as well as technical and engineering services, and has previously received $29 billion worth of contracts from the DOD for jobs such as providing logistical capabilities, or lodging and conference room services for the agency’s work at the Southern border.

Emma Winger, deputy legal director at the American Immigration Council, expressed grave concern to Bloomberg over the government’s plans to house immigrants in tents. “All the reasons why you and I live not in tents but in homes are going to inevitably come up in a facility that doesn’t offer people walls and floors and insulation,” she said.

“It’s very hard to imagine how soft-sided facilities could satisfy even the low detention standards that are reflected in ICE’s most recent standards,” Winger added. This latest contract comes amid reports of inhumane conditions at ICE facilities, where detainees have alleged physical abuse, medical neglect, and psychological torture.

Acquisition Logistics’ startling lack of experience setting up a detention facility, as well as the government’s own wavering commitment to safe conditions for detainees, ought to spark grave concern as the rate of immigration arrests and of deaths in ICE facilities continues to rise. The government has greenlit yet another concentration camp—and this one is on track to be the largest so far.

This latest contract comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that two army bases would be used to house immigrant detainees, one in New Jersey and the other in Illinois. The moves severely undermine his supposed commitment to maximizing so-called military “lethality,” by transforming his own training facilities into pit stops for his boss’s campaign of ethnic cleansing. Like those facilities, Fort Bliss had previously housed Afghan refugees as part of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome.

The government previously operated an Emergency Intake Site at Fort Bliss under the Biden administration, erecting a tent city to house unaccompanied migrant children. One whistleblower account revealed horrific living conditions similar to those in ICE facilities now, with children subjected to constant light, collective punishment, and even burns from unsafe materials.

US government is building a 5,000-person immigrant detention camp in west Texas

Associated Press
Wed, July 23, 2025 

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference at the Nashville International Airport, Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

The U.S. government is building an immense 5,000-person detention camp in west Texas, government contract announcements said, sharply increasing the Trump administration’s ability to hold detained immigrants amid its ever-growing mass deportation efforts.

A Defense Department contract announcement on Monday said Acquisition Logistics, a Virginia-based firm, had been awarded $232 million in Army funds to build the facility, which would be used for single immigrant adults.

Procurement documents called it a “soft sided facility,” a phrase often used for tent camps.

The announcement came just weeks after Florida authorities rushed to construct a new immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which was built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland in the Florida Everglades.

The announcement said the new facility would be built in El Paso, which is home to Ft. Bliss, an Army base that stretches across parts of Texas and New Mexico.

President Donald Trump recently signed a law setting aside $170 billion on border and immigration enforcement, including $45 billion for detention, even as the number of illegal border crossings has plunged. ICE will see its funding grow by $76.5 billion over five years, nearly 10 times its current annual budget.

Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S.

Defense OKs Fort Bliss site for 5,000-bed ICE deportation hub amid executive order push

Kristian Jaime, 

El Paso Times
Wed, July 23, 2025 

Plans to construct the largest immigration detention center in the United States on Fort Bliss Army Post land are going forward with the announcement of a new federal contract.

On Monday, the Department of Defense announced Acquisition Logistics LLC, of Henrico, Virginia, was awarded a $231,878,229 firm-fixed-price contract to establish and operate a 5,000 capacity, single adult, short-term detention facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The contract comes on the heels of Presidential Executive Order 14159, which outlines using "national security assets for law and order."

"Bids were solicited via the internet with 13 received. Work will be performed in El Paso, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2027. Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $231,878,229 were obligated at the time of the award," the contract overview states.

More on current legislation What is Dignity Act 2025? How will it change US immigration system?

Fort Bliss as a deportation hub

Photos of a deportation flight out of Fort Bliss on Thursday, Jan. 23.

Acquisition Logistics LLC declined to comment on any current government contracts when contacted by the El Paso Times. Leticia Zamarippa, the spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also declined to comment on the construction.

Arturo Rodriguez, public affairs deputy for the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, noted the Department of Defense cleared the way for the use of the Fort Bliss land for immigration detention use four months ago.

"On March 28, 2025, the secretary of defense approved the use of Army land on Fort bliss, in El Paso County, Texas (Site Monitor), on a non-reimbursable basis, in order for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a holding facility to temporarily house specified illegal aliens," the statement said.

