Thiath

[Thiath @Thiath_]

The UK will fall on 1:46 PM 21st October 2027.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: The Government is set to scrap trial by jury for most cases

Only murder, rape, manslaughter and a few public interest cases will go to a jury, while all other cases will be decided by a single judge

[@thetimes]

[phantom bride @PHANT0MBRlDE]

i learned yesterday that big bend is the certified largest dark sky on earth. this is what they’re destroying. this is what texas is losing, what the world is losing.

[FactPost @factpostnews]

The Trump administration has canceled a reassessment of cancer-causing nitrates in drinking water.

[Laiken Jordahl @LaikenJordahl]

By all appearances, these dozers & excavators are headed straight for Big Bend National Park. This massive staging area just popped up north of Terlingua. Orange trucks appear to be Kiewit/SWVC whose contract spans the national park.

Destruction is plowing full-steam ahead.

[FactPost @factpostnews]

The $423 million allotted for vanity projects at the White House and the National Mall is larger than the combined funding this year for:

— Grand Canyon
— Yellowstone
— Yosemite
— Joshua Tree
— Grand Teton
— Zion
— Mammoth Cave
— The Statue of Liberty complex
— Golden Gate National Park

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Recent reports reveal that Trump has ceded hundreds of thousands of acres of American land, including parts of Big Bend National Park, to Mexico.

The land is being ceded to make border wall construction easier.

[Thiath @Thiath_]

@SenSanders Bernie we both knows it's over

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

WE MUST ADDRESS THE CLIMATE CRISIS

The last 11 years have been the hottest 11 years on record. The last three years have been the hottest three years on record. 2026 will be one of the warmest years on record, and most scientists believe 2027 will be the warmest year in recorded history.

This past year, Europe has seen four major heat waves, including the continent’s worst heat wave ever that killed more than 10,000 people. In the United States, three extreme heat waves exposed hundreds of millions of people to dangerous levels of heat. Drought is causing some of the lowest water levels ever seen for reservoirs along the Colorado River, threatening the drinking water of 40 million people. Puerto Ricans are being forced to ration water because of extreme drought. In Europe, some of the continent’s dryest conditions have caused major rivers to run so low that ships are running aground, nuclear power plants are shutting down, and historical artifacts that were previously submerged are being revealed. South Korea is in the midst of a record heat wave — with temperatures reaching 108.5° Fahrenheit, the highest temperature in the country’s history. China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are all experiencing torrential rain and flooding.

As a result of rising heat levels, we are seeing massive wildfires across the world, including Oregon’s worst wildfire season and fires in Washington state that have forced nearly 65,000 families to evacuate. Europe, France and Spain are experiencing destructive wildfire seasons that have forced more than 330,000 people to evacuate their homes. Portugal, Greece, Italy, Albania, Turkey, Canada, Morocco and Algeria are also experiencing destructive wildfire seasons.

This summer alone,Alaska, Louisiana, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have all seen record rainfall events. We’ve seen 1,000-year floods in Texas, Missouri and New York. Once rare, dangerous flash flooding emergencies are now a regular part of summer for tens of millions of Americans.

One might think that, in the midst of all of this, there would be major discussions in Congress as to how best to go forward in addressing this existential crisis. Not the case. Insanely, the president of the United States continues to believe that climate change is a “hoax,” and Republican members of Congress are following their “Great Leader” over the cliff. Sadly, too many Democrats think that speaking out on climate change is “bad politics” and have remained far too silent.

That has got to change. The simple truth is that we must forcefully take on the greed of the fossil fuel industry and the stupidity of Trump.

The simple truth is that we can create millions of good-paying union jobs transforming our energy systems away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

For the sake of our kids, future generations and the habitability of the planet,that is exactly what we must do.

[Sammi🦋 @StoriesBySammi]

Twenty-four AI data centers. That's how many are proposed in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, one of the most protected natural regions in the state. ⛰️

They want to put them next to state parks, nature preserves, and waterways rated "Exceptional Value," 80% of all of it in the entire state, sitting right here in the Poconos.

In Archbald, a former coal town, Borough Manager Dan Markey publicly said the zoning just followed developer "requests."

