Singapore ship behind world's worst plastic spill faces US$1 billion price tag — but is it enough?
According to the recent report of TheCoolDown, the court's verdict declared that the shipowner EOS Ro Pte. Limited and allied charterers were accountable for the environmental devastation instigated by the sinking of the MV X-Press Pearl in June 2021. The ruling cited the 'unprecedented devastation' inflicted on Sri Lanka's waters, wildlife, and coastal communities. A catastrophe at sea
The MV X-Press Pearl caught fire and sank just off the coast of Colombo while transporting a cargo of chemicals and plastic pellets. The blaze and ensuing crash released tons of harmful materials, including billions of small elastic pellets used in the production industry — many of which splashed on Sri Lanka's shorelines or disseminated into the Indian Ocean.
In its pronouncement, the court laid out the overwhelming environmental damage: 417 turtles, 48 dolphins, eight whales, and a myriad of fish died as a direct result of the spill. Many of their bodies washed ashore, painting a grim picture of the damage beneath the surface.
'The spill released toxic and hazardous substances into the ocean,' the court said, 'poisoning marine life, destroying phytoplankton, and disrupting the balance of our coastal ecosystems.' Ripple effects for people and planet
Besides the instantaneous demise of wildlife, the court cited the lasting ecological and economic consequences. Coral reefs and fish stocks continue to face pollution, while microplastic smog from the leaked pellets could endure for many years. This contamination can enter the food chain and could damage human health.
The communities that strongly rely on these waters for their maintenance and sources of income were specifically hit hard. The court's verdict made mention of their economic hardships and loss of potential revenue and actual income.
The court held the parties accountable under the 'Polluter Pays Principle.' This legal principle signifies that those who trigger or cause ecological impairment must pay for the cost of rebuilding those that were damaged. What comes next?
The significant US$1 billion recompense is projected to prop up and sustain extensive restoration initiatives and protection efforts, but no detailed strategies have been provided yet. Likely initiatives should include seaside cleanups, marine habitat rebuilding, and sterner guidelines for unsafe shipping near sensitive environmental zones.
In the meantime, the case has elevated worldwide calls for restructuring and modification. Ecological groups and individual conservationists are demanding harsher global supervision of maritime freight, compulsory tracking of hazardous goods, and punitive penalties for contamination at sea.
At the grassroots level, experts emphasise the need to reduce reliance on single-use plastics, the very material that contributed to this disaster. A wake-up call
'This judgment is not just a win for Sri Lanka,' said a local marine biologist after the ruling. 'It's a wake-up call to the world that the oceans are not dumping grounds. What we do at sea comes back to us, sometimes quite literally, on our shores.' See also Private militia seize Singapore-flagged ship near Cameroon
As Sri Lanka activates the long journey to recovery, the MV X-Press Pearl tragedy serves as a strong reminder of the high ecological price of international transport and the pressing necessity for change.
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Independent Singapore
2 days ago
- Independent Singapore
Singapore ship behind world's worst plastic spill faces US$1 billion price tag — but is it enough?
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA: In a landmark ruling, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has ordered the owners of a Singapore-flagged container ship to pay US$1 billion (S$1.34 billion) in damages for what it declared the world's largest recorded marine plastic spill — a disaster that continues to ravage the country's coastline and marine ecosystems. According to the recent report of TheCoolDown, the court's verdict declared that the shipowner EOS Ro Pte. Limited and allied charterers were accountable for the environmental devastation instigated by the sinking of the MV X-Press Pearl in June 2021. The ruling cited the 'unprecedented devastation' inflicted on Sri Lanka's waters, wildlife, and coastal communities. A catastrophe at sea The MV X-Press Pearl caught fire and sank just off the coast of Colombo while transporting a cargo of chemicals and plastic pellets. The blaze and ensuing crash released tons of harmful materials, including billions of small elastic pellets used in the production industry — many of which splashed on Sri Lanka's shorelines or disseminated into the Indian Ocean. In its pronouncement, the court laid out the overwhelming environmental damage: 417 turtles, 48 dolphins, eight whales, and a myriad of fish died as a direct result of the spill. Many of their bodies washed ashore, painting a grim picture of the damage beneath the surface. 'The spill released toxic and hazardous substances into the ocean,' the court said, 'poisoning marine life, destroying phytoplankton, and disrupting the balance of our coastal ecosystems.' Ripple effects for people and planet Besides the instantaneous demise of wildlife, the court cited the lasting ecological and economic consequences. Coral reefs and fish stocks continue to face pollution, while microplastic smog from the leaked pellets could endure for many years. This contamination can enter the food chain and could damage human health. The communities that strongly rely on these waters for their maintenance and sources of income were specifically hit hard. The court's verdict made mention of their economic hardships and loss of potential revenue and actual income. The court held the parties accountable under the 'Polluter Pays Principle.' This legal principle signifies that those who trigger or cause ecological impairment must pay for the cost of rebuilding those that were damaged. What comes next? The significant US$1 billion recompense is projected to prop up and sustain extensive restoration initiatives and protection efforts, but no detailed strategies have been provided yet. Likely initiatives should include seaside cleanups, marine habitat rebuilding, and sterner guidelines for unsafe shipping near sensitive environmental zones. In the meantime, the case has elevated worldwide calls for restructuring and modification. Ecological groups and individual conservationists are demanding harsher global supervision of maritime freight, compulsory tracking of hazardous goods, and punitive penalties for contamination at sea. At the grassroots level, experts emphasise the need to reduce reliance on single-use plastics, the very material that contributed to this disaster. A wake-up call 'This judgment is not just a win for Sri Lanka,' said a local marine biologist after the ruling. 'It's a wake-up call to the world that the oceans are not dumping grounds. What we do at sea comes back to us, sometimes quite literally, on our shores.' See also Private militia seize Singapore-flagged ship near Cameroon As Sri Lanka activates the long journey to recovery, the MV X-Press Pearl tragedy serves as a strong reminder of the high ecological price of international transport and the pressing necessity for change.
