This year’s World Economic Forum called for greater urgency in discussing the impacts of climate change on human security and social, political, and economic stability. And a recognition of the destabilizing effects of climate change also has led the UN to emphasize the risks they pose to the most vulnerable populations, including poor, conflict-affected, and displaced persons.

Global greenhouse gas emissions continue in stark contrast to the emissions reductions needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Indeed, planetary warming has accelerated so much that many scientists warn that key components of the earth’s system are approaching “tipping points” that will trigger additional climate feedback loops that further fuel and exacerbate climate disruption if they are exceeded.

On October 2, 2024, Dominican President Luis Abinader launched a large-scale deportation operation through the National Security and Defense Council. Framed as an “emergency” security measure to “protect national sovereignty and address migration challenges,” the operation aimed to deport 10,000 Haitian migrants every week.

Cobalt, lithium, and copper are the critical minerals necessary to produce rechargeable lithium-ion-based batteries, and they are central to the electric vehicle (EV) supply chains in the energy transition. The importance of these minerals—and China’s strategic control of them—now compels the United States and its allies to diversify their supply chains for this essential resource.

Fifty-three years have passed since the 1972 United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment that led to the establishment of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Yet a recent UN report describes the global efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) created to articulate aims and track progress over the past decade as “alarmingly insufficient.”

This article originally appeared on Enheduanna, a blog of the Wilson Center’s Middle East Women’s Initiative.

Only a few years ago, the world celebrated the women-led revolution in Sudan that ousted the former dictator Omer El-Basher after 30 years in power. Women were fed up with his government. Those who used to live in the urban areas experienced the humiliating public order laws: they were arrested and flogged for wearing trousers or walking around with no headscarves.

As an economic model that emphasizes the continual use of resources by rethinking waste and product design and promoting a shared economy mindset, the “circular economy” (CE) now resonates across a wide range of stakeholders—including key players in the private sector, major environmental groups, individual countries, multilaterals, and donors. Yet progress in adopting CE among developing nations has been slow and uneven.

In recent weeks, users of the social network Bluesky were able to watch a compelling video featuring Jessica Newberry Le Vey—a Climate Change and Health Policy Fellow at Imperial College’s Climate Cares Centre. The video begins with Le Vey’s direct-to-camera assertion that the climate crisis is a health crisis affecting people around the world. Then Le Vey’s image disappears—yet we hear her (or someone who sounds eerily like her) speak over a compendium of combat footage that includes video of ATACAM missiles being fired and larger strategic missiles on the move. Climate is important, declares the speaker, but there are more serious problems that threaten our security.