Privately, when his own consultant asked how the map was actually drawn, he admitted it in writing: the lines were the developers' own property lines, drawn to match exactly what they wanted to build on.

Two of those developers, Western Hospitality and Green Mountain 6 LLC, were registered months apart through the exact same Denver law firm, signed by the exact same paralegal. Both are tied to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the nation's top-grossing lobbying firm, which also represents NVIDIA.

Between them and others, six separate data center campuses are now proposed in this one small town, enough buildings between just three of them to equal 50 Walmart superstores.

One proposed site sits just outside Jim Thorpe, a town known for whitewater rafting and a scenic tourist railway. Another sits behind a resort and water park. Another overlooks a vista once used as a gathering place for Native American tribal leaders.

Rich Troscianecki spent a decade searching for the right place to retire. He found it on the Lehigh River, an Exceptional Value waterway with otters, beavers, and eagles nearby. Now a proposed data center site sits half a mile from his home, on a 530-acre former quarry next to a 2,500-acre nature preserve of forest and glacial wetlands.

"Exceptional Value" isn't just a nice phrase. It's Pennsylvania's own highest water protection rating, reserved for streams and wetlands considered irreplaceable.

Pennsylvania's constitution promises clean air, clean water, and "the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment." Nobody's ever really tested that promise against an entire industry before. This might be the case that finally does.

Why do you think they keep coming for the most pristine places this country has left, the forests, the wetlands, the shorebirds, the exceptional water, instead of the parking lots that already have the infrastructure?

🦋HumanityUnited #DemsUnited

[Joel Montfort @jmontforttx]

He did it to the East Wing, he did it to the reflecting pool, now he is doing it to a Texas national treasure, Big Bend. Spineless Governor Abbott is nowhere to be found. Horrific.

[Tim Miller @Timodc]

This is all so sickening.

[Laiken Jordahl @LaikenJordahl]

BREAKING: Federal Contractors Begin Border Construction in Big Bend National Park

TERLINGUA, Texas— Bulldozers broke ground today on border barrier and road construction in Big Bend National Park amid widespread bipartisan opposition. Videos shared with the Center for Biological Diversity show contractors plowing through native vegetation along the Rio Grande’s riparian corridor, with the iconic Santa Elena Canyon visible in the background.

“This is the most heinous attack on an American national park in generations,” said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The administration is preparing to blast hundreds of miles of destructive roads through the wildest place left in Texas and cut off public access to the Rio Grande, all to enrich private contractors. Big Bend belongs to us all, and sacrificing it is a betrayal of every Texan and every American who believes our national parks should be protected. We won’t stop fighting this reckless assault on Big Bend National Park and America’s natural heritage until this destruction ends.”

Department of Homeland Security contractors have stockpiled heavy equipment across the Big Bend region, where staging yards have been cleared, worker camps built and water wells drilled.

According to Customs and Border Protection’s online map, the agency plans to build vehicle barriers and patrol roads across Big Bend National Park, including in rugged and remote areas such as Mariscal Mountain that would require extensive dynamite blasting. The plans also include building in remote walled canyons where no unauthorized vehicle crossings have been documented and where vehicles cannot access the border with Mexico.

In May the Department of Homeland Security awarded a $1.7 billion contract for border work through the national park. In June the department waived dozens of environmental laws — including the National Park Service Organic Act, Endangered Species Act and National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act — to authorize construction of border barriers, roads and lighting through Big Bend National Park. It was the first time in U.S. history that the federal government had waived such a broad set of environmental protections for construction inside a national park.

The Center sued the Department of Homeland Security, saying the waivers violated the Constitution by taking actions with vast economic and political consequences without congressional authorization. That case is ongoing.

Earlier this week, more than 140 outfitters, local businesses and recreation groups urged Texas leaders to protect public access to the Rio Grande and halt the project. They warned that closing river access and building permanent barriers and roads through the canyon corridor would put river outfitters out of business and devastate the regional economy.

Opposition to the project spans the political spectrum. All five sheriffs along the Big Bend border region have opposed barrier construction, saying the region’s mountains, canyons, desert and Rio Grande already provide a formidable natural barrier. All 14 Texas border county judges have called for greater transparency and border security measures better suited to the terrain. Seven former Big Bend National Park superintendents have urged DHS to reject the waivers. Last week, the Texas land commissioner sent a cease-and-desist order to Customs and Border Protection and federal contractors for illegally clearing state land for border wall construction.

