In Guyana, remote dirt road seen as future economic lifeline

By AFP
August 30, 2025


This aerial view shows 'The Trail,' a historic red dirt route through Guyana, which officials are hoping to turn into a major highway that can transform the country's economy - Copyright AFP Philip FONG

Patrick FORT

Through the vast interior of Guyana, a historic red dirt road known as “The Trail” winds through rainforest, plains and hills, linking the capital Georgetown to Lethem in the south on the border with Brazil.

Now, that nearly 500-kilometer (310-mile) link is being upgraded into a major highway, and authorities in the South American country — which possesses the world’s largest oil reserves per capita — hope the project will help transform its economy.

They also hope it can help open up Essequibo, the disputed oil-rich region administered by Guyana for decades but claimed by neighboring Venezuela.

The renovation is no small undertaking for Guyana, which goes to the polls to elect new leaders on Monday. It will cost almost $1 billion to build the four sections of highway and about 50 bridges. The most optimistic completion date is 2030.

So for the time being, truckers and others tackle The Trail, also called the Linden-Lethem road, as it is.

It takes 15 hours to make the journey end to end, and some don’t succeed. One rusty truck appears to have been abandoned on the side of the road for some time.

“It’s a very tough job,” says 27-year-old Ramdial Metleash, who is shirtless and dripping in sweat as he drives his logging truck.

Metleash explains how life on The Trail can be hard — in the rainy season, vehicles get stuck in mud. When it’s dry, there are nasty dust clouds.

He has been working this route since he was 15, earning about 60,000 Guyana dollars ($290) per trip — enough to take care of his sister and her son.

And while the oil industry hasn’t changed his bottom line, Metleash admits the completion of the road would help, especially at spots like Kurupukari, where a bridge will be built. For now, trucks cross a river on a barge.

– ‘Game changer’ –

Juan Edghill, Guyana’s minister of public works, tells AFP that the finished highway will be “a game changer in terms of where Guyana is going.”

“This road, when completed, will connect us with the Takutu Bridge, which carries you into northern Brazil. That’s a market of 20 million people,” says Edghill.

That is more than 20 times English-speaking Guyana’s population of more than 800,000.

The minister also notes that the route would link to the Palmyra deepwater port, now under construction and located not far from the border with Suriname.

For now, Brazilians need to travel “21 days down the Amazon to get goods to water for shipping,” Edghill says.

With the new road, that could be whittled down to 48 hours.

Of course, as one observer notes, the road could also easily be used to move troops and military equipment through the country, and into Essequibo, which also has valuable mineral deposits.

That region has long been neglected by the government in Georgetown, as Caracas has pressed its claims over the territory.

“Essequibo is part of Guyana,” Edghill says. “It’s the home of our Indigenous brothers and sisters. (…) Essequibo is also the home for all the large-scale mines, the home of our major forestry activity.”

The new highway would allow more people to travel for work without leaving their families for months at a time, he says, adding: “It’s a great opportunity.”

– ‘You can’t fight progress’ –

Michelle Fredericks, 53, owns a popular snack stall near the barge dock in Kurupukari.

The bridge will pass directly over where her business currently stands. It will be relocated, but will no longer receive heavy foot traffic as it does now.

Fredericks is nevertheless sanguine about the future.

“I can’t just only think about this business here,” she tells AFP.

“A lot of development is going to happen,” she predicts, noting that she plans to shift into offering services to tourists.

Already, Fredericks welcomes local and foreign tourists who want to go fishing or for hikes in the rainforest.

She expects the number of weekend visitors to increase once the new road cuts the drive time from Georgetown in half to about four hours.

“You can’t fight progress. That’s life,” Fredericks says.

Afghanistan earthquake kills more than 800

Agence France-Presse
September 1, 2025 

An injured Afghan boy (bottom) receives treatment at a hospital after an earthquake in Afghanistan's Jalalabad on September 1, 2025. Nine people died when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake and powerful aftershock rattled eastern Afghanistan, the provincial Nangarhar government said on 1 September 2025. (Photo credit: Aimal ZAHIR / AFP)

A massive rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan Monday, after a strong earthquake and multiple aftershocks flattened homes in a remote, mountainous region, killing more than 800 people, the Taliban authorities said.

The earthquake struck just before midnight, shaking buildings from Kabul to neighbouring Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

More than 1.2 million people likely felt strong or very strong shaking, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Near the epicentre in the east of Afghanistan, around 800 people were killed and 2,500 injured in remote Kunar province alone, chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Another 12 people were killed and 255 injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province, he added.

"Numerous houses were destroyed," interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP.

The majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes that are vulnerable to collapse.

Some of the most severely impacted villages in remote Kunar provinces "remain inaccessible due to road blockages", the UN migration agency warned in a statement to AFP.

The Taliban authorities and the United Nations mobilised rescue efforts to hard-hit areas. The defence ministry said 40 flight sorties had so far been carried out.

A member of the agricultural department in Kunar's Nurgal district said people had rushed to clear blocked roads to isolated villages, but that badly affected areas were remote and had limited telecoms networks.

"There is a lot of fear and tension... Children and women were screaming. We had never experienced anything like this in our lives," Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad told AFP.

He said that many living in quake-hit villages were among the more than four million Afghans who have returned to the country from Iran and Pakistan in recent years.