Rodriguez added "per the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement El Paso Field Office and U.S. Army Garrison Fort Bliss, the use of Fort Bliss parcel (Site Monitor) to expand ICE detention and removal operations is under Department of Homeland Security and ICE authority."

On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported the contract was worth an estimated $1.26 billion with the Army providing the initial $232 million.

More on past protests Dozens join national 'Good Trouble' anti-Trump protest in El Paso

Plans by the White House would make the Fort Bliss location the largest deportation hub in the nation. The Trump administration has stated it has a goal of arresting one million illegal immigrants a year. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a letter to Congress that the US Department of Homeland Security would use military bases in New Jersey and Indiana for immigration detention on a “temporary” basis.

Trump had previously suggested that 30,000 immigrants could be detained at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Concerns about ICE facility oversight

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, visits the facilities where the Trump administration is detaining migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on March 10

The possibility of another, much larger, immigration detention center raises the question of adequate congressional oversight of such facilities.

On July 10, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar was turned away from carrying out an oversight visit at the Immigration and Customs processing facility on Montana Avenue, her office said in a news statement.

Escobar, D-El Paso, arrived at the El Paso facility Wednesday, July 9, in the afternoon, but she was blocked from entering.

“Today, after giving ICE 24 hours’ notice, more than is required by law, I was turned away from the ICE facility on Montana Ave. where I planned to conduct my constitutionally authorized oversight duties," Escobar said in the statement. “This facility has been plagued with accusations of mistreatment and inhumane conditions falling well within the scope of my congressional oversight authority."

The facility has space to hold nearly 900 people.

Escobar has regularly made oversight visits to ICE detention facilities in the El Paso area and elsewhere to learn if the conditions there meet legal and humane requirements. She visited the soft-sided facility on Highway 54 in June without any access problems.

More on other detention facilities ICE detention is growing in the South. This state was the first.

The Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem issued new requirements for congressional visits to ICE facilities, requiring at least 72 hours' notice in advance.

El Paso Times reporter Jeff Abbott contributed to this report.

Kristian Jaime is the Top Story Reporter for the El Paso Times and is reachable at Kjaime@elpasotimes.com.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Fort Bliss to host largest ICE detention center, deportation hub in US

Local migrant advocates react to immigration facility at Fort Bliss


Luisa Barrios
KTSM
Wed, July 23, 2025




EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Local migrant advocates are reacting to the reports of the federal government building what would be the largest immigration facility at Fort Bliss.

As we previously reported, the facility would have a capacity of 5,000 people, and is expected to be completed by September 2027.

Reports: Largest immigration facility in U.S. to be at Fort Bliss

Fernando Garcia, the executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) sent the following statement:

“The announcement of a billion-dollar contract to construct what would become the largest deportation center in the country is deeply alarming. At a time when funding for education, housing, healthcare, and other essential social services is being cut, this administration is funneling millions of dollars to fuel its cruel, inhumane, and anti-immigrant agenda, one that continues tearing families, destabilizing communities, and dividing our nation.

“This is not the first time our community has been targeted by such policies and strategies and it is certainly not the first time we have warned about the serious human and civil rights violations that they produce. We remember and carry a collective memory of the hundreds of unaccompanied children once held at Fort Bliss, despite allegations of overcrowding, sexual abuse, and inadequate mental health services. Under no circumstances should any individual—child, woman, man, or family—be subjected to these cruel and dehumanizing detention practices.

“Once again, we raise the alarm against a strategy that history has shown to be consistently ineffective, profoundly harmful, and deeply inhumane. We call on this administration to reverse course and, instead, invest in real, humane solutions to fix our broken immigration and refugee system.”

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved

ICE detention is growing in the South. This state was the first.

Lauren Villagran,

USA TODAY

The El Paso Times
Wed, July 23, 2025


Winn Correctional Center operated by LaSalle Corrections.

WINN PARISH, LA – Far from the jazz clubs and nightlife of New Orleans, thousands await their fate inside immigration jails.

Louisiana has more dedicated Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers than any other state besides Texas – nine total – after it converted nearly half a dozen correctional facilities to immigrant detention. Most are remote, scattered near farms and forests. Among the sites is a unique "staging facility" on a rural airport tarmac for rapid deportations.

