Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Spain, Norway and Ireland recognize a Palestinian state
Summary: On Wednesday, Spain, Norway, and Ireland announced that they would formally recognize Palestine as an independent state—a move that’s being seen as a statement against Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip.
Context: Dozens of countries have long recognized Palestine as a sovereign nation, and this new wave of recognition, like those that came before, is mostly symbolic, but because few Western European nations have thus far recognized Palestine and because Israel’s invasion of Gaza has brought renewed attention to the matter of Palestinian statehood—and for context, Gaza, like the West Bank, is currently an occupied territory of Israel—and because there are burgeoning concerns that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is aiming for some kind of military government in the region, which would do away with the possibility of a near-future two-state solution, the issue of statehood is being seen as newly relevant.
—The New York Times
Severe turbulence during Singapore Airlines flight leaves several people badly injured and one dead
Summary: A Singapore Airlines flight between London and Singapore that was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members experienced significant turbulence over the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, leaving dozens of people injured, a half-dozen severely, and one person—a 73-year-old British man—dead.
Context: The plane descended around 6,000 feet, which is about 1,800 meters, in about three minutes, and the turbulence was so bad that people were slamming into the overhead bins, in some cases—according to reports from people aboard—denting the bins, or breaking through the portions of the ceiling containing the lights and masks; the flight diverted to Bangkok in the wake of this tumult, and while turbulence can arise anywhere at any time, extreme cases of it are becoming more common along popular airline routes.
—The Associated Press
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea rules carbon dioxide is an ocean pollutant
Summary: The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a court created by the United Nations to rule on maritime-related matters, has found that greenhouse gases count, for legal purposes, as marine pollution, and that global governments thus have a responsibility to mitigate their effects on oceans.
Context: The United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea was established in May of 2023 and has 168 signatory nations, and this treaty basically says that those nations have to prevent oceanic pollution that harms marine life, and this ruling has added greenhouse gas emissions to the list of marine-life-harming pollutants, because of their impact on the climate, which in turn negatively impacts marine life; this court’s rulings are non-binding, so the degree to which this outcome will matter is in question—all of those nations can interpret the results however they like—but it does add heft to the argument that greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to the deterioration of marine ecosystems, which could help spur more such cases in other courts, and impact the decisions to which those courts ultimately arrive, as this marks the first time such a legal body has linked what’s happening in the atmosphere with what’s happening in the ocean in this way.
—ABC News
Despite booming profits and a slew of mergers and acquisitions in recent years, the International Energy Agency still believes that global oil demand will peak this decade, based mostly on structural changes and a significant shift toward renewables in many parts of the world (including major oil consumers, like China).
—Axios
53%
Portion of the human population that’s unable to speak freely (as of 2023), according to a new report from free speech advocate group Article 19.
That’s up from 34% in 2022, a large portion of that change attributable to speech freedom-backsliding in India under Prime Minister Modi, who has clamped down on speech (formally and practically) throughout the country in recent years.
—The Guardian
One Sentence News / May 23, 2024