"They wanted to build their homes here."

The quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of eight kilometres, was 27 kilometres from the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, according to the USGS.

Nangarhar and Kunar provinces border Pakistan, with the Torkham crossing the site of many waves of Afghan returnees deported or forced to leave, often with no work and nowhere to go.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added his condolences to those shared by the Taliban government and several nations.

"I stand in full solidarity with the people of Afghanistan after the devastating earthquake that hit the country earlier today," he said.

- Frequent quakes -

After the initial quake, a series of at least five aftershocks followed throughout the night, with the strongest being one of magnitude 5.2 just after 4:00 am (2330 GMT Sunday).

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

Nangarhar province was also hit by flooding overnight Friday to Saturday, which killed five people and destroyed crops and property, provincial authorities said.

In October 2023, western Herat province was devastated by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 1,500 people and damaged or destroyed more than 63,000 homes.

In June 2022, a 5.9-magnitude quake struck the impoverished eastern border province of Paktika, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

Ravaged by four decades of war, Afghanistan is already contending with a series of humanitarian crises.

Since the return of the Taliban, foreign aid to Afghanistan has been slashed, undermining the already impoverished nation's ability to respond to disasters.

Earthquake in Afghan village leaves no family untouched

Many families were asleep when the quake struck in the dead of the night.


By AFP
September 1, 2025

Taliban security personnel carry an Afghan earthquake victim evacuated by a military helicopter - Copyright AFP Wakil KOHSAR

Qubad Wali

No household was spared death or injury in the village of Wadir when a powerful earthquake shook eastern Afghanistan, reducing homes to piles of rubble.

Aftershocks from the 6.0-magnitude earthquake continued to rumble across the scenes of destruction, where remains of dead livestock jutted out from a tangle of broken beams and muddy, flattened homes.

“In every home at least one person was killed or injured,” 55-year-old resident Gul Mohammad Rasooli told AFP, himself injured.

The smell of death mingled with the sound of wailing women and scraping shovels as rescuers and residents desperately tried to find anyone still alive.

In front of what was a single-storey mud-brick home, rescuers were undeterred by a string of aftershocks that sent a din echoing between the mountains as they tried to find two children.

Their mother had been injured, a rescue worker told AFP, “and when we pulled her out she was calling out for her children”, who were still inside.

Many families were asleep when the quake struck in the dead of the night.

Every 15 minutes, the roar of a helicopter filled the air, with Taliban security personnel spilling out to unload bread and water and then refilling the aircraft with stretchers bearing those hurt worst.

Men, women and children were ferried to hospitals in the nearest city Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.

Many roads through the mountainous areas that were already difficult to navigate were rendered impassable by landslides.

– ‘May not survive’ –

The grim toll of the earthquake started to become clear from the first hours after the earthquake early on Monday.

The country — one of the poorest in the world and regularly hit by natural disasters that are expected to multiply under the effects of climate change — has already counted more than 800 dead.

Thousands of injured are already crammed into hospitals, where doctors and nurses work frantically amid the constant flow of stretchers.

In Wadir, where around a 1,000 homes are tucked in the mountains of Kunar province — half of them belong to Afghans recently expelled from neighbouring Pakistan and trying to rebuild their lives — no one yet dares to give a final death toll.

“It won’t be wrong to tell you that nine out of 10 people are either dead or hurt,” said 38-year-old doctor Fazel Rabih, who was delivering first aid.

Eastern Afghanistan is no stranger to powerful earthquakes, having seen 12 with a magnitude higher than seven since 1900.

But 20-year-old Wadir resident Mohammad Jawad said he had never felt one so strong.

“When the earthquake happened it was so strong I ran out of the house and it immediately collapsed behind me,” he told AFP, saying among the 10 members of his family, one person had been killed and most of the others had been injured.

Even as the earth continues to shake under their feet, the villagers fear the worst is not over, as dark rain clouds gathered in the mountains overhead.

There is no shelter for those left behind in the scarred remnants of the village, said the village mullah Irfan Ulhaq.

“If anyone is alive under the rubble, they may not survive.”

Pacifist Japan struggles to boost troops as China anxiety grows


By AFP
August 30, 2025


Tokyo is shifting its defence resources to southwestern regions such as Okinawa as tensions with China rise - Copyright AFP Philip FONG

Hiroshi HIYAMA

Sporting dark face paint and clutching a gun, teenage soldier-in-training Takuma Hiyane crawls across a field on Japan’s Okinawa, the front line of the nation’s defence as anxiety grows over China’s territorial ambitions.

As the world marks the 80th anniversary of World War II, Japan — which has been officially pacifist since its defeat — is trying to lure more talent into its armed forces.

Tokyo began upping its military spending in 2023 and aims to make it two percent of its gross domestic product by the end of the 2027 fiscal year, but has come under pressure from Washington to boost it even further.

Japan fears that China could attempt a forceful takeover of Taiwan — the self-governed island it claims — potentially triggering a conflict with Washington that could drag in Tokyo as well.

But it has been hard to convince enough young Japanese to enlist.

Hiyane, a 19-year-old former high school badminton player who signed up after his graduation in March, was swayed by the idea of helping victims of natural disasters, he said.

“I thought this was a job that I could contribute to my country and be proud of, so I decided to join,” he told AFP, carefully dodging questions on the sensitive topic of national defence.