President Donald Trump is increasingly leaning on Republican-led Southern states to detain and deport millions of immigrants ‒ from "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades to the expansion of a sprawling Georgia immigration facility. Far from the U.S.-Mexico border, Mississippi has the ICE jail with the highest average daily population.

But Louisiana was the first non-border state to surge immigration detention capacity, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana and Tulane University Law School. The state opened five new facilities to detain immigrants in 2019, during the first Trump administration, and vastly expanded the number of detainees during the Biden administration.

Immigrants are sent here from all over the country, far from their families, communities and, often, their lawyers.

The Trump administration has confined some of its highest-profile detainees in Louisiana, including now-released Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil and Harvard University scientist Kseniia Petrova.

The state's largest immigration jail, Winn Correctional Center, is tucked deep into dense pine woods nearly five hours northwest of New Orleans. The site is so remote that, for years, online maps routinely sent visitors the wrong way down a dirt road. A warning sign cautions visitors: "This property is utilized for the training of chase dogs."

Other states might follow Louisiana's example as more federal funds flow to ICE detention. Congress recently authorized the Trump administration to spend $45 billion over the next four years to expand immigration jails around the country. That's nearly four times ICE's previous annual detention budget.

USA TODAY traveled to four of Louisiana's nine ICE facilities, hoping to see firsthand what life is like for immigrants detained there. But the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied multiple requests for a tour of any of the locations.

In an emailed statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said ICE originally expanded its detention capacity in Louisiana "to address the increasing number of individuals apprehended at the border" under the Biden administration.

Guards search handcuffed migrants as they're transferred from a prison bus to an airplane at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, on June 9, 2025.

"ICE continues to explore all options to meet its current and future detention requirements while removing detainees as quickly as possible from the U.S.," she said.

Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana, described the state as key to Trump's promised mass deportation campaign.

"Louisiana really is the epicenter for a lot of what is currently taking place with this administration," Ahmed said. "It's an outcropping of a prison economy that Louisiana has survived on for a long, long time."
Deportation hub far from the border

Louisiana found its foothold as a deportation hub at the end of Trump's first term, when the administration was looking to expand immigrant detention.

The state had reformed its criminal justice system in 2017, with bipartisan support, to reduce sentences for low-level offenders. That had the effect of dramatically decreasing the state's prison population and freeing thousands of incarcerated people – mainly Black men and women.

At the time, the Black imprisonment rate was nearly four times the rate of White imprisonment in Louisiana, according to the ACLU.

Louisiana eventually rolled back the reforms. But racial justice activists briefly celebrated a win.

Then ICE came knocking.

The first Trump administration, and later the Biden administration, wanted to detain more illegal border crossers. Louisiana offered advantages: empty prisons, employees already trained in corrections, and access to the Alexandria airport with a detention facility and a history of deportation flights.

Two Global X airplanes are seen at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, on June 9, 2025. The immigrant detention center sits on the tarmac.

It also has some of the country's most conservative immigration judges, as well as a federal appeals court that, in immigration cases, often sides with the government, lawyers say.

"Louisiana had the infrastructure already there," said Homero López, legal director of New Orleans-based Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy, a nonprofit that provides free representation. "ICE comes in saying, ‘Y’all have got the space. We’ve got the people. We’ll pay you double what the state was paying.’ That’s why the expansion was so fast."
Louisiana's rural communities offered advantages for ICE

Many Americans know Louisiana by its crown jewel, New Orleans, the state's tourism mecca, where social norms and politics are as liberal as the flow of alcohol on Bourbon Street.

But Louisiana is largely wooded, rural, proudly conservative and deeply Christian. County governments are called parishes and the poverty rate is the highest in the nation.

A sign supporting President Donald Trump is seen off the road leading to the Alexandria Staging Facility on June 9, 2025.

"People want jobs and who’s to blame them?" said Austin Kocher, a Syracuse University research assistant professor who studies immigration enforcement. "It’s fairly easy to promise jobs by setting up a detention facility."

Rural Louisiana used to make a living from oil and timber. Logging trucks still rumble down forested two-lane roads, but the decline in natural resources and price unpredictability drove some communities to look for new industries.

Prisons and now immigration detention deliver good-paying jobs and economic development to places like Winn, Ouachita and LaSalle parishes.

LaSalle was one of the first to see the potential. In 2007, local leaders in the parish seat of Jena – current population 4,155 – wanted to diversify the economy. A sprawling juvenile detention facility north of town sat empty.

