Tonga, a Pacific Island nation with deep connections to the ocean and its non-human inhabitants, could become the first country in the world to recognize that whales have inherent rights.

Speaking in Nice, France, where the United Nations Ocean Conference is taking place, Tongan Princess Angelika Lātūfuipeka Tukuʻaho called for the recognition of whales as legal persons.

“The time has come to recognize whales not merely as resources but as sentient beings with inherent rights,” Lātūfuipeka Tukuʻaho said.

The announcement indicated that Tonga, a constitutional monarchy, could move forward with recognizing whales as legal persons and appointing human guardians to represent them in court.

“This would effectively give whales agency within the legal system, allowing them to assert and defend their own rights,” said Grant Wilson, executive director of the U.S.-based advocacy group Earth Law Center, which is not involved in the initiative.

Legal personhood is a mainstream legal concept most often used for corporations, allowing them to enter into contracts, sue and limit the liability of shareholders. Legal systems also allow for the representation of individuals who cannot act on their own behalf—such as children or incapacitated adults—through mechanisms like guardianship.

Scientists in Poland have called on the public to step up efforts to combat drought, revealing that around 45% of the country’s forests and agricultural land are under threat.

The appeal was made on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, with scientists warning that drought had now become an annual issue.

Currently, surface water resources per capita (the amount of renewable surface water available for each person in a specific location) stand at 1,600 cubic meters per year, approximately three times below the European average.

In an open letter published on their website, Poland’s national water authority, Polish Waters (Wody Polskie), wrote: “Despite Poland’s seemingly moderate climate, summer droughts have been observed since 2011.”

Financial losses stemming from drought were placed at 2.6 billion złotys in 2018 alone.

Now, Polish Waters have issued a rallying cry calling on the forestry commission, regional authorities, farmers and entrepreneurs to join forces to do their bit.

“The key is to retain water where it falls,” wrote Polish Waters. “Through water retention and wise water management, we can protect our fields, forests and cities from the effects of drought. Together we can restore balance to the landscape and take care of the future.”

Continuing, Polish Waters apportioned much of the blame on climate change, citing it as a major driver of drought.

“This process is further modulated by seasonal precipitation patterns, surface runoff, water storage, and interactions with vegetation.”

“Recent weather patterns, characterized by prolonged droughts interspersed with heavy rainfall, are further exacerbating the problem. While droughts leave land dehydrated for years, heavy rainfall washes away topsoil instead of replenishing it,” they added.

Farmers have been particularly impacted by Poland’s spate of droughts, with one report showing that 45% of the county’s forests and agricultural fields are at risk, with central Poland and Wielkopolska in west-central Poland the most vulnerable of all.

Traditionally, agricultural droughts have been viewed as a particular problem, with their effects including lower yields, poorer crop quality, higher susceptibility to diseases and pests, and higher end prices for the consumer.

To fight drought, Polish Waters has already completed 55 investments valued at 150 million złotys, among them the modernization of the Ruda reservoir near the northeastern town of Mława.

The authority has also embarked on an aggressive educational campaign aimed at promoting smaller scale retention measures, switching lawns out in favor of flowery meadows and encouraging the planting of drought-resistant plants.

“Let’s work together for the people, for nature and for future generations,” added Polish Waters.

Poland has been observing GPS disruptions over the Baltic Sea, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said, adding they were “related to the actions of the Russian Federation, including sabotage actions.”

Polish media reported cases of GPS malfunction in the north of the country on Tuesday, including private drones flying away in unknown directions or losing connection.

“This may be Russia’s answer to the Baltops exercises,” Polish Vice Admiral Krzysztof Jaworski told Reuters on Tuesday, referring to NATO’s annual exercise in the Baltic Sea, being held this month.

Jaworski said the disruptions had become more intense since the start of the NATO exercise.

On Monday, a flight from Alicante in Spain to the northern Polish city of Bydgoszcz was redirected to Poznań in the west of Poland due to navigation problems, a Bydgoszcz airport spokesperson said, without identifying the airline.

