World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

Rolling Stone has an investigative report on the current suit against ExxonMobil for fraud.  The case has been brought by the New York Attorney General and it accuses ExxonMobil of claiming a book value for its stocks which includes reserves of oil it knows cannot be burned because of the threat of climate change.  It is an innovative case and it is hard to predict how it will turn out.  But according to the article:

“To meet the climate goals of last year’s Paris Agreement, more than two-thirds of global fossil-fuel reserves – $100 trillion worth, according to a Citigroup estimate – would have to remain in the ground. If Exxon believes climate change is real, that warming more than two degrees Celsius could be catastrophic, and that the world is finally serious about averting this disaster, it must also accept that it may never sell tens of billions of barrels of oil currently on its balance sheet.”

The suit will likely take many years to resolve, but the pressure is clearly on oil companies now.

The US has ended its ban on transgender people serving in the military.  The decision has been a long time coming but the military only ended its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay and lesbians serving in 2011.  The move is a great step forward in the protection of human rights.  The change is supposed to take effect on 1 October.  Fortunately, the decision is an executive decision and it does not require an act from Congress–human rights are not a legislative decision.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is facing another challenge to the stability of Nigeria.  Boko Haram has unsettled large parts of the northeast part of the country with its attacks on civilians and the Nigerian army has not made much progress in pacifying the region.  But conflict has erupted (again) in the delta region of the south.  That region is the oil producing area of the country and it was once disrupted by an armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).  That group was ultimately contained, but a new group, the Niger Delta Avengers, has arisen.  The groups believe that the oil wealth is not being equally shared with the people in the delta region and they are demanding economic support for them.