The lumber industry is part of the economic engine in northern Louisiana.

When GEO Group, the nation's largest private detention contractor, swooped in with an ICE contract in hand, local leaders welcomed the opportunity.

"Not having to build an entirely new facility was probably a key factor to them locating here," said Craig Franklin, editor of the weekly Jena Times. Plus, "our advantage to a strong employee pool was likely a factor."

In Ouachita Parish, the mayor and council of Richwood ‒ population 3,881 ‒ debated whether to approve an ICE detention contract. Mayor Gerald Brown didn't have a vote, but he supported the conversion to ICE detention, he said.

"Richwood Correctional Center is one of our biggest employers," Brown told USA TODAY. "There was a lot of back and forth. We did town halls, and we had meetings."

The town stood to gain new income as an intermediary between ICE and the private operator, LaSalle Corrections. When it was a jail, the town earned a $112,000 a year fee. Now that it's an ICE detention center, the town is getting about $412,000 a year.

"The financial windfall for the community was something I certainly couldn't turn a blind eye to," Brown said.
Remote ICE detention has consequences for the detained

The willingness of rural communities to house ICE facilities is part of the draw to Louisiana, researchers who study immigration detention say.

Another factor: When ICE tries to open new detention centers near big cities, the agency is often met with resistance from immigrant rights activists and residents with "not in my backyard" arguments.

But attorneys say the rural locations have real consequences for the people detained.

Data shows that having access to an attorney dramatically improves a detainee's chance of winning release and a chance at staying in the United States. But it's hard for attorneys to get to many of the facilities; Ahmed regularly drives three to seven hours to visit immigrant clients across the state.

Baher Azmy, legal director of the New York-based Center of Constitutional Rights, represented Khalil, the Columbia University activist, during his more than three-month detention at the Central Louisiana Processing Center in Jena.

He visited twice and said he was struck by its remoteness, the utter lack of space for attorneys to meet their clients and the no-contact family visitation conducted behind plexiglass.

A wood sign points the way to Winn Correctional Center, an ICE facility, in Winnfield, Louisiana.

Accommodations were made for Khalil to see his wife and newborn baby in a separate room, after a court ordered it.

"Getting there was an all-day proposition," Azmy said. "It reminded me of my early trips to Guantanamo," the military jail on the island of Cuba, where he represented clients accused of terrorism in the years after the 9/11 attacks. "The desolation, the difficulty getting there. The visiting conditions were better in Guantanamo than in Jena. As horrible as Guantanamo was, I could hug my client."

According to ICE, rules and accommodations at different facilities can depend on their design and capacity, as well as contractual agreements.

"Allegations that ICE detention facilities have improper conditions are unequivocally false and designed to demonize ICE law enforcement," McLaughlin said. "ICE follows national detention standards."

Exponential expansion of ICE detention

The United States has consistently grown its immigration detention through both Republican and Democratic administrations.

But the average number of immigrants in detention on any given day has risen rapidly over the past six months, from roughly 40,000 people at the end of the Biden administration in January to more than 58,000 in early July.

Under President Joe Biden, ICE moved thousands of migrants who sought asylum at the United States-Mexico border over to Louisiana detention centers, said the ACLU's Ahmed.

Now, the centers are filled with people picked up in the country's interior.

Nearly half of those in ICE detention in early July had no criminal record or pending charges, according to ICE data. They faced civil immigration violations.

When determining whether to send a detainee to Louisiana, ICE considers bed space availability, the detainee's medical and security needs and proximity to transportation, according to an agency statement.

The average daily population in Louisiana ICE facilities topped 7,300 in early July. That compares to roughly 2,000 ICE detainees in 2017 at the start of the first Trump administration, according to data collected by TRAC at Syracuse University.

Some of that increase is due to a Trump administration decision to withdraw legal status from thousands of immigrants who arrived during the Biden administration and followed the rules then in place.

Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La., operated by GEO Group.

"These are mothers. These are children. These are students. And these are individuals who often had status that was very much legal, that's then been taken away by the administration," Ahmed said. "So what we are seeing is the rendering of documented people to undocumented by the stroke of a pen of the United States government."