“We are observing these disruptions. They are also observed over the Baltic Sea area by our allies in NATO countries - both in the Baltic states and the Nordic countries,” Kosiniak-Kamysz told journalists when asked about such incidents at a press conference about new helicopters.

“These actions are related, according to our sources, to the actions of the Russian Federation, also to sabotage actions.”

He did not elaborate on the sources.

**Rising sabotage threats **

Countries located on the Baltic Sea have reported numerous incidents since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, including power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages, and the NATO military alliance has boosted its presence in the region.

On Tuesday, Poland and the Baltic states signed a memorandum to boost the protection of critical energy infrastructure, with a special focus on shielding vulnerable underwater assets in the Baltic Sea, where a string of suspected sabotage attacks have been reported since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Last year, Estonia and Finland blamed Moscow for jamming GPS navigation devices in the region’s airspace.

Russia has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The European Union has unveiled plans to legally bypass Hungary and Slovakia to ban Russian gas imports by 2027, using trade and energy laws that avoid national vetoes.

Slovakia and Hungary, which have sought to maintain close political ties with Russia, say switching to alternatives would increase energy prices. They have vowed to block sanctions on Russian energy, which require unanimous approval from all EU countries, and have opposed the ban.

The Commission based its proposed ban on EU trade and energy law to get around this, relying on support from most countries and a majority of the European Parliament.

First, imports would be banned from January 1, 2026, under any Russian pipeline gas and LNG contracts signed during the remainder of this year.

Imports under short-term Russian gas deals—those lasting less than one year—signed before June 17, 2025, would be banned from June 17 next year.

Finally, imports under existing long-term Russian contracts would be banned from January 1, 2028, effectively ending the EU's use of Russian gas by this date, the Commission said.

Hungary and Slovakia, which still import Russian gas via pipeline and have opposed the EU plans, would have until January 1, 2028, to end their imports, including those on short-term contracts.

“When the legislation is passed, all countries, of course, has to apply to it, and if they don't, then there will be legal consequences, like with any other legislation in the European Union,” Dan Jørgensen, European Commissioner for Energy and Housing said.

Russia loses market

The EU would also gradually ban liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals from providing services to Russian customers, and companies importing Russian gas would have to disclose information on their contracts to EU and national authorities.

On Monday, EU energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen said that the measures were designed to be legally strong enough for companies to invoke the contractual clause of “force majeure”–an unforeseeable event–to break their Russian gas contracts.

About 19% of Europe’s gas still comes from Russia via the TurkStream pipeline and LNG shipments, down from roughly 45% before 2022.

Companies, including TotalEnergies and Spain’s Naturgy, have Russian LNG contracts extending into the 2030s.

To replace Russian supplies, the EU has signaled it will expand clean energy and could import more LNG from the U.S.

Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and France import Russian LNG but have all said they fully support the ban, emphasizing that it must be sufficiently robust legally to avoid exposing companies to penalties or arbitration, EU diplomats told Reuters.

The two parties that make up the Third Way (Trzecia Droga), which is part of Poland’s ruling coalition, have confirmed that they are splitting and will stand separately at the next elections.

The decision was confirmed in statements issued last night and this morning by the leaders of the two parties that make up the alliance: Szymon Hołownia of the centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) and Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz of the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL).

The Third Way was formed two years ago, when PSL and Poland 2050 were in opposition. They retained their separate identities as parties but stood candidates on joint electoral lists at the October 2023 parliamentary elections, where they together won 14.4% of the vote.

That placed them third, behind the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS, 35.4%) and centrist Civic Coalition (KO, 30.7%) and ahead of The Left (Lewica, 8.6%).

After those elections, KO, the Third Way and The Left formed a new coalition government, led by KO leader Donald Tusk, that removed PiS from power after eight years in office. It has ruled the country ever since.

Kosiniak-Kamysz serves as deputy prime minister and defence minister in the government, while Hołownia is the speaker of Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament.