Straits Times
04-06-2025
- Straits Times
Mexico's new Supreme Court will likely heavily favor Sheinbaum's ruling party
MEXICO CITY - Judges aligned with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's ruling Morena political party are expected to dominate the country's Supreme Court after a vote that critics feared would weaken checks and balances on the executive branch's power. Sunday's unprecedented election will usher in nine Supreme Court justices, reduced from 11 previously appointed by various presidents. Most of those resigned over the judicial reform that spawned the vote and declined to participate in the elections. The voters who turned out - just 13% of the electorate - also chose more than 840 federal judges and magistrates positions, and thousands more at the local and state level. With nearly all votes counted by the end of Tuesday, the reconfigured Supreme Court looked to be dominated by justices affiliated with Morena through political posts. Several were previously endorsed by former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who pushed through the reform in his final months in office. Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum - his protégé - argued the reform was necessary to root out corruption in Mexico's flawed judicial system and make it more accessible to citizens. Critics of the reform, one of the most broad-ranging to be attempted in recent years by any country in the Western hemisphere, warned it would remove checks and balances on Morena, undermine democracy and boost powerful drug cartels' ability to influence the judicial system. The elections appear to put Morena, which already holds a majority in both houses of Congress, on the verge of controlling all three branches of Mexico's government. "It seems like the court that is going to form is one that Lopez Obrador always dreamed of having when he was president," said Laurence Pantin, co-coordinator of the Justice Observatory at Tec de Monterrey and director of the civil organization Fair Trial. "The objective, to be clear, was to have a judicial branch submissive to the executive branch," Pantin said. Some experts attribute Lopez Obrador's zeal to overhaul the judiciary to his tense relationship with the Supreme Court during his presidency from 2018 to 2024. The high court was often a roadblock to his policies, including curtailing the power of election authority INE and bringing the National Guard under control of the military. While Lopez Obrador ultimately found ways to accomplish most of his agenda, the Supreme Court served as an important check on his powers, said Gustavo Flores-Macias, a public policy professor at Cornell University. As Sheinbaum seeks to build on his legacy, she is likely to see much weaker resistance from the courts. That could help grease the wheels for her to further empower the armed forces to participate in civilian affairs or brush off procedural constraints on infrastructure projects. Lopez Obrador faced pushback from the court within the energy sector, too. A single-partisan judiciary could make it much easier for the government to circumvent environmental obligations or investor protections under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. "The optics are not great," Flores-Macias said. "It's very difficult to envision the Supreme Court serving as any counterbalance on these policies that the president will look to advance, especially with a majority in Congress," he added. While giving Morena a free hand to implement its agenda in the coming months and years, the stacking of the court with allies could also rob Sheinbaum and her party of one of Lopez Obrador's favorite scapegoats for his setbacks, Flores-Macias said. Sheinbaum heavily promoted the elections leading up to the vote, calling them an example of a strong democracy, in which judges and magistrates could answer to the people. But the low turnout has already prompted threats of legal challenges by the opposition. Alejandro Moreno, leader of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, called for the election results to be annulled, blasting the vote as a "farce" that had "nothing to do with democracy." "We will be heading towards an authoritarian government, a dictatorship, and these people from Morena don't care," Moreno said in a press conference on Monday. While justices on the prior high court who were appointed by other presidents resigned over the reform, Lopez Obrador appointees like Yasmin Esquivel Mossa and Loretta Ortiz Ahlf were on the ballot and appear to have secured posts in the elections. Despite the dangers of single-party domination, the new court's diversity could have some positive effects. Another Morena-backed candidate, indigenous rights defender Hugo Aguilar, is leading in the race to head the reconfigured court, a choice which could benefit Mexico's underserved indigenous populations, Pantin said. "It could have a positive aspect because there wasn't much diversity within the court and there hadn't been anyone of indigenous origin on it in recent years," Pantin said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
03-06-2025
- Straits Times
Trump administration scraps Biden-era policy on emergency abortions
FILE PHOTO: Abortion rights supporters hold placards on the day the Supreme Court justices hear oral arguments over the legality of Idaho's Republican-backed, near-total abortion ban in medical-emergency situations, at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., April 24, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday rescinded guidance issued during his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden's tenure requiring hospitals to provide abortions to women in medical emergencies regardless of various state bans on the procedure. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said the 2022 guidance, which interpreted a federal law that ensures patients can receive emergency "stabilizing care" as preempting state abortion bans, did not reflect the policy of the Trump administration. The agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said it "will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration's actions." The Biden administration issued the guidance in July 2022 weeks after the 6-3 conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had recognized a nationwide right of women to obtain abortions. The 2022 guidance reminded healthcare providers across the country of their obligations under a 1986 federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to ensure Medicare-participating hospitals offer emergency care stabilizing patients regardless of their ability to pay. Medicare is the government healthcare program for the elderly. Hospitals that violate EMTALA risk losing Medicare funding. The 2022 guidance aimed to make clear that under EMTALA, physicians must provide a woman an abortion if needed to resolve a medical emergency and stabilize the patient even in states where the procedure is banned and that the federal law preempted any state laws that offer no exceptions for medical emergencies. After issuing the guidance, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Idaho in a bid to stop it from enforcing its near-total abortion ban in medical emergencies. A federal judge at the Justice Department's urging blocked the Idaho from enforcing the ban during medical emergencies, but the Trump administration in March dropped that lawsuit, resulting in that injunction being lifted. The ban still remains blocked in emergencies due to a similar lawsuit brought by a hospital system. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