Tokyo wants a beefed-up military in southwestern regions such as Okinawa, home to some 70 percent of US military facilities in Japan and seen as strategically important for monitoring China, the Taiwan Strait and the Korean peninsula.

In 2023, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) aimed to hire almost 20,000 people, but recruited just half that number, according to the defence ministry.

Dangerous duties, low pay and a young retirement age of around 56 are off-putting for young Japanese, officials and experts say.

Japan’s low birth rate, shrinking population and tight labour market are also complicating recruitment, leaving around 10 percent of the force’s 250,000 positions unfilled.

– Better conditions –

On Okinawa, Hiyane and his fellow trainees braved scorching heat to stage a line formation, before dashing forward to capture a mock enemy fort.

“I find training here very physical and hard, but I am used to it in a way since I played sports at school,” he said.

“I find it more exhausting and nerve-racking when I have to shoot guns.”

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in June that increasing SDF numbers was “a top priority” given Japan’s worsening security environment.

Kazuyuki Shioiri, who helps manage an infantry regiment in Okinawa where Hiyane trains, said increased defence expenditure was gradually making troops’ lives better through various upgrades including air conditioning, cleaner bathrooms and more privacy in dormitories.

“We have been able to improve conditions,” he said.

Before the extra funds, Japanese troops had complained that they lacked bullets and basic supplies.

They used to strip old tanks and jets for parts to repair newer equipment, the defence ministry said.

But it’s not simply “muscular troops with high combat capabilities” that the force wants, said Toshiyuki Asou, an SDF recruiter on Okinawa.

“We are looking for a wide range of personnel now as national security involves everything from cybersecurity, space defence, electromagnetic warfare, and of course intelligence work,” he added.

– Reluctant to fight –

Despite the government’s defence push, Japanese citizens have traditionally kept their distance from the subject, with some still carrying bitter memories of the nation’s militarist past.

Japan’s constitution, which was drafted by the US after World War II and enjoys wide public support, bans Tokyo from using force and does not recognise the SDF as a formal military.

While the troops are highly respected, the public have loudly opposed any attempt to amend the constitution to grant them that status.

In a Gallup International survey released last year, only nine percent of Japanese respondents said they would fight for the country if there was a war, while 50 percent said they would not.

That compares with greater willingness in some other countries, with 46 percent of South Koreans, 41 percent of Americans and 34 percent of Canadians saying they would fight.

Ryoichi Oriki, the former head of the Joint Staff of the SDF, said during a recent press briefing that he wished for “greater understanding among the public about the reality of national defence”.

In the field, new recruits said they were excited about launching their military careers despite the geopolitical turbulence.

“I have learned the spirit and skills of Self-Defense Force personnel,” said Hiyane, who is about to complete his initial training. “I feel I have grown.”

Indonesian islanders taking Swiss concrete giant to court over climate


By AFP
August 31, 2025


Residents of the tiny Indonesian island of Pari want Swiss cement giant Holcim to pay for what they say is its share of the climate change that threatens their home - Copyright AFP William WEST

Nina LARSON

Residents of the tiny Indonesian island of Pari, threatened with disappearance by rising sea levels driven by climate change, have come to Switzerland to demand compensation from cement giant Holcim.

The case is part of a wider international movement seeking to assign responsibility to major companies for the climate damage hurting the livelihoods of millions of people, especially in the Global South.

More than two years after four residents of Pari filed suit against the world’s largest cement firm, two of them have travelled to Switzerland to take part in a preliminary hearing in the landmark case.

The hearing to determine whether or not the court will consider the complaint will take place on Wednesday in Zug, where the firm is headquartered.

Holcim insists it is “deeply committed to taking action on climate”, but maintains that “the question of who is allowed to emit how much CO2” should be “a matter for the legislature and not a question for a civil court”.

Environmentalists say cement production is responsible for around eight percent of global CO2 emissions, and allege that Holcim figures among the 100 largest CO2 emitters among all companies worldwide.

The company thus bears significant responsibility for climate-related loss and damages, the suit maintains, in a case that could be a milestone for plaintiffs from developing countries who take on industrial giants.

– ‘Inspirational’ –

“I hope the case will become inspirational… for climate victims” around the world, plaintiff Asmania told reporters in the Swiss city of Lausanne ahead of the hearing, speaking through a translator.

Environmentalists have said most of the 42-hectare (104-acre) island of Pari could be underwater by 2050 due to rising sea levels.

The islanders say saltwater floods have in recent years surged in scale and frequency, battering homes and damaging livelihoods.

Asmania, a 42-year-old mother-of-three, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, has already lost her seaweed farm due to flooding, which has also ravished her fish farm, sweeping in dirt and oil that kill off the babies.

This year, she began with 500 small fry, “and there are only nine left”, she said, adding that income “is zero”.

– ‘Biggest threat’ –

Another plaintiff, 54-year-old mechanic and beach manager Arif Pujianto, also said climate impacts were taking a dire toll.

“The climate crisis is the biggest threat to my life,” he said through a translator.

He described how severe flooding of Star Beach had shrunk the pristine stretch of sand by nine metres since 2021, driving away tourists vital for his income.

At the same time, tidal floods now regularly reach his bamboo house, rotting the walls and contaminating his well, forcing him to purchase drinking water for his family at a high price.

