Following another year of record temperatures and powerful storms, world leaders are gathering in Belém, Brazil, ahead of the official opening of the COP30 climate talks. But the leaders attending—notably, they do not include US President Donald Trump—will be confronted by the fraying global consensus on climate change, amid difficult geopolitical headwinds. A major risk to multilateral climate action is the presidency of Trump, who has described global warming as the world's "greatest con job." Reuters reported that some European officials have been bracing for a possible intervention by the Trump administration—despite the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Washington recently torpedoed a carbon levy on shipping, and the European officials are worried that the Trump administration could make threats with tariffs or visa restrictions to influence the COP talks too. "If they pull the same tactics, I think there's zero chance of having any sort of rallying around the Paris Agreement in response," one official told Reuters.

In Episode 300 of the CounterVortex podcast (which coincidentally marks 24 years since the launch of his news blog in the immediate aftermath of 9-11), Bill Weinberg takes stock of the CounterVortex mission in light of the now urgently dire world situation—and makes an appeal for support from the listeners. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

The international process to tackle climate change is still alive—but the vital target of restricting warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels under the 2015 Paris Agreement might not be. More than 100 countries submitted their national climate plans to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The "nationally determined contribution" policies (NDCs) are crucial for collective global progress to reduce greenhouse emissions. The fact that officials turned up with documents in hand is itself notable in a year fraught with international tension and growing climate-denialist narratives (Donald Trump in his speech to the General Assembly dismissed climate change as "the greatest con job ever.") But the NDCs, including from major polluter China, are nothing close to sufficient to meet the 1.5°C "survival limit," said Romain Ioualalen, policy chief at Oil Change International.

Two landmark rulings on the urgent responsibility of states to address the climate crisis are issued—by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a proceeding brought by Chile and Colombia, and by the World Court in a proceeding brought by the threatened Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu. Meanwhile in the USA, the Trump regime withdraws from the Paris Agreement, removes greenhouse gases from EPA oversight, drops subsidies for solar energy—and even destroys NASA's climate-monitoring satellites! This as receding Arctic ice sheets and sea ice begin to destabilize the climate-regulating Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), melting glaciers unleash deluges from the Swiss Alps to the Himalayas of Nepal, wildfires rage from Canada to California to the Mediterranean, and ocean acidification crosses a "planetary boundary" that portends global biosphere collapse. In Episode 290 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes an unflinching look at the long odds for humanity's future—even if we manage to avoid nuclear war. 

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on July 5 praised the previous day's advisory opinion on the climate crisis from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) as a "landmark step forward," urging states to take meaningful action through legislation, policymaking and international cooperation. Advisory Opinion 32/25 addresses signatory states' human rights obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights (Pact of San José) in the face of climate change. The opinion was issued in response to a request submitted by the governments of Chile and Colombia last year.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported June 12 that forced displacement has doubled globally in the last decade, while "brutal" funding cuts mean a lack of resources to accommodate the increased number of displaced people dependent on the UNHCR for support. The agency said the increase has been "largely driven by protracted conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine," with a total of 123.2 million people displaced worldwide at the end of 2024. 

Amid the massive war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine and Israel in Gaza, there are dissident Russians and dissident Israelis who are courageously protesting, and resisting the consolidation of a pro-genocide consensus. Recent violent and deadly attacks on perceived Israeli or pro-Israel human targets in the US meanwhile point to the dangers of the notion of collective guilt. In Episode 281 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg urges that dissident minorities must not be dismissed as irrelevant, but encouraged and offered solidarity.

In Episode 273 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg happily notes how the entire political spectrum in Greenland has united against Trump's design to annex the country—and breaks down how the MAGA agenda for the Arctic interlocks with Putin's agenda for Europe, and the world. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.