Archive July 16, 2025

Already, miners have successfully protested a proposal by the Trump administration to close more than 30 field offices run by the Mining Safety and Health Administration, a branch of the Labor Department that enforces safety standards.

Another government bureau, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), faced staffing cuts of nearly 90 percent under Trump. Miners pushed back, arguing that NIOSH’s research is necessary for their protection.

“For generations, the United Mine Workers of America has fought to protect the health and safety of coal miners and all working people,” union president Cecil Roberts said in a statement announcing a lawsuit against the cuts in May.

“The dismantling of NIOSH and the elimination of its critical programs — like black lung screenings — puts miners’ lives at risk and turns back decades of progress.”

Some of NIOSH’s workers were reinstated. Others were not. The upheaval left some investigations in states like Wyoming in limbo.

Marshal Cummings, a United Steelworkers union representative in southwest Wyoming, was among those seeking NIOSH’s help. He had grown concerned about the potential for trona miners like himself to be exposed to high levels of silica dust, a known carcinogen.

“We know what silica does to people,” Cummings told Al Jazeera. “We know that it causes people to get their lungs cut up by jagged edges of a silica particle, and then they slowly die. They lose that same quality of life that people who work on the surface have.”

Cummings believes there is too little research to fully understand the toll silica exposure is taking on trona miners.

Already, trona miners work in extreme conditions. Their mines cut deep into the earth. One of Wyoming’s biggest trona pits plunges to a depth of 1,600 feet or 488 metres: deep enough to swallow three full-sized copies of the Great Pyramid of Giza, stacked on top of each other.

Cummings was also dismayed to learn that a new rule slated to take effect in April had been pushed back until at least mid-August.

The rule would have lowered the acceptable levels of silica dust in mines. Heavy exposure has been tied to respiratory diseases. Black lung — a potentially fatal condition caused by dust scarring the lungs — has been on the rise in Wyoming, as it is throughout the US.

To Cummings, blame rests squarely on the shoulders of mining executives whom he sees as more interested in their wallets than their employees’ health. He believes the silica rule’s delay is part of their political manoeuvring.

“The pause is not just the pause,” Cummings said. “It’s giving people who care more about a favourable quarterly report than they do their employees an opportunity to get this rule completely thrown out. And that’s unacceptable.”

Travis Deti, the executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, represents some of the industry leaders who opposed the new rule. They felt the silica rule was “a little bit of overreach”, he explained.

“I know that a lot of our folks have a little heartburn over it, that it might go a little too far,” Deti said.

He pointed out that coal mining, for instance, is different in Wyoming than it is in the Appalachia region. While Appalachian miners have to tunnel to harvest the fossil fuel, Wyoming has surface mines that require less digging.

A coalition of countries has announced at a meeting in the Colombian capital of Bogota that they will pursue accountability for Israeli abuses in Gaza, including by preventing the transfer of weapons to Israel.

The two-day meeting concluded on Wednesday with two dozen countries agreeing to six measures to “restrain Israel’s assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

They include Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and South Africa.

“We believe in protagonism, not supplication,” said Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, the executive secretary of The Hague Group, which organised the summit.

“Today marks an end to the era of the impunity and the beginning of collective state action by governments of conscience.”

Founded in January, the Hague Group seeks to bring together countries from the “Global South” — a loosely defined region of developing economies — to pressure Israel to end its war on Gaza and the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Among the steps announced by the group are the denial of arms to Israel, a ban on ships transporting such arms and a review of public contracts for possible links to companies that benefit from the Israeli occupation.

The six measures also included support for “universal jurisdiction mandates”, which would allow states or international bodies to prosecute serious international crimes, regardless of where they took place.

“The delegates here that have been discussing these measures for two days are calling it the most ambitious, multilateral plan since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza 21 months ago,” Al Jazeera correspondent Alessandro Rampietti reported from Bogota.

The 12 countries that agreed to the measures, however, represent fewer than half of the 30 countries in attendance at the Bogota summit.

And critics question how effective smaller economies can be in dissuading Israel from its military campaign, especially given the multibillion-dollar support it receives from the United States.

Israel has given little indication that international outrage has slowed down its attacks on Gaza, even after experts at the United Nations (UN) and major humanitarian organisations compared its tactics to genocide.

Israeli forces continue to displace Palestinians and restrict their access to food, fuel and water. At least 58,573 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023.

While the majority of the countries at this week’s Bogota conference did not immediately sign on to Wednesday’s measures, the Hague Group expressed optimism that more could join in.

In a statement, the group set a deadline of September 20 for others to participate — a date chosen to coincide with the start of the UN General Assembly.

“Consultations with capitals across the world are now ongoing,” the statement said.

Officials attending the summit also hailed the six measures as part of a larger effort to chip away at Israeli impunity.

“Ministers, the truth is that Palestine has already triggered a revolution, and you are part of it,” said Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.

“Palestine has changed global consciousness, drawing a clear line between those who oppose genocide and those who accept it or are part of it.”

Albanese was recently sanctioned by the US for her outspoken criticism of Israel’s actions.

The summit has become a symbol of the growing calls from non-Western nations for world leaders to enforce international law in Gaza, where critics say Israel has consistently flouted human rights law.

Developing nations such as South Africa and Colombia, which cohosted the conference, have been at the forefront of such accountability efforts.

South Africa, for instance, filed a case in December 2023 at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that Israel perpetrated genocide in Gaza. And Colombia announced it would cut ties with Israel in May 2024 over its military campaign.