The small workshop where he repairs motorcycles and diesel engines has also been repeatedly flooded, rusting his equipment, he said.

If the Swiss court refuses to take the case, Arif said he feared he would lose his beach, his island and even his life.

– A first –

Environmental litigation against governments and fossil fuel firms seen as responsible for the greatest CO2 emissions has surged in recent years, but the case marks the first such action against a major cement company.

It is also the first filed by Indonesians against a foreign company for climate-related damage, and the first instance of a Swiss company being sued for its alleged role in such damage.

The four plaintiffs in the case are seeking 3,600 Swiss francs ($4,500) each from Holcim for damages and protection measures such as planting mangroves and constructing breakwater barriers.

Swiss Church Aid (HEKS), an NGO helping the islanders, stressed that the amount was only equivalent to 0.42 percent of the actual costs — in line with estimates that Holcim is responsible for 0.42 percent of global industrial CO2 emissions since 1750.

In addition, the plaintiffs are demanding a 43-percent reduction in Holcim’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and a 69-percent reduction by 2040, with HEKS saying this was in line with the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to the pre-industrial era.

Japan, South Korea had hottest summer on record in 2025

– ‘All man-made’ –

By AFP
September 1, 2025


A woman with an umbrella walks in the scorching sun in Tokyo on September 1

 - Copyright AFP Philip FONG

Alice PHILIPSON with KANG Jin-kyu in Seoul

Japan and South Korea sweltered this year through the hottest summers since records began, their weather agencies said Monday.

Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as climate change creates ever more erratic weather patterns.

Japan’s average temperature between June and August “was 2.36C above the standard value, which marked the hottest summer since records began in 1898”, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

“It was the third consecutive summer of record-level high temperatures,” the JMA added.

During that same period in South Korea, the average temperature was 25.7C, “the highest since data collection began in 1973”, the Korea Meteorological Administration said in a press release.

The previous record over the same period was 25.6C, set just last year.

In Japan the scorching heat left some 84,521 people hospitalised nationwide from May 1 to August 24 this year, up slightly from 83,414 during the same period last year, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

– ‘All man-made’ –

In Tokyo, avid runner Masao Nakano, 80, told AFP he pines for the old days when he could just “step outside, sprinkle water in the street and feel the cool air”.

Nakano says he survived the sizzling summer by working out at a gym and jogging to prepare for a marathon.

“This is crazy. It’s all man-made, right? All the air-cons and power generation”, he said.

Japan’s beloved cherry trees are blooming earlier due to the warmer climate, or sometimes not fully blossoming because autumns and winters are not cold enough to trigger flowering, experts say.

The famous snowcap of Mount Fuji was absent for the longest recorded period last year, not appearing until early November, compared with the average of early October.

In South Korea, the country is grappling with a prolonged drought that has hit the eastern coastal city of Gangneung.

A state of national disaster has been declared in the city of 200,000 after weeks without rain — with water levels at the Obong reservoir, the city’s main source of piped water, falling below 15 percent.

The dry spell has forced authorities to implement water restrictions, including shutting off 75 percent of household meters.

Heatwaves are becoming more intense and frequent worldwide because of human-caused climate change, scientists say.

But the speed of temperature increases across the world is not uniform.

Of the continents, Europe has seen the fastest warming per decade since 1990, followed closely by Asia, according to global data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The United Nations warned last month that rising global temperatures are having an ever-worsening impact on the health of workers, and was also hitting productivity, which they say dropped by two to three percent for every degree above 20C.

burs-aph-kjk/fox

US judge blocks Trump from expanding rapid deportation process


By AFP
August 30, 2025


(L/R) US President President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visit a migrant detention center, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," in Ochopee, Florida on July 1, 2025 - Copyright AFP ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS

A US judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from massively expanding a procedure that allows authorities to swiftly deport migrants without a court hearing, in a blow for the president’s mass deportation plans.

The process, which is called “expedited removal,” had previously been used to rapidly deport migrants detained near the Mexican border if they had entered the US in the previous two weeks.

However since January, the administration of Donald Trump has expanded the use of the procedure across the whole country — and applied it to migrants who have been in the US for up to two years.

US District Judge Jia Cobb blocked this expanded use of the procedure, saying it could lead to people being “erroneously” deported without due process, including the chance to prove they have been in the US for more than two years.

“Unlike the group of people who have traditionally been subject to expedited removal — those detained at or near the border shortly after crossing — the group of people the Government is now subjecting to expedited removal have long since entered our country,” Cobb wrote in a 48-page opinion published late Friday.

“In defending this skimpy process, the Government makes a truly startling argument: that those who entered the country illegally are entitled to no process under the Fifth Amendment, but instead must accept whatever grace Congress affords them,” she added.

“Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk.”

The ruling by Cobb, who was appointed by former president Joe Biden, was in a case brought by Make The Road New York, a rights group supporting migrants.

The judge emphasized that the court was not casting “doubt on the constitutionality of the expedited removal statute, nor on its longstanding application at the border.”

Trump campaigned to return to the White House vowing to deport millions of undocumented migrants.

But his mass deportation program has been restricted by numerous court rulings, notably on the grounds that those targeted should be able to assert their due process rights.

Cobb also quoted the Constitution, which guarantees that “no person shall be removed from the United States without opportunity, at some time, to be heard.”

