Protests on October 28, 2024 against the official results of the Georgian parliamentary elections of October 26, 2024.. Photo: Jelger Groeneveld/flickr/CC
Constitutional upheavals are rare but in Georgia, they come repeatedly (1992, 2003, and as of this week, now 2024). We might even call them revolutions, not ideologically, but in the broad sense of mass mobilisation, a forced transfer of power, and the passing of sovereignty to a new group of rulers.
Over the past three decades, these types of revolutions have become endemic in the Georgian political system. Persistently, democratic breakthroughs in the country lead not to institutionalised democracy, but to corrupt and unaccountable governance.
“Nothing in Mr. Bisignano’s career suggests that he understands the unique needs of older and disabled Americans,” said the Alliance for Retired Americans’ leader.
Critics of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, warned this week that the Wall Street veteran may not be the best choice to run an agency that provides one of America’s most important social safety nets.
“President-elect Trump has nominated financial software CEO and GOP donor Frank Bisignano to head the agency that administers Social Security benefits for some 70 million Americans. If confirmed, Bisignano will be accountable—not to corporate boards or stockholders—but to the American people, who depend on their Social Security benefits and pay for them over a lifetime of work,” said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, in a Thursday statement.
Environmental advocates this week responded with concern to Meta looking for nuclear power developers to help the tech giant add 1-4 gigawatts of generation capacity in the United States starting in the early 2030s.
Meta—the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and more—released a request for proposals to identify developers, citing its artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and sustainability objectives. It is “seeking developers with strong community engagement, development, …permitting, and execution expertise that have development opportunities for new nuclear energy resources—either small modular reactors (SMR) or larger nuclear reactors.”
The company isn’t alone. As TechCrunch reported: “Microsoft is hoping to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island by 2028. Google is betting that SMR technology can help it deliver on its AI and sustainability goals, signing a deal with startup Kairos Power for 500 megawatts of electricity. Amazon has thrown its weight behind SMR startup X-Energy, investing in the company and inking two development agreements for around 300 megawatts of generating capacity.”
In response to Meta’s announcement, Johanna Neumann, Environment America Research & Policy Center’s senior director of the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, said: “The long history of overhyped nuclear promises reveals that nuclear energy is expensive and slow to build all while still being inherently dangerous. America already has 90,000 metric tons of nuclear waste that we don’t have a storage solution for.”
“Do we really want to create more radioactive waste to power the often dubious and questionable uses of AI?” Neumann asked. “In the blind sprint to win on AI, Meta and the other tech giants have lost their way. Big Tech should recommit to solutions that not only work but pose less risk to our environment and health.”
“Data centers should be as energy and water efficient as possible and powered solely with new renewable energy,” she added. “Without those guardrails, the tech industry’s insatiable thirst for energy risks derailing America’s efforts to get off polluting forms of power, including nuclear.”
In a May study, the Electric Power Research Institute found that “data centers could consume up to 9% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030—more than double the amount currently used.” The group noted that “AI queries require approximately 10 times the electricity of traditional internet searches and the generation of original music, photos, and videos requires much more.”
Meta is aiming to get the process started quickly: The intake form is due by January 3 and initial proposals are due February 7. It comes after a rare bee species thwarted Meta’s plans to build a data center powered by an existing nuclear plant.
Following the nuclear announcement, Meta and renewable energy firm Invenergy on Thursday announced a deal for 760 megawatts of solar power capacity. Operations for that four-state project are expected to begin no later than 2027.
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Transgender rights supporters rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as the high court hears arguments in a case on transgender health rights on December 4, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Photo: ACLU Massachusetts/X
Attorneys who argued against Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed hope that the court’s nine justices will take “the opportunity to affirm the essential freedom and equality of all people before the law,” while reports indicated that the right-wing majority is inclined to uphold the ban.
“Every day this law inflicts further pain, injustice, and discrimination on families in Tennessee and prevents them from receiving the medical care they need,” said Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, staff attorney at the ACLU of Tennessee, which represented three families and a physician. “We ask the Supreme Court to commit to upholding the promises of the U.S. Constitution for all people by putting an end to Tennessee’s state-sanctioned discrimination against trans youth and their families.”
More than a decade after it sparked massive protests in the state capital, a Wisconsin judge on Monday struck down a controversial law that effectively ended public sector collective bargaining in the state.
In his final judgement, Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost crossed out 85 sections of the 2011 law known as Act 10, which was championed by then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Frost’s ruling restored the union rights of teachers, sanitation workers, nurses, and other public sector employees.
A bale of crushed PET drink bottles at a recycling facility in San Jose, California Photo: Grendelkhan/Wikimedia Commons/CC
Environmental groups on Sunday decried the conclusion of a United Nations summit designed to secure an international treaty to combat plastic pollution after powerful oil- and gas-producing nations refused to agree to production limits and other more aggressive measures to curb pollution.
Failure to reach an agreement means the talks—known as the INC-5 round that took place in Busan, South Korea—will be extended to another round, but campaigners said the sabotage of a far-reaching treaty by fossil fuel interests is wasting precious time that the world’s ecosystems, wildlife, and people can no longer afford.
If Trump does dismantle the Department of Education as he has promised to do, he will have succeeded at something that President Ronald Reagan vowed to do in 1980. Just like Trump, Reagan campaigned on abolishing the department, which at the time was only a year old. Since then, the Republican Party platform has repeatedly called for eliminating the Education Department, which oversees a range of programs and initiatives. These include special funding for schools in low-income communities – known as Title I – and safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities.
“When we announced our intention to protest today, our management attempted to stop us in multiple ways. We want to say to Amazon—you could not stop us today, you cannot stop us in the future,” said one union leader.
Amazon workers in Bad Hersfeld, Germany participate in a demonstration as part of the “Make Amazon Pay” campaign. Photo: UNI Global Union/X
Amazon workers and their allies are participating in a series of global actions aimed at holding the online retailer “accountable for labor abuses, environmental degradation, and threats to democracy,” according to the labor group UNI Global Union.
Dubbed “Make Amazon Pay,” the campaign is set to last from November 29 to December 2 and will include strikes and protests across six continents, according to the group—and is timed to disrupt Black Friday (or “Make Amazon Pay Day”) and Cyber Monday, two of the busiest online shopping days of the year.
“‘Thanksgiving’ is a white-washed holiday designed to conceal its true origins of violence, genocide, land theft, and forced assimilation,” said the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Photo: United American Indians of New England/Facebook
In contrast with Thanksgiving celebrations across the United States on Thursday, Native Americans held a National Day of Mourning, promoted accurate history, and championed Indigenous voices and struggles.
Despite rainy conditions, the United American Indians of New England held its 55th annual National Day of Mourning at Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Kisha James, who is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and also Oglala Lakota, shared how her grandfather founded the event in 1970 and pledged to continue to “tear down the Thanksgiving mythology.”
“All records of dead and injured have been confiscated by authorities,” said one doctor. “We are not allowed to talk. Senior government officials are visiting the hospital to hide the records.”
The Guardian reported Wednesday that at least 17 civilians in Pakistan were killed and hundreds more were wounded by army and paramilitary gunfire at protesters and one doctor in Islamabad claimed that authorities were attempting to cover up deaths.
“At least seven have died and four are in critical condition in the hospital,” according to the unnamed doctor, who said that on Tuesday night he treated over 40 patients, many injured by gunfire. “Eight more have been admitted to the hospital with bullet wounds.”