Three times this spring and early summer, Will Trim traveled to Richwood Correctional to visit his colleague Petrova, the Harvard scientist from Russia. He said the buildings looked "like warehouses, featureless beige buildings" encircled with razor wire, separated from a low-income neighborhood by a patch of woods.

During his visits, few of the people he spoke with in the nearby town of Monroe knew that more than 700 immigrant women were being held locally. According to ICE data, on average, in July, 97% of the women in Richwood Correctional had no criminal record.

"If they are being held without charge," he asked, "why is there double-barbed wire?

 Why is it hidden in the forest?"

Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com.

Dinah Pulver and Ignacio Calderon contributed to this report.

 

The Caspian Sea Hits Historic Low

Caspian Sea. Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency

 July 24, 2025  

By TCA

By Vagit Ismailov

(TCA) — The Caspian Sea has dropped to its lowest recorded level, now sitting at less than 29 meters below sea level. The northern basin, bordering Russia and Kazakhstan, is shrinking particularly rapidly. As the water recedes, the exposed seabed is threatening key marine ecosystems. Experts warn the decline is already causing seriousdisruption to biodiversity in the region.

Declining Volga Flow and Climate Change

The downward trend in sea levels began in the 1990s and has accelerated since 2020, with a nearly 80-centimeter drop in the past four years. The primary factor is a decrease in the annual flow of the Volga River, which supplies approximately 80% of the Caspian’s inflow and contributes 64% to the lake’s total water balance.

In recent years, the Volga’s annual discharge has ranged between 210 and 232 cubic kilometers, well below the historical average of around 250 cubic kilometers. At the same time, rising air temperatures are increasing evaporation rates, further depleting water levels. Scientists link these changes to global climate change and the ongoing rise in greenhouse gas emissions.

Ecological and Economic Impact

Human activity is compounding the problem. Significant water extraction from rivers for agriculture, industry, and municipal use is reducing the volume of water reaching the sea.

Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources is currently developing a comprehensive program to adapt to these shifting environmental conditions. The initiative aims to enhance forecasting, mitigate the consequences of shallowing, and adjust economic activities to reflect the new hydrological realities.

Experts suggest that only a sustained annual inflow of around 270 cubic kilometers, comparable to levels recorded in the 1970s and 1990s, can halt the lake’s ongoing decline.

Changing Coastlines and Public Concern

A recent video by Kazakh filmmaker Adai Myrzatay has stirred widespread attention on social media. The footage juxtaposes images of the Caspian coastline in 2013 and 2025. Twelve years ago, the pier was surrounded by open water and untouched shoreline. Today, the water has receded dramatically. Bushes now encircle the pier, and high-rise buildings stand where the shoreline once lay. The video has been viewed over 1.5 million times.

The falling water level is leading to the loss of biological diversity and shrinking spawning grounds for species such as the Caspian seal and sturgeon. The shallowing is also disrupting shipping and fishing operations and raising the risk of international disputes over increasingly scarce water resources.

A Shared Challenge for Five Nations

The Caspian Sea, the world’s largest enclosed inland body of water, receives inflow from more than 130 rivers, including the Volga, Ural, Terek, Sulak, and Samur. Its coastline is shared by five countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Iran.

While the Volga’s inflow increased slightly to 232 cubic kilometers in 2024, it remains insufficient to reverse or even stabilize the sea’s decline.

Experts agree that regional cooperation and a coordinated, long-term strategy for water resource management are essential to confronting this environmental crisis.

• About the author: Vagit Ismailov is a Kazakhstani journalist. He has worked in leading regional and national publications.

TCA

TCA is The Times of Central Asia. Founded in Bishkek in 1999 by Giorgio Fiacconi, who served as the First Honorary Consul of Italy to Kyrgyztan for fifteen years, The Times of Central Asia was the first English language regional publication on the region. Building upon its extensive archive of stories, today the Times of Central Asia continues to cover politics, economics, culture, social issues, justice and foreign affairs across Eurasia.

Conspiracies about extreme weather spread faster than life-saving alerts on social media, says study

Copyright Jae C. Hong/Copyright 2025 The AP. All rights reserved

By Rebecca Ann Hughes
Published on 24/07/2025 - 

The study says the influence of high-profile conspiracy theorists during climate disasters is drowning out emergency response efforts.


False information and conspiracy theories about extreme weather events spread faster than life-saving alerts on some social media platforms, according to a new study.