THE WORST OF THE WORST

Trump Just Tried to Illegally Deport 600+ Guatemalan Kids on Holiday Weekend

"It is a dark and dangerous moment for this country when our government chooses to target orphaned 10-year-olds and denies them their most basic legal right to present their case before an immigration judge," a lawyer said.


Migrants deported from the United States in a military plane arrive at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Guatemala on January 30, 2025.
(Photo by Josue Decavele/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Aug 31, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

In an effort reminiscent of US President Donald Trump using the Alien Enemies Act to send hundreds of migrants to a Salvadoran prison, his administration just tried to deport more than 600 unaccompanied children to Guatemala over Labor Day weekend—though for now, a federal judge's order appears to have halted the plan, unlike last time.

CNN exclusively reported Friday morning that the Trump administration was "moving to repatriate hundreds of Guatemalan children" who arrived in the United States alone and were placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Subsequent reporting confirmed plans to deport the kids, who are ages 10-17.

Fearing their imminent removal after the administration reportedly reached an agreement with the Guatemalan government, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) launched a class action lawsuit around 1:00 am Sunday, seeking an emergency order that was granted just hours later by a federal judge in Washington, D.C.

"Plaintiffs have active proceedings before immigration courts across the country, yet defendants plan to remove them in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Constitution," NILC's complaint explains.




Efrén C. Olivares, vice president of litigation and legal strategy at the NILC, said that "it is a dark and dangerous moment for this country when our government chooses to target orphaned 10-year-olds and denies them their most basic legal right to present their case before an immigration judge."

"The Constitution and federal laws provide robust protections to unaccompanied minors specifically because of the unique risks they face," Olivares noted. "We are determined to use every legal tool at our disposal to force the administration to respect the law and not send any child to danger."

Politico's Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein reported on the judge's moves:
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued the order just after 4:00 am Sunday, finding that the "exigent circumstances" described in the lawsuit warranted immediate action "to maintain the status quo until a hearing can be set."

The judge, a Biden appointee, initially scheduled a virtual hearing on the matter for 3:00 pm Sunday, but later moved up the hearing to 12:30 pm after being notified that some minors covered by the suit were "in the process of being removed from the United States."

Sharing updates from the hearing on social media, Cheney reported that Sooknanan took a five-minute recess so that US Department of Justice attorney Drew Ensign could ensure that the details of her order reached the Trump administration—which is pursuing mass deportations. Ensign confirmed to the judge that while it's possible one plane took off and then returned, all the children are still in the United States.

Following the judge's intervention, NILC's Olivares said in a statement that "in the dead of night on a holiday weekend, the Trump administration ripped vulnerable, frightened children from their beds and attempted to return them to danger in Guatemala."

"We are heartened the court prevented this injustice from occurring before hundreds of children suffered irreparable harm," he added. "We are determined to continue fighting to protect the interest of our plaintiffs and all class members until the effort is enjoined permanently."

'Stop lying, you ghoul': Internet erupts over Stephen Miller's claim on child deportations

Robert Davis
August 31, 2025 

RAW STORY

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller attends the annual White House Easter Egg Roll with his family, including his wife, Katie Miller, left, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis

The internet erupted on Sunday after President Donald Trump's immigration advisor attempted to smear a judge for refusing to deport hundreds of children in the middle of the night.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, wrote on X that U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the District of Columbia was "refusing" to allow hundreds of Guatemalan children to be reunited with their parents. His comments came after Judge Sooknanan issued an order prohibiting the Trump administration from deporting the children.

"The minors have all self-reported that their parents are back home in Guatemala," Miller wrote in a post on X. "But a Democrat judge is refusing to let them reunify with their parents."

Lawyers and legal analysts shredded Miller's claims on social media.

"Stop lying, you ghoul," Timothy Bellman, a Democrat in West Virginia, posted on X.

"Stephen Miller's rant is pure garbage, total fake news from Trump's anti-immigrant goon!" activist Mike Young posted on X. "Judge Sooknanan blocks hasty deports of 700 unaccompanied kids for just two weeks to confirm safe homes, upholding laws you ignore! Your boss separated thousands in 2018, crying wolf now? We defend children from bullies like you, not exploit them."

"Stephen Miller is a liar," immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick posted on X. "Here is a sworn declaration from one of the children saying that their mother is dead and that they left because they suffered abuse and neglect at the hands of their family, including their surviving father. The child wants to stay and seek protection."

"This is devoid of factual or legal relevance," Kyle Cheney, Politico's senior legal affairs reporter, posted on X. "Lawyers for the children say some were fleeing abusive situations, and say the deportation effort was undertaken abruptly overnight and without legally required notice or protections to ensure safety. Whether their parents are in Guatemala + whether admin complied with law are distinct questions for court to resolve."

Experts stunned by Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ plan to deport hundreds of unaccompanied kids

Daniel Hampton
August 29, 2025 

RAW STORY

(Screengrab via CNN)

A CNN reporter said experts are stunned by an "unprecedented" Trump administration move to take steps to send hundreds of Guatemalan children back to their home country after they arrived in the United States alone.

CNN correspondent Priscilla Alvarez joined "News Central" and told co-host Brianna Keilar that it's an "unprecedented move."