PSL and Poland 2050 formed separate caucuses in parliament, with each currently having 32 MPs in the 460-seat Sejm.

But they continued to stand jointly as the Third Way in subsequent elections. At the April 2024 local elections, the Third Way won 14.3% of the vote. However, at the European elections that took place two months later, its share fell to just 6.9%.

In this year’s presidential election, PSL agreed to support the candidacy of Hołownia, but he won a disappointing 5% of the vote in the first round, finishing fifth. That was significantly worse than his presidential run as an independent in 2020, when he finished third with 13.9%.

Since the most recent presidential elections, rumours have circulated that PSL and Poland 2050 might decide to separate.

The two parties have not always been natural allies, with PSL taking more conservative positions on issues such as abortion and same-sex partnerships and Poland 2050 placing stronger emphasis on climate policies than its partner.

On Tuesday evening, PSL’s leadership met to discuss the best path forward. Afterwards, before any official announcement had been made, Hołownia issued a statement saying that his party “accepts the decision of our coalition partner PSL to effectively end the Third Way project”.

He said that Poland 2050 was “determined to work constructively with our partners” going forward, but was also felt “sincere political joy at the prospect of running independently in the next elections”.

Subsequently, leading PSL figures, including party spokesman Miłosz Motyka, noted that no resolution had been formally adopted on ending the Third Way alliance. That prompted questions over whether what Hołownia had written was accurate.

However, on Wednesday, Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed the split, telling broadcaster Radio Zet that the Third Way “is behind us, it has reached the end”.

The announcement was “supposed to be a bit different”, he added. “We had a discussion yesterday; Poland 2050 will have a discussion on 28 June. Then we were supposed to come out together and say that this stage is closed. [But] when there are 150 people in the room, it is difficult to keep everything absolutely sterile.”

After this month’s presidential election run-off was won by PiS-backed candidate Karol Nawrocki – who defeated KO deputy leader Rafał Trzaskowski – there were questions over whether and how the government would be able to rule with a hostile president and his power of veto.

PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński called for Tusk’s administration to step down and be replaced by an “apolitical technical government”. Figures from his party appealed to PSL, the most conservative element of the ruling coalition, to join them in bringing down the government.

However, at a vote of confidence in the government called by Tusk last week, he emerged triumphant, with all his coalition partners – PSL, Poland 2050 and The Left – joining KO in voting in favour.

The next elections scheduled in Poland are parliamentary ones that are due to take place in autumn 2027. If PSL and Poland 2050 stand as individual parties, they would have to win at least 5% of vote to enter parliament. If they stand as part of a coalition, the threshold is 8%.

Perhaps the oldest, most pernicious form of human bias is that of men toward women. It often started at the moment of birth. In ancient Athens, at a public ceremony called the amphidromia, fathers would inspect a newborn and decide whether it would be part of the family, or be cast away. One often socially acceptable reason for abandoning the baby: It was a girl.

Female infanticide has been distressingly common in many societies — and its practice is not just ancient history. In 1990, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen looked at birth ratios in Asia, North Africa, and China and calculated that more than 100 million women were essentially “missing” — meaning that, based on the normal ratio of boys to girls at birth and the longevity of both genders, there was a huge missing number of girls who should have been born, but weren’t. Good News

A weekly dose of stories chronicling progress around the world. Email (required)

Sen’s estimate came before the truly widespread adoption of ultrasound tests that could determine the sex of a fetus in utero — which actually made the problem worse, leading to a wave of sex-selective abortions. These were especially common in countries like India and China; the latter’s one-child policy and old biases made families desperate for their one child to be a boy. The Economist has estimated that since 1980 alone, there have been approximately 50 million fewer girls born worldwide than would naturally be expected, which almost certainly means that roughly that nearly all of those girls were aborted for no other reason than their sex. The preference for boys was a bias that killed in mass numbers. Related

The big barrier to having children we’re not talking about

But in one of the most important social shifts of our time, that bias is changing. In a great cover story earlier this month, The Economist reported that the number of annual excess male births has fallen from a peak of 1.7 million in 2000 to around 200,000, which puts it back within the biologically standard birth ratio of 105 boys for every 100 girls. Countries that once had highly skewed sex ratios — like South Korea, which saw almost 116 boys born for every 100 girls in 1990 — now have normal or near-normal ratios.