Research by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) claims that Meta, X and YouTube threaten public safety by enabling misleading claims during catastrophic weather events.

The CCDH says this practice has resulted in “impeded emergency response and erosion of public trust in disaster relief efforts” in some cases.
‘The rapid spread of climate conspiracies online isn’t accidental’

CCDH researchers analysed 300 viral posts containing false or misleading information on Meta, X and YouTube during recent extreme weather events, including the LA wildfires and Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The report claims that in the wake of these events, social media platforms “amplified conspiracy theorists while sidelining vital emergency information.”

The researchers analysed five different types of misleading claims: about the causes of severe weather events; about disaster relief aid; about emergency responses; about the impact of climate change; and about political responses.

They found that Meta (which operates Facebook and Instagram) lacked fact-checks or community notes on 98 per cent of posts analysed.

Related

Europe’s summer heatwaves: Should you cancel your holiday when extreme weather hits?

‘Where conflict, poverty and climate collide’: Number of internally displaced people tops 80 million

X lacked fact-checks or community notes on 99 per cent of posts analysed, and YouTube had zero fact-checks or community notes on 100 per cent of posts analysed.

Instead, the overwhelming majority of posts spreading misleading information about disaster response, climate change causes, and emergency aid were left unmoderated before being algorithmically boosted and monetised, the study claims.

“While families mourned and first responders combed through wreckage after climate disasters in Texas and California, social media companies shamelessly exploited these catastrophes for profit,” says Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH.

“The rapid spread of climate conspiracies online isn’t accidental, it’s baked into a business model that profits from outrage and division.”
Social media posts claim hurricanes were ‘geo-engineered weapons’

The CCDH says recent disasters revealed a dangerous pattern where falsehoods outpaced facts on social media during weather disasters.

Following Hurricanes Helene and Milton in late 2024 and the LA fires in early 2025, conspiracy theories flooded platforms.

These included claims that hurricanes were "geo-engineered weapons" and wildfires were ignited by "government lasers".

Posts also sparked public anger by claiming that migrants were prioritised for aid, while scammers exploited survivors through adverts impersonating federal assistance programs.

The research found that this false information spread faster than updates from emergency officials and reliable news outlets.

High-profile and verified users spread most false information

The report’s authors warn that the influence of high-profile conspiracy theorists during climate disasters is drowning out emergency response efforts.

During the LA wildfires, American far-right radio show host Alex Jones posted several false claims, including conspiracies about food confiscation and “globalist” plots.

These amassed more views on X than the combined reach of FEMA, the LA Times, and ten major news outlets and emergency agencies from 7 to 31 January 2025, the research found.

The study also found that verified users who receive enhanced visibility and monetisation privileges are among the worst offenders.

Related

British potatoes and Spanish olives: How climate extremes are pushing up food prices

Climate shelters: When the heat is on, where can you escape to?

88 per cent of misleading extreme weather posts on X, 73 per cent on YouTube and 64 per cent on Meta were from verified accounts.

“It is appalling to see how the climate science deniers and conspiracy theorists are manipulating extreme weather events to disseminate their fact-free fallacies,” says Sam Bright, international journalism organisation DeSmog's UK deputy editor.

“However, perhaps even more shocking is that social media companies are actively profiting from the disinformation that spreads like wildfire on their platforms.

“This report unequivocally shows that climate disinformation costs lives. As extreme weather events become more and more frequent, these falsehoods will only get more dangerous.”

Euronews Green has reached out to Meta and YouTube for comment.

CLIMATE CHANGE

ICJ delivers an unambiguous order on states’ responsibilities to halt climate change

The United Nations’ judicial organ paved the way for states to be held accountable for fossil fuel emissions and the resultant climate harm.

Meena Menon

Vanuatu's Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu delivers a speech at a demonstration ahead of the International Court of Justice session on climate change July 23. | John Thys / AFP

In a much-awaited readout of its advisory opinion on climate change, the president of the International Court of Justice Iwasawa Yuji on July 23 spelt out in crystal-clear terms the legal and customary obligations of states under international law and climate treaties to ensure the planet survives the catastrophic impacts of climate change.

The opinion paved the way for states to be held accountable for fossil fuel emissions and the resultant climate harm. The order has been hailed by the Pacific Islands states especially, Vanuatu, which led the global demand for the opinion, as unprecedented and as going above all expectations.

The advisory opinion clearly mentioned that failure of states to take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by continuing fossil fuel production, granting exploration licences or fossil fuel subsidies constituted an internationally wrongful act. States also have an obligation to regulate private actors as a matter of due diligence.

In relation to climate damage, the court held that in the event that restitution should prove to be materially impossible, responsible states have an obligation to compensate. Some states argued during the hearing in December that it was difficult to fix responsibility. But the court held that it was scientifically possible to determine the emissions contribution of each state in both current and historical terms.

The court also stated that injured states could separately invoke the responsibility of states committing wrongful acts that caused climate harm and seek reparations. Judge Yuji said climate change was more than a legal problem: it concerns an existential problem of “planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet”.

A complete solution to this daunting and self- inflicted problem, the court said, required all forms of human and scientific knowledge and human will and wisdom at the individual, social and political level to change habits, comforts and the current way of life. The court expressed the hope that its conclusions would allow the law to inform and guide social and political action to address the climate crisis.

Two questions

The court had been requested by the United Nations General Assembly to address two critical questions in its advisory opinion, the hearings for which were completed in December 2024 in The Hague.

The court first examined the obligations of states to address climate change for current and future generations under international laws including human rights law, the United Nations Charter, the Law of the Sea and climate treaties and agreements.

Secondly, it considered the legal consequences that states face if they failed to meet their obligations and caused serious climate harm.

The United Nations General Assembly resolution seeking this advisory opinion was the result of a six-year campaign by law students of the University of the South Pacific.

The advisory opinion was a transformational shift to seeking climate justice, said Vishal Prasad, the campaign director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. “Everything we hoped for is there,” he said. “We are grateful and happy with the outcome.”

The court also addressed intergenerational equity by underscoring the need for action to save the planet. It sends a strong message to young people and “gives us hope, a tool for climate justice, a strong tool to carry on the fight for climate justice”, Prasad said.

Placing responsibility

Some important observations made by the court include placing clear responsibility on polluters and those states causing climate harm and the obligation of such states to pay for damage and restoration for the loss of habitat and biodiversity.

The court clarified that states were obliged to adhere to both customary and international laws as well the climate treaties: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement and other United Nations conventions on biodiversity, desertification as well as human rights and the Law of the Sea.

It was not merely enough to prepare Nationally Determined Contributions as obligated by the Paris Agreement that set out ambitions and targets of each state to curb greenhouse gas emissions but also to ensure that all states were collectively moving towards the common goal of curbing emissions.

‘Beyond expectations

Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, said the opinion was above and beyond his expectations because it directly addressed fossil fuels, reiterating that it was wrong for states to give exploration licences or to subsidise or produce fossil fuels.

The key contribution of the advisory opinion was two- fold, said Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, legal counsel for Vanuatu’s case and international lawyer at Blue Ocean Law. She said the court has mentioned the whole spectrum of obligations that applies to the conduct of states that have caused climate change and that states that failed to regulate fossil fuels, and continue with subsidies, are liable.

“When you violate your obligations and commit a wrongful act, you need to stop that and you need to make reparations for the injuries that you have caused,” she said.

The implications of this advisory opinion are tremendous, she added. The advisory opinion endorsed the “polluter pays” principle. “We have come to the era of accountability and states can be held accountable for current and past emissions, states can be held to account for failing to meet their obligations.” she said.

Experts from the Center for International Environmental Law commended the ruling for offering a legal foundation for climate accountability. “The world’s highest court has spoken – reinforcing what frontline communities have long demanded: justice means remedy,” said senior attorney Joie Chowdhury of the centre.

The court’s decision lays a stronger legal foundation for climate accountability, offering a vital lifeline to frontline communities and nations, with far-reaching consequences for climate litigation, multilateral negotiations, and campaigns across the world. Merely adhering to the climate agreements was not enough the Court held and that states had an obligation to do more and their best to limit climate harm.

Added Sebastien Duyck, senior attorney at the Center For International Environmental Law, “When a court like the ICJ recognises new connections between conduct and legal norms, like the idea that failing to curb fossil fuels-related emissions can violate international legal obligations, it does not stop there. That recognition opens the door for further legal claims.”

Meena Menon is a freelance journalist and a postdoctoral visiting fellow at the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK.