"Every expert official that I've talked to can't recall ever seeing something like this — which is the U.S. government working in coordination with the Guatemalan government to send back hundreds of children that are in U.S. government custody," Alvarez said.

She noted that the "reason that this is so unprecedented and unheard of" is that U.S. law provides numerous protections for children who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border alone, meaning they don't have a parent or legal guardian. They are then placed into the care of the Health and Human Services Department. Officials then try to find a family sponsor in the United States, such as a parent, sister, aunt, or relative. Once the child is placed, they typically then learn if they have legal protections in immigration proceedings.


Watch the clip below or at this link.

"So here's where things get different. This is a plan by the administration to send back more than 600 children that they have identified — that are in government custody — to Guatemala. They are expected to not have a parent in the United States and some family in Guatemala," said Alvarez.

While supporters of the plan may say the children are being returned to a parent, Alvarez notes that in many cases, the children are fleeing "bad conditions at home" — sometimes because of a parent.

"That could be because of a parent — those they are fleeing their family there — or it could be because their family can't protect them from what is happening in-country," she said. "It is no small thing for a child to come to the U.S. southern border on their own. And we are talking here about a range of ages from 0 to 17."

Trump's administration is internally calling the deportations "repatriations," meaning they're not involuntary removals. However, advocates have said the children likely don't understand what is actually happening for them to be returned.

SO LONG JUAN AND MARIA

DEPORTEE; PLANE WRECK AT LOS GATOS

‘Fueling sexism’: AI ‘bikini interview’ videos flood internet


By AFP
September 1, 2025


AI slop is blurring the distinction between truth and fabrication, experts say - Copyright AFP Oliver Contreras

Anuj Chopra with Sumit Dubey in New Delhi and Michelle Fitzpatrick in Frankfurt

The videos are strikingly lifelike, featuring bikini-clad women conducting street interviews and eliciting lewd comments — but they are entirely fake, generated by AI tools increasingly used to flood social media with sexist content.

Such AI slop — mass-produced content created by cheap artificial intelligence tools that turn simple text prompts into hyper-realistic visuals — is frequently drowning out authentic posts and blurring the line between fiction and reality.

The trend has spawned a cottage industry of AI influencers churning out large volumes of sexualized clips with minimal effort, often driven by platform incentive programs that financially reward viral content.

Hordes of AI clips, laden with locker-room humor, purport to show scantily clad female interviewers on the streets of India or the United Kingdom — sparking concern about the harm such synthetic content may pose to women.

AFP’s fact-checkers traced hundreds of such videos on Instagram, many in Hindi, that purportedly show male interviewees casually delivering misogynistic punchlines and sexualized remarks — sometimes even grabbing the women — while crowds of men gawk or laugh in the background.

Many videos racked up tens of millions of views — and some further monetized that traction by promoting an adult chat app to “make new female friends.”

The fabricated clips were so lifelike that some users in the comments questioned whether the featured women were real.

A sample of these videos analyzed by the US cybersecurity firm GetReal Security showed they were created using Google’s Veo 3 AI generator, known for hyper-realistic visuals.

– ‘Gendered harm’ –

“Misogyny that usually stayed hidden in locker room chats and groups is now being dressed up as AI visuals,” Nirali Bhatia, an India-based cyber psychologist, told AFP.

“This is part of AI-mediated gendered harm,” she said, adding that the trend was “fueling sexism.”

The trend offers a window into an internet landscape now increasingly swamped with AI-generated memes, videos and images that are competing for attention with — and increasingly eclipsing — authentic content.

“AI slop and any type of unlabeled AI-generated content slowly chips away at the little trust that remains in visual content,” GetReal Security’s Emmanuelle Saliba told AFP.

The most viral misogynistic content often relies on shock value — including Instagram and TikTok clips that Wired magazine said were generated using Veo 3 and portray Black women as big-footed primates.

Videos on one popular TikTok account mockingly list what so-called gold-digging “girls gone wild” would do for money.

Women are also fodder for distressing AI-driven clickbait, with AFP’s fact-checkers tracking viral videos of a fake marine trainer named “Jessica Radcliffe” being fatally attacked by an orca during a live show at a water park.

The fabricated footage rapidly spread across platforms including TikTok, Facebook and X, sparking global outrage from users who believed the woman was real.

– ‘Unreal’ –

Last year, Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, found 900 Instagram accounts of likely AI-generated “models” — predominantly female and typically scantily clothed.

These thirst traps cumulatively amassed 13 million followers and posted more than 200,000 images, typically monetizing their reach by redirecting their audiences to commercial content-sharing platforms.

With AI fakery proliferating online, “the numbers now are undoubtedly much larger,” Mantzarlis told AFP.

“Expect more nonsense content leveraging body standards that are not just unrealistic but literally unreal,” he added.

Financially incentivized slop is becoming increasingly challenging to police as content creators — including students and stay-at-home parents around the world — turn to AI video production as gig work.

Many creators on YouTube and TikTok offer paid courses on how to monetize viral AI-generated material on platforms, many of which have reduced their reliance on human fact-checkers and scaled back content moderation.

Some platforms have sought to crack down on accounts promoting slop, with YouTube recently saying that creators of “inauthentic” and “mass produced” content would be ineligible for monetization.

“AI doesn’t invent misogyny — it just reflects and amplifies what’s already there,” AI consultant Divyendra Jadoun told AFP.