Altogether, The Economist estimated that the decline in sex preference at birth in the past 25 years has saved the equivalent of 7 million girls. That’s comparable to the number of lives saved by anti-smoking efforts in the US. So how, exactly, have we overcome a prejudice that seemed so embedded in human society? Related

The movement desperately trying to get people to have more babies

Success in school and the workplace

For one, we have relaxed discrimination against girls and women in other ways — in school and in the workplace. With fewer limits, girls are outperforming boys in the classroom. In the most recent international PISA tests, considered the gold standard for evaluating student performance around the world, 15-year-old girls beat their male counterparts in reading in 79 out of 81 participating countries or economies, while the historic male advantage in math scores has fallen to single digits.

Girls are also dominating in higher education, with 113 female students at that level for every 100 male students. While women continue to earn less than men, the gender pay gap has been shrinking, and in a number of urban areas in the US, young women have actually been outearning young men.

Government policies have helped accelerate that shift, in part because they have come to recognize the serious social problems that eventually result from decades of anti-girl discrimination. In countries like South Korea and China, which have long had some of the most skewed gender ratios at birth, governments have cracked down on technologies that enable sex-selective abortion. In India, where female infanticide and neglect have been particularly horrific, slogans like “Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter” have helped change opinions. A changing preference

The shift is being seen not just in birth sex ratios, but in opinion polls — and in the actions of would-be parents.

Between 1983 and 2003, The Economist reported, the proportion of South Korean women who said it was “necessary” to have a son fell from 48 percent to 6 percent, while nearly half of women now say they want daughters. In Japan, the shift has gone even further — as far back as 2002, 75 percent of couples who wanted only one child said they hoped for a daughter.

In the US, which allows sex selection for couples doing in-vitro fertilization, there is growing evidence that would-be parents prefer girls, as do potential adoptive parents. While in the past, parents who had a girl first were more likely to keep trying to have children in an effort to have a boy, the opposite is now true — couples who have a girl first are less likely to keep trying. A more equal future

There’s still more progress to be made. In northwest of India, for instance, birth ratios that overly skew toward boys are still the norm. In regions of sub-Saharan Africa, birth sex ratios may be relatively normal, but post-birth discrimination in the form of poorer nutrition and worse medical care still lingers. And course, women around the world are still subject to unacceptable levels of violence and discrimination from men.

And some of the reasons for this shift may not be as high-minded as we’d like to think. Boys around the world are struggling in the modern era. They increasingly underperform in education, are more likely to be involved in violent crime, and in general, are failing to launch into adulthood. In the US, 20 percent of American men between 25 and 34 still live with their parents, compared to 15 percent of similarly aged women. Related

Are men okay? Our modern masculinity problem, explained.

It also seems to be the case that at least some of the increasing preference for girls is rooted in sexist stereotypes. Parents around the world may now prefer girls partly because they see them as more likely to take care of them in their old age — meaning a different kind of bias against women, that they are more natural caretakers, may be paradoxically driving the decline in prejudice against girls at birth.

But make no mistake — the decline of boy preference is a clear mark of social progress, one measured in millions of girls’ lives saved. And maybe one Father’s Day, not too long from now, we’ll reach the point where daughters and sons are simply children: equally loved and equally welcomed.

Excerpts:

The Facebook message that popped into her account started as a flirtation: "Hey, how are you?" 

She had newly arrived from Bangladesh to study for her master's in information technology on a student visa in 2022 and wasn't interested in a relationship. 

She liked the message. Then he texted again a few days later, "Hey, I have tickets to a Broadway show."  

She had never been to a Broadway show before, so she went — and their whirlwind first date quickly turned to love for her and then marriage. […]

Her new husband filed for a green card for his wife. A temporary one was granted, and she moved to his family's house in Brooklyn.

