Articles by IRIN

We found 38 results.


In a Glaring Double Standard, FIFA Fails to Suspend Israel
Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin | The Nation - TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Oct 2024

7 Oct 2024 – FIFA banned apartheid South Africa. It banned Russia for invading Ukraine. But about Israel, FIFA does nothing.

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Energy Bills in Europe Are 90% Higher Than Last Year
Irina Slav | Oilprice - TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Nov 2022

8 Nov 2022 – Electricity and gas prices are soaring across Europe, with bills close to double from last year in most European capitals, according to new data from the Household Energy Price Index—a monthly tracker of energy prices for households across 33 European capitals, including the 27 EU member states and several non-members.

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The Tragic Absurdity of Qatar’s World Cup Sportswashing
Dave Zirin | ScheerPost - TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Jun 2022

22 Jun 2022 – Were there not so much suffering involved, the Qatar 2022 World Cup would be an absurdist parody of sportswashing. Labor abuses, homophobia, corruption? Qatar and FIFA will use the men’s World Cup to put a happy gloss on it all.

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How Nanoplastics Enter the Human Body
Erica Cirino | Independent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Feb 2022

22 Feb 2022 – If you regularly drink water from plastic bottles, you’re likely ingesting even more plastic than the average consumer.

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Voices Are Raised Against the NBA Launching Its New African League in Rwanda
Dave Zirin | The Nation - TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 May 2021

30 Apr 2021 – Human rights groups are concerned that using Rwanda as a backdrop would provide a public relations boost for its autocratic leader.

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Eat Less Meat: UN Climate Change Report Calls for Change to Human Diet
Quirin Schiermeier | Nature – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Aug 2019

8 Aug 2019 – The report on global land use and agriculture from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change comes amid accelerating deforestation in the Amazon.

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Imprisonment, Torture and Rape: Why Myanmar Must Be Referred to the ICC
Shirin Ebadi and Tawakkol Karman | Both Nobel Peace Laureates – CNN, 24 Sep 2018

18 Sep 2018 – Today, the investigation led by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar presented its findings to the Human Rights Council. The mission’s exhaustive report defines human rights violations and abuses as “shocking for their horrifying nature and ubiquity.”

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For Refugees in Sudan, Fears Surround Probe into UN Resettlement Fraud
Sally Hayden | IRIN – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2018

23 Jul 2018 – Potential witnesses worry about retaliation and complain about the lack of protection. They worry about retribution from those they’re making allegations against because of what they say is a lack of protection for witnesses and close links between some local UNHCR staff and Sudanese security officials.

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How a Legal Challenge on Rohingya Deportation Could Redefine the Bounds of International Justice
Irwin Loy – IRIN News, 20 Jun 2018

13 Jun 2018 – It’s a simple-sounding question with far-reaching ramifications: does the International Criminal Court have the mandate to investigate the alleged deportation of Rohingya civilians from Myanmar into Bangladesh? “It’s an incredibly compelling case given the scale of the atrocities that have occurred.”

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Myanmar Levels Former Rohingya Villages to Build Camp for Returnees: Maps and Graphics
Irwin Loy | IRIN – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Mar 2018

Myanmar has bulldozed entire Rohingya villages to make way for a massive camp at the centre of a stalled plan to house returning refugees, an analysis of new satellite imagery shows.

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It Is Time to End the Child Soldier Stereotype
Tim Molyneux | IRIN – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Feb 2018

Mon Feb 12 marks the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers, known as Red Hand Day. From Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Myanmar and Nigeria, countless children remain trapped in armed conflict.

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The Denied Oppression of Myanmar’s Rohingya People
IRIN – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jan 2018

An explosion of violence has driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya out of Myanmar. The continuing exodus is the culmination of decades of oppression and hostility that have stripped Rohingya of their rights, denied them an identity, and forced them from their homes. What comes next for one of the world’s most persecuted minorities?

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Crumbling Congo – The Making of a Humanitarian Emergency
IRIN – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jan 2018

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been at war with itself for more than two decades. The scale of the humanitarian crisis requires an urgent international response – but the world is yet to step up to the challenge.