“If audiences reward this kind of content with millions of likes, the algorithms and AI creators will keep producing it. The bigger fight isn’t just technological — it’s social and cultural.”

burs-ac/st

New wave: Sea power turned into energy at Los Angeles port


By AFP
August 31, 2025


Sea change: the floaters convert the power of waves into an electrical current - Copyright AFP Patrick T. Fallon

Romain FONSEGRIVES

Floating blue paddles dance on the waves that lap a dock in the Port of Los Angeles, silently converting the power of the sea into useable electricity.

This innovative installation may hold one of the keys to accelerating a transition away from fossil fuels that scientists say is necessary if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

“The project is very simple and easy,” Inna Braverman, co-founder of Israeli start-up Eco Wave Power, told AFP.

Looking a little like piano keys, the floaters rise and fall with each wave.

They are connected to hydraulic pistons that push a biodegradable fluid through pipes to a container filled with accumulators, which resemble large red scuba tanks.

When the pressure is released, it spins a turbine that generates electrical current.

If this pilot project convinces the California authorities, Braverman hopes to cover the entire 13-kilometer (eight-mile) breakwater protecting the port with hundreds of floaters that together would produce enough electricity to power 60,000 US homes.

Supporters of the technology say wave energy is an endlessly renewable and always reliable source of power.

Unlike solar power, which produces nothing at night, or wind power, which depends on the weather, the sea is always in motion.

And there is a lot of it.

– Tough tech –

The waves off the American West Coast could theoretically power 130 million homes — or supply around a third of the electricity used every year in the United States, according to the US Department of Energy.

However wave energy remains the poor relation of other, better-known renewables, and has not been successfully commercialized at a large-enough scale.

The history of the sector is full of company shipwrecks and projects sunk by the brutality of the high seas. Developing devices robust enough to withstand the fury of the waves, while transmitting electricity via underwater cables to the shore, has proven to be an impossible task so far.

“Ninety-nine percent of competitors chose to install in the middle of the ocean, where it’s super expensive, where it’s breaking down all the time, so they can’t really make projects work,” Braverman said.

With her retractable dock-mounted device, the entrepreneur believes she has found the answer.

“When the waves are too high for the system to handle, the floaters just rise to the upward position until the storm passes, so you have no damage.”

The design appeals to Krish Thiagarajan Sharman, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“The Achilles heel of wave energy is in the costs of maintenance and inspection,” he told AFP.

“So having a device close to shore, where you can walk on a breakwater and then inspect the device, makes a lot of sense.”

Sharman, who is not affiliated with the project and whose laboratory is testing various wave energy equipment, said projects tend to be suited to smaller-scale demands, like powering remote islands.

“This eight-mile breakwater, that’s not a common thing. It’s a rare opportunity, a rare location where such a long wavefront is available for producing power,” he said.

– AI power demand –

Braverman’s Eco Wave Power is already thinking ahead, having identified dozens more sites in the United States that could be suitable for similar projects.

The project predates Donald Trump’s administration, but even before the political environment in Washington turned against renewables, the company was already looking beyond the US.

In Israel, up to 100 homes in the port of Jaffa have been powered by waves since December.

By 2026, 1,000 homes in Porto, Portugal should be online, with installations also planned in Taiwan and India.

Braverman dreams of 20-megawatt projects, a critical capacity needed to offer electricity at rates that can compete with wind power.

And, she said, the installations will not harm the local wildlife.

“There’s zero environmental impact. We connect to existent man-made structures, which already disturb the environment.”

Promises like this resonate in California, where the Energy Commission highlighted in a recent report the potential of wave energy to help the state achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

“The amount of energy that we’re consuming is only increasing with the age of AI and data centers,” said Jenny Krusoe, founder of AltaSea, an organization that helped fund the project.

“So the faster we can move this technology and have it down the coastline, the better for California.”

The US Supreme Court Asks Why It Shouldn’t Gut the Voting Rights Act

We may well see the elimination of the 11 Black-majority districts — all Democratic — in GOP-controlled Southern states.

By Marjorie Cohn , 

Truthout

August 29, 2025

Black Louisiana voters and civil rights advocates call on the Supreme Court to uphold a fair and representative congressional map in Louisiana v. Callais at the Supreme Court of the United States on March 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

Jemal Countess / Getty Images for Legal Defense Fund

In what may prove to be the most consequential redistricting case to come before the Supreme Court, Louisiana is urging the court to gut the main provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) and ban any consideration of race in redistricting. Louisiana filed its brief after the high court on August 1 asked the parties whether compliance with Section 2 of the (VRA) violates the Constitution’s 14th or 15th Amendments. By framing that question, the court may be signaling its intention to eviscerate the VRA.

Louisiana v. Callais reached the Supreme Court after a coalition of civil rights organizations and Black voters sought to reinstate a map that the state legislature had adopted in 2024. The map, which established a second majority-Black congressional district in the state, had been drawn in response to a 2022 U.S. district court ruling. In that case, the court ruled that a prior map, drawn in 2020, likely violated Section 2 because it included only one majority-Black district out of the state’s six congressional districts. The coalition had argued that the old map diluted the votes of Black residents, who constitute about one-third of the population of Louisiana.

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had affirmed the district court’s ruling that the old map probably violated Section 2, and the appellate court ordered Louisiana to adopt a new map by January 15, 2024. The Louisiana Legislature complied and drew a map with a second majority-Black district.

