Good morning.
The shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, believed to be the first environmental defender killed in the US, is the culmination of a dangerous escalation in the criminalization and repression of those who seek to protect natural resources in America, campaigners have said.
The death of the 26-year-old, who was also known as Tortuguita or “Little Turtle”, in a forest on the fringes of Atlanta was the sort of deadly act “people who have been paying attention to this issue assumed would happen soon, with no sense of joy”, according to Marla Marcum, founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, which supports climate protesters.
“The police and the state have a callousness towards the lives of those on the frontline of environmental causes and I hope this is a wake-up call to those who didn’t know that,” she said. “I hope people take the time to notice what’s going on, because if this trajectory of criminalization continues, no one is going to be safe.”
Terán was shot and killed by police as officers from an assortment of forces swept through the small camp of a loose-knit activist group defending the urban forest on 18 January. Police say Terán shot and injured a Georgia state trooper with a handgun first, but the Georgia bureau of investigation has said the shooting was not recorded on body cameras, prompting calls for an independent investigation.
What is planned for the urban forest? Protesters are trying to stop 85 acres of the forest being torn down to build a sprawling, state-of-the-art, $90m police training complex – dubbed “Cop City” by opponents as it will feature a mock city for “tactical” exercises. State and local authorities have reacted aggressively to all attempts to defend the area.
Is this kind of crackdown happening elsewhere? Yes. Georgia’s response to the protests follows an alarming pattern of environmental and land rights defenders across the US being threatened, arrested and charged with increasingly drastic crimes, including terrorism, for opposing oil and gas pipelines or the destruction of forests or waterways, advocates claim.
‘He was robbed of his life’: in Memphis, tributes to Tyre Nichols – and a call to action
On a frigid Wednesday afternoon, RowVaughn Wells looked into the crowd of hundreds inside the Mississippi Boulevard Christian church, and gave her own call to action in the funeral service for her son Tyre Nichols, who was beaten to death by Memphis police earlier this month. Her voice cracked as she joined a fellowship of other Black mothers who have lost their children to police violence over the years.
Wells remembered her son as a “beautiful person”, adding: “For this to happen to him is unimaginable.”
A voice from the crowd shouted that her son had “changed the world”. She nodded. “We need to take some action. This should be no other child,” Wells said. “If we don’t, the next child that dies, the blood will be on their hands.”
The church’s celebration choir sang as hundreds of people, including family, residents, civil rights activists and the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, filled the pews on both levels of the sanctuary in Memphis, a predominantly Black city overseen by a white mayor and a Black police chief. Nichols, a skateboard-loving FedEx worker, had lived there before he died after a beating by police in January.
What is happening to the officers involved? It has emerged that two of the Memphis police officers charged with murdering Tyre Nichols, who have been fired, had failed to document their use of force in previous cases, and two others were suspended from the department for other infractions, according to personnel records.
What did Kamala Harris say? She called for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which she co-authored as a senator. She decried the police officers’ “violent act” as “not in the interest of keeping the public safe”. She said: “Was [Tyre] not entitled to the right to be safe? Tyre Nichols should have been safe.”
Israel carries out airstrikes on Gaza Strip
Israel conducted airstrikes on the central Gaza Strip early today, according to journalists and witnesses, hours after the military said it had intercepted a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory.
New rounds of rockets were fired from Gaza after these strikes, and fresh explosions could be heard from Gaza City at about 3.15am local time, Agence France-Presse reported.
In a statement issued at 2.41am, the Israeli army confirmed it was “striking in the Gaza Strip”.
According to local security sources and witnesses, the first strikes – at least seven – hit a training centre of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. The centre is located in al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. A second round of airstrikes by the Israeli army targeted the al-Qassam Brigades’ training centre south-west of Gaza City, according to local security sources.
Why did Israel launch the strikes? A statement by the Israeli army said fighter jets had “struck a production site for raw chemical material production, preservation and storage along with a weapon manufacturing site” belonging to Hamas. The strikes came “in response to the rocket launch from the Gaza Strip into Israel earlier” yesterday.
In other news …
Attorneys general in 20 conservative-led states have told CVS and Walgreens that they could face legal consequences if they sold abortion pills by mail in those states. Walgreens said the company was not currently dispensing mifepristone, although it was working to become eligible.
Russia is planning a major offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, according to the country’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov. Speaking to French media, Reznikov warned that Russia would call on a large contingent of mobilised troops.
The Philippines has granted the US expanded access to its military bases, greatly enhancing Washington’s presence in the region at a time of growing concern about Chinese aggression. Washington would be given access to four additional military bases in “strategic areas of the country”.
Justin Mouser had left behind his barber shop in western Kentucky to vacation in Las Vegas last week when he ended up risking it all to pull a man out of a crashed car that burst into flames. Now, the Sin City’s police department is hailing the tourist as a hero.
Stat of the day: Anger as Shell makes ‘obscene’ $40bn in profits
Shell has prompted anger after annual profits more than doubled to a record of nearly $40bn, boosted by a surge in wholesale gas prices linked to the war in Ukraine and as households struggle to pay huge energy bills. The oil and gas company posted profits of $9.81bn in the final quarter of last year, compared with $6.4bn a year earlier. That took annual adjusted profits to $39.87bn in 2022, far outstripping the $19.3bn notched up in 2021. Jonathan Noronha-Gant, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, said: “People have every right to be outraged at the enormous profits that Shell has made in the midst of an energy affordability crisis that has pushed millions of families into poverty … Shell’s profits are an insult. Shell is richer because we’re poorer.”
Don’t miss this: how to escape learned loneliness – and soar socially
The time we spend with our close friends has plummeted over the past decade. The blame cannot solely be put on the pandemic because the decline has been steady since 2014. A decade ago, people spent six-and-a-half hours a week with close friends, but by 2021 that figure had plummeted to just 2hr 45min.
So what’s going on? Have we simply become allergic to other people? Dr Marisa G Franco, a psychologist and author of Platonic, believes that many of us are socially adrift without even being aware of it. “The issue we are seeing now is something called ‘learned loneliness’ – people have adjusted to isolation. It’s not that they have gone off socialising, it’s that they have learned to live with an unfulfilled need,” she says. Here is an expert guide to making new connections and reviving old ones.
Climate check: Outrage as US government advances $8bn Alaska oil drilling plan
The Biden administration has advanced a $8bn drilling project on Alaska’s north slope. The ConocoPhillips Willow project, which would be one of the largest oil and gas developments on federal territory, has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists, who say its approval runs counter to the president’s ambitious climate goals.
An environmental assessment released by the interior department on Wednesday recommends a scaled-back version of the project ConocoPhillips originally proposed, and would produce about 600m barrels of oil over 30 years, with a peak of 180,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
Last Thing: Scent-a Fe – New Mexico could be first state with official aroma
The sweet smell of green chile roasting on an open flame permeates New Mexico every fall, wafting from roadside stands and grocery store parking lots and inducing mouth-watering visions of culinary wonders. Now one state lawmaker says it’s time for everyone to wake up and smell the chile.
Senator Bill Soules’ visit with fifth-grade students in his southern district prompted a conversation about the savory hot peppers and the potential for New Mexico to become the first state in the US to have an official state aroma, a proposal now being considered by lawmakers. Legislation recognizing roasted chile as the official aroma passed its first committee on Tuesday, and supporters say it’s not likely to fire up much debate.
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