EU-China climate statement shows joint resolve in face of US desertion

While the two powers made no new commitments, experts say the cooperation agreement reaffirms their climate leadership ahead of COP30

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China July 24, 2025. (Photo: China Daily via REUTERS)



Megan Rowling
Editor

CLIMATE CHANGE 
Jul 24, 2025
Editing: Matteo Civillini



The European Union and China promised on Thursday to demonstrate joint leadership on driving a “global just transition” and said the “defining color” of their cooperation would be green, in a statement issued after their leaders met in Beijing.

They also confirmed they would submit their updated national climate plans for cutting emissions through to 2035 before the COP30 climate summit in Brazil this November. Those plans, known as NDCs, will cover all economic sectors and all greenhouse gases and align “with the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement”, the declaration added.

That goal is to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and make efforts to keep it to 1.5C above pre-industrial times.

While the EU-China statement did not contain any concrete new commitments from either side, climate policy experts welcomed it as reinforcing their willingness to cooperate in the face of the United States quitting international climate action under Donald Trump.

Andreas Sieber, associate director of policy and campaigns at climate group 350.org, said the joint statement “offers a timely stabilising signal in an increasingly fragmented geopolitical landscape and the United States’ withdrawal from climate diplomacy”.

New climate plans must supercharge energy transition, says UN’s Guterres

The declaration noted that “in the fluid and turbulent international situation today, it is crucial that all countries, notably the major economies maintain policy continuity and stability and step up efforts to address climate change”.

It added that stronger cooperation between the EU and China “is of great and special significance to upholding multilateralism and advancing global climate governance” while benefiting the well-being of their peoples.

David Waskow, international climate director at the World Resources Institute, said stronger climate leadership from the two major emitters “is critically needed to rekindle global momentum after the US stepped away from the Paris Agreement again”.

The US gave notice in January 2025 that it will leave the Paris pact in a year’s time and has not yet said whether it will participate in the UN climate negotiations at COP30.
Calls for more ambition on both sides

In the run-up to the summit between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Chinese President Xi Jinping and other top politicians, the Financial Times reported that the EU had held back on signing a joint climate action pledge as it wanted China to show more ambition on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It is unclear how that issue was resolved.

But in response to Thursday’s joint statement, climate policy watchers called on both sides to up their game ahead of COP30.

Coming a day after the world’s top court issued a landmark opinion on states’ legal obligations to protect the climate, Waskow said both the EU and China “have a chance to meet the bar set by the International Court of Justice, which emphasised that climate commitments should reflect their highest ambition possible”.

World’s top court opens door to compensation from countries responsible for climate crisis

This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invited countries that have yet to submit their new NDCs – more than 160 – to do so during a summit he will host in late September in New York.

So far, the European Commission has publicly proposed a new goal to cut the EU’s net emissions by 90% on 1990 levels by 2040 – but has come under pressure from some member states to allow up to 3% of those reductions to come from paying other countries outside the bloc to lower their greenhouse gas pollution.

China – which alone accounts for a third of global emissions – has a current goal of peaking CO2 emissions “before 2030” and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060. It has also pledged to reduce CO2 emissions per unit of GDP – a measure known as carbon intensity – by more than 65% below 2005 levels by 2030, but is far off track for that intensity target, partly as its economy has slowed.

Responding to Thursday’s joint statement, Belinda Schäpe, China policy analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, said China could cut emissions by at least 30% from current levels by 2035, which would double the value of its clean energy industries. The EU, meanwhile, should lower emissions by around 78% below 1990 levels by 2035, she added.

Clean tech overtures?

The two sides also committed jointly to turn their climate targets into “tangible outcomes” and to accelerate global renewable energy deployment, including by providing access to green technologies for developing countries.

In a post on LinkedIn, Schäpe noted that this suggests “a willingness to move beyond tit-for-tat clean tech tensions”. “If both sides can manage China’s dominance and co-develop resilient supply chains, it would be a game-changer for the global energy transition,” she wrote.

Does the world need a global treaty on energy transition minerals?

Yao Zhe, Greenpeace East Asia’s Beijing-based global policy advisor, said this remained a difficult question in the relationship, with Europe needing to preserve its industrial competitiveness while the energy transition requires China to deliver clean technology at scale around the world.

“Finding the right balance is key to future EU-China cooperation,” Zhe said in a statement. “But across any potential solutions, engagement remains a necessary step.”