The future seemed bright. […]

Now, just a little more than a year later, the 31-year-old woman, who asked CBS News not to use her name due to safety fears, has separated from her husband after alleging abuse — and is now worried about being deported.

[…]

Crystal Justice, chief external affairs officer at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, told CBS News in a statement that they have seen abusive partners "threatening to deport a partner or their family or withholding legal documents to limit a person's ability to travel."

Full story on CBS News

The Israeli military says Iran launched dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel as sirens and loud blasts were heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Minutes later, a massive cloud of smoke rose over Tel Aviv. According to Iranian media, hundreds of ballistic missiles were launched from Iran toward Israel, marking Tehran's initial response to the intense Israeli attacks.

Israel launched a major attack on Iran, drawing their long-running shadow war into the open conflict in a way that could spiral into a wider, more dangerous regional war.

The strikes early Friday set off explosions in the capital of Tehran as Israel said it was targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities. Iranian state media reported that the leader of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and two top nuclear scientists had been killed.

archived (Wayback Machine)

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archived (Wayback Machine)

Shots fired—that is how observers described the landmark legal decision in late May in a case brought by a Peruvian farmer against a German coal giant, that ruled fossil fuel producers could be held accountable under German law for the climate harms they have caused around the world. It was a groundbreaking moment, a decade in the making, that began in 2015 when Saul Lucian Lliuya realized he had a problem: the constant threat of catastrophic flooding he and the other 120,000 residents of his hometown, Huaraz, faced. Above Huaraz sits Lake Palcacocha, one of several glacier lakes that supplies the city’s drinking water. Over decades, water levels have occasionally risen, but as global average temperatures have increased, the surrounding glaciers have shrunk, pushing the lake to capacity and the point where a catastrophic flood is now inevitable.

None of this happened by chance. Pointing to the science that climate change was being driven by fossil fuel production, the Peruvian farmer from a city in the foothills of the Andes set out to do something ambitious: sue German coal-fired power producer RWE for its part in helping to drive catastrophic climate change. Few thought the case would last as long as it did, and when the court issued its historic ruling in May, headlines in major international papers reported it as a loss. What they missed is that Lliuya had succeeded in laying a blueprint for others looking to take fossil fuel companies to court.

The story of Huaraz is a familiar one to many communities in the Global South. A lack of action by governments and international institutions has meant there are precious few avenues available to find the money and resources needed for adaptation and mitigation. Some estimates put the level of compensation owed by developed economies to Global South countries for their role in driving catastrophic climate change at US$192 trillion. At the COP in Baku, Azerbaijan last year, the annual UN climate summit, governments pledged $300bn, a fraction of what is needed, and the latest in a string of pledges that have remained unfulfilled.

Suing those directly responsible offers a way to both hold companies to account and to secure the resources needed to mitigate emissions, and adapt to climate harms as they develop. These legal efforts have been aided by the development of rapid and more advanced attribution science that makes it possible to link individual fossil fuel producers to specific climate harms.

But then, Lliuya’s claim was never really about the money. At heart was a demand RWE pay 0.47% of the cost of a new dam for his city, a figure estimated at USD$4m and a sum that came to roughly USD$20,000 for RWE’s contribution – a rounding error on the company’s balance sheet.

Both Lliuya and RWE’s lawyers, however, understood there was something bigger at stake. When asked by the court if RWE would be willing to settle, the company’s lawyers refused.

“This is a matter of precedent,” they said.

When the court’s decision was handed down on 28 May 2025, while the judges didn’t require RWE to pay up for the dam, they did side with Lliuya on all the key questions of law. The ruling held that German courts do have authority to hear civil claims for climate harms arising from impacts from climate change. A Peruvian could, in fact, sue in German courts under the law of nuisance if it could be shown a German had caused harm to his property – even if said property was on the other side of the world. This was partly due to provisions within German law that require neighbors to consider how their actions affect each other, ruling “the plaintiff is not obliged to tolerate” a disturbance to his property. It also rejected any suggestion Lliuya was “co-responsible” for potential harm simply by living in an at-risk area.

In other words, says Petra Minnerop, a professor of international law at Durham university, the decision means that someone in Tuvalu whose home is affected by sea level rise, or a person in Pakistan whose home is destroyed in a catastrophic flood could potentially sue for climate harms – within certain limits.

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has ruled that European Union energy and climate regulations are incompatible with the Polish constitution and breach national sovereignty in determining energy policy.

The Tribunal found that EU institutions, including the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), had exceeded their competences by interpreting EU treaties in a way that significantly impacts Poland’s ability to choose its energy sources independently.

Interpretations of EU law “cannot mean that Poland loses control over the scope of its delegated competences, and thus that there are areas in which its sovereignty (here: energy) is not protected”, the court said in a statement announcing its decision.

However, the ruling is unlikely to have any real effect for now given that the current government, a coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, does not recognise the TK’s legitimacy due to it containing judges unlawfully appointed by the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration.

The case was brought by a group of opposition lawmakers led by Sebastian Kaleta, a PiS MP and former deputy justice minister. The motion challenged the compatibility of EU climate rules – including Directive 2003/87/EC, which created the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) – with the Polish constitution.

The MPs argued that, although Poland had transferred some powers to Brussels, it should retain sovereignty over critical energy decisions. They claimed that mandatory participation in the EU ETS restricts economic freedom and undermines the state’s ability to ensure energy security.

They also warned that EU decision-making processes, which do not require unanimity in the European Council on issues affecting Poland’s energy mix, might breach the limits of competence conferred on the EU and undermine the primacy of the Polish constitution.

In its ruling, the TK agreed with the motion’s core arguments. It held that the CJEU had extended the interpretation of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union beyond the conferred competences, infringing on national sovereignty.

“Competences not conferred on the European Union belong to the member states themselves, and the EU can only act on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, subject to the scrutiny of national parliaments at all times,” the court said.

Consequently, the TK found this interpretation of EU law to be incompatible with the Polish constitution, emphasising that Poland cannot lose control over the scope of delegated powers, especially in such a key area as energy sovereignty.

The TK, however, discontinued proceedings relating specifically to the ETS “due to the incomplete, from a formal point of view, definition of the object under verification”.

The TK concluded its statement by stating that it was now up to the Polish legislature and executive to take “appropriate public law measures” to implement the decision, which enters into force upon its publication.

However, it is the government that is responsible for publishing TK rulings, and it refuses to do so due to given that some of the tribunal’s judges were illegitimately appointed under PiS.

The ruling could still reverberate in Polish politics, however. The PiS-aligned president-elect, Karol Nawrocki, who takes office in August, said last month that the TK’s decision on this case could be a way to lower the electricity prices by 33% – one of his campaign promises.

He also pledged to hold a referendum on withdrawing from the EU’s Green Deal – a set of policies aimed at reaching climate neutrality by 2050 – and reaffirmed his support for coal, which remains Poland’s main source of electricity generation and is also widely used for heating homes.

PiS politicians welcomed the verdict, insisting that it means that Poland does not have to implement the Green Deal.

“The EU has not been given the competence to decide without the consent of Poland which energy sources we can use and what fiscal burdens may be imposed on individual sources,” Kaleta wrote on X. “This opens the path for a radical reduction in electricity and heating prices now.”

The former justice minister in the PiS government, Zbigniew Ziobro, meanwhile, challenged Tusk, asking if he would “break the law again and hide the verdict to drive Poles into poverty” or “will you behave as you should?”

The government has so far not commented on the TK’s ruling.

The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a certification scheme aimed at contributing to global efforts to conserve 30 percent of the Earth’s terrestrial and aquatic areas by 2030.

The Terrestrial Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECM) certification is part of efforts to meet the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s goal, dubbed the “30 by 30” target.

Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) told a news conference that protected areas and OECMs are recognized as effective conservation that can add up to the target.