The Big Bend Sector covers 517 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border — more than a quarter of the entire U.S.-Mexico boundary. No unauthorized vehicle crossings have been documented in the region, which saw just 1.3% of total border apprehensions in 2025. Within Big Bend National Park, apprehensions accounted 0.045% of the national total. For decades the National Park Service and Customs and Border Protection have conducted border enforcement while preserving the park’s irreplaceable natural heritage and recreational opportunities.

Photos and videos are available for media use.

[FactPost @factpostnews]

The Trump administration has approved plans by a private corporation to pump 800 billion gallons of groundwater out of California's Mojave Desert.

[Laiken Jordahl @LaikenJordahl]

DHS contractors are bulldozing native vegetation inside Big Bend National Park to build a new "patrol road" & "vehicle barriers" beside an existing road across from 1,500-foot cliffs no human or vehicle could ever cross and NO ONE CAN EXPLAIN WHY THIS IS HAPPENING.

[Thiath @Thiath_]

@factpostnews Teddy Roosevelt would be ashamed

[FactPost @factpostnews]

Bulldozers sent by Trump have begun tearing up Big Bend National Park to build a border wall through the protected public land.

The Trump administration waived dozens of environmental laws to permit the construction.

[Benji Backer @BenjiBacker]

There is absolutely no reason to destroy Big Bend National Park.

Entirely absurd — and anti-American — in every way.

[GO GREEN @ECOWARRIORSS]

Trump reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah — Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — by 90%, or about 2.9 million acres.
His policies are decimating habitat and hunting

Colorado’s Dinosaur National Monument next on the chopping block
https://t.co/wlcj3f8AJi

[Isaac Saul @Ike_Saul]

Welp. It’s happening.

Bulldozers and heavy equipment arrived in Big Bend National Park today. The most rugged, pristine lands in the lower 48. Trump’s border wall is coming. CBP is refusing to inform residents, park superintendents, landowners, business owners, or Texas legislators what is happening. What we know is that they are now paving new roads where there were none, erecting fencing and walls to protect those roads, and then planning to install technology and border patrol agents in an area where close to zero people ever cross the border.

Ironically, depressingly, they will be spending billions of dollars to destroy this pristine American land while literally making it easier to access, which means easier for coyotes and border crossers to actually traverse the region if they wanted to. Before this, there were no roads, just desserts, cliffs, and cacti, which made it all but impassable.

A few miles upstream, the first border barriers the administration just erected were washed away in the first flood of the season — not even a bad one — but hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, literally floating down the Rio Grande. A few miles downstream, near Eagle Pass, razor wire and debris are washing up ashore from the first floods there, making this critical water source inaccessible for Texans or any wildlife enthusiasts.

Right now, as we speak, $4 billion is flowing to contractors in Trump’s orbit to cut Texans, including me and my family, off from the most critical water source in the state. All for what? Big Bend is 25% of the patrolled southwest border and accounts for less than 1% of all border crossings. Border towns, businesses, tourism — all about to be destroyed. Nevermind the irreversible wildlife damage, the feds stealing land from private citizens via eminent domain, and all the money wasted that could go to actual solutions to secure the border or support these communities.

Ever since I first visited my family here when I was 13 years old I wanted to make a life in West Texas. Three years ago, after so much hard work and planning, I spent my savings on building a home there. One I hoped my son would inherit. A home in one of the most beautiful, rugged, untouched, places in the country. Also one of the safest.

Now, everything that makes this special place special is being upended — for an illogical, wasteful, stupid plan that won't work and won't help the country.

A genuine gut punch. So depressing.

[FactPost @factpostnews]

Coal miners in central Appalachia are suffering from the highest rates of black lung in 50 years.

This comes after Trump cancelled regulations limiting toxic silica dust in mines, which would have prevented at least 1,067 deaths and 3,746 black lung cases.

[Thiath @Thiath_]

@patriottakes Add it to the list of things we're never getting back. Just like the forest service.