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What Libya’s “Slave Auctions” Tell Us about the Humanitarian System
Nanjala Nyabola | IRIN – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Dec 2017

The CNN film was a shock. But it’s nothing new: racism is at the heart of the refugee and migrant crisis. It’s Time to Talk about Race and Racism

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How Much It Sucks to Be a Sri Lankan Worker Making Beyoncé’s New Clothing Line
Sirin Kale | Vice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 May 2016

According to a newspaper investigation, the sweatshop workers making the Ivy Park collection for Topshop are only making 64 cents an hour. We ask an expert on the Sri Lankan clothes industry just how bad the situation really is.

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Putin Declines World Humanitarian Summit Invitation as Russia Cries Foul
Ben Parker | IRIN News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 May 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul as Russia is refusing to be bound by the results of a process it says failed to include its views.

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After Latest Incident, Israel’s Future in FIFA Is Uncertain
Dave Zirin – The Nation, 13 Apr 2015

Their names are Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, 19, and Adam Abd al-Raouf Halabiya, 17. They were once soccer players in the West Bank but are never going to play again. They were on their way home from a training session on January 31 when Israeli forces fired upon them as they approached a checkpoint. After being shot repeatedly, they were mauled by checkpoint dogs and then beaten. Ten bullets were put into Jawhar’s feet. Adam took one bullet in each foot.

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Why Is Blackwater Helping to Train Brazil’s World Cup Security?
Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff – The Nation, 12 May 2014

25 Apr 2014 – The Brazilian press revealed earlier this week that Academi—the rebranded private militia once known as Blackwater— the notorious company responsible for the 2011 Nisour Square massacre in Iraq, has been training Brazilian security forces in North Carolina for the 2014 World Cup.

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Sanctions Effect: Russia to Change Its Economic Partners…For the Better
Irina Sukhoparova – Russia Today, 24 Mar 2014

Western sanctions might push Russia to deepen cooperation with BRICS states, in particular, to strengthen its ties with China, which will possibly turn out to be a big catastrophe for the US and the EU some time later.

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Tunisia: A Success Story?
Irina Sukhoparova – Russia Today, 3 Feb 2014

3 Feb 2014 – Three years to the day since the ex-president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia, the country is doing much better than others that witnessed an Arab awakening in 2011, providing some hope for people in the Middle East and North Africa.

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NBA Player Jason Collins Broke Ground by Coming Out—Now He’s Being Dismissed as a Distraction
Dave Zirin – The Nation, 11 Nov 2013

Here is a man who made history last spring by becoming the first active player to come out of the closet and told the world that he was gay. He was praised by teammates, league officials, presidents and kings (OK, Bernard King). But now just for being himself, after a career as the epitome of a “team player”, he has been labeled “a distraction” and finds himself on the outside looking in.

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Kenya: Push to Meet 2013 Male Circumcision Targets
UN IRIN – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Nov 2012

With just over one year left to achieve its target of having some 1.1 million men circumcised as part of HIV-prevention efforts, Kenyan male circumcision programmes are ramping up efforts to bring more men into clinics, compensating them for their time and encouraging them to bring friends in for the procedure.

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In-Depth: Top 10 Neglected Refugee Crises
UN-IRIN, ReliefWeb – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Nov 2012

Below, IRIN takes a look at some of the most neglected refugee and displacement crises around the world.

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Palestinian Soccer Player Mahmoud Sarsak Won’t Play FC Barcelona’s Game
Dave Zirin – The Nation, 8 Oct 2012

Mahmoud Sarsak is the Palestinian national team soccer player jailed for three years without charges by the Israeli government. He refused an invitation sent by FC Barcelona to attend its Clasico [7 Oct 2012] against Real Madrid. Barcelona wants him there to mute planned protests against the presence of another invitee, former Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. “His slogan is the gun, whereas mine is football, whose message is love and peace. For this reason I will refuse.”

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Chris Kluwe and the Greatest Political Statement by Any Athlete Ever
Dave Zirin – The Nation, 17 Sep 2012

For the first time in football history, a punter is truly leading the way. Thank you Chis Kluwe, for the greatest political statement made by any athlete in decades. The fact that it happens to be about LGBT rights only shows how far we’ve traveled, in the streets and in the locker rooms.

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NBC’s ‘Stars Earn Stripes’ Continues an Inglorious Tradition of Glorifying War
Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Shirin Ebadi, José Ramos-Horta, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Betty Williams – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

As Nobel Peace Prize laureates, we call on NBC