A group of self-described “non-African American” voters then filed a federal legal challenge to the 2024 map, alleging that it was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because it separated voters primarily on the basis of race. A three-judge panel of the U.S. district court agreed with them, but the Supreme Court stayed the district court’s ruling and allowed the 2024 map to be used in the 2024 elections while it considered the merits of the case.

In March 2025, the high court heard arguments but didn’t make a decision, instead delaying a ruling on the merits until the following term this fall. In its June 27 order, the court said it would “issue an order scheduling argument and specifying any additional questions to be addressed in supplemental briefing.”

Related Story

The Voting Rights Act Dodged a Bullet — for Now
Five House seats may well shift to Democrats in the wake of “Allen v. Milligan.”
By Marjorie Cohn , Truthout June 12, 2023

That more specific order came on August 1, when the court directed the parties to brief the question of the constitutionality of Section 2 of the VRA. Reargument is scheduled for October 15.

In its brief filed on August 27, Louisiana asked the Supreme Court to overrule its 1986 decision that set forth the legal test used to determine when a congressional map dilutes the voting power of minorities and thus violates Section 2. Relying on the case that ended race-based affirmative action in higher education, Louisiana argued for a “color blind” Constitution — a euphemism for allowing racial discrimination to continue.
VRA Section 2 Forbids the Government From Denying the Right to Vote Based on Race

The 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause prohibits the government from treating people differently without a compelling or rational basis.

The 15th Amendment forbids the government from abridging or denying the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was enacted to enforce the 15th Amendment. It prohibits any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or practice or procedure that “results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race.” That happens when voters of color “have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.”

In its August 1 order, the Supreme Court directed the parties to file briefs addressing a question raised across three pages in the brief from the “non-African American” voters: “Whether the State’s intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution.”

The voters wrote in that brief: “Section 2 is no longer constitutional in Louisiana because the voter data from Louisiana … shows that Black voters in Louisiana today have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice.” The brief goes on to say: “Section 2 imposes burdens on constitutional redistricting laws that cannot be justified by Black Louisianans’ needs.” Finally, the brief contends:


Section 2 is abused to set racial quotas and elevate some groups over others. Such practices violate “the twin commands of the Equal Protection Clause that race may never be used as a ‘negative’ and that it may not operate as a stereotype.”

By zeroing in on those three pages, the high court appears amenable to deciding that Section 2 violates the 14th or 15th Amendment.
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Sides With Black Louisiana Voters

The district court had held a seven-day trial in late 2023, where data analysis was presented, and expert witnesses and Black voters throughout Louisiana testified about the discriminatory effect of the 2022 congressional map.

On August 14, 2025, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court ruling that the 2022 map violated Section 2 of the VRA. The appellate court held that the old map diluted the voting power of Black voters by unfairly dividing communities into districts, in order to reduce their voting power and thereby deny them an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choosing. The Fifth Circuit — which is considered the most conservative federal appeals court in the country — rejected the assertions that the 2024 map violated the 14th or 15th Amendment.

When it takes up the merits of the case next term, the Supreme Court will review the Fifth Circuit’s opinion.

What Will the Supremes Do?

The question before the court is whether the 2024 map with the additional Black-majority district will be used in 2026 and subsequent elections. If the high court strikes down the 2024 map, it will create a presumption of illegal racial gerrymandering when map drawers craft majority-minority districts — districts in which people of color are the majority of voters — effectively destroying Section 2 of the VRA.

If the high court finds Section 2 unconstitutional, we may well see the elimination of the 11 Black-majority districts — all Democratic — in Republican-controlled Southern states.

In 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion in Shelby County v. Holder, gutting Section 5 of the VRA, which had required federal preclearance before changes to election rules could go into effect in jurisdictions with a history of discriminatory voting practices.

But in Shelby, Roberts provided assurances that Section 2 of the VRA would still be available to protect voting rights.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court struck down a racist congressional district map in the 5-4 decision of Allen v. Milligan. Although Brett Kavanaugh joined Roberts in voting with the three liberal members of the court in that case, Kavanaugh asked the Solicitor General during the March argument in Louisiana v. Callais whether the VRA’s requirement of race-conscious drawing of majority-minority districts can still be a constitutional remedy for voting discrimination. Kavanaugh noted that “the Court’s long said, that race-based remedial action must have a logical end point, must be limited in time, must be a temporary matter. Of course, in school desegregation and university admissions.” In Milligan, Kavanaugh flagged the question of an expiration date for Section 2, but he noted that Alabama had not raised the issue.

The Voting Rights Act, one of the greatest victories of the Civil Rights Movement, has been targeted by the right since its enactment in 1965. Roberts noted in Shelby that “largely because of the Voting Rights Act, voting tests were abolished, disparities in voter registration and turnout due to race were erased, and African-Americans attained political office in record numbers.”

But, as Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her Shelby dissent, “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

By the end of June 2026, we should learn whether Kavanaugh and Roberts think that discrimination has ceased enough to warrant throwing away the VRA’s Section 2 umbrella.


This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, dean of the People’s Academy of International Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She sits on the national advisory boards of Veterans For Peace and Assange Defense, and is a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the U.S. representative to the continental advisory council of the Association of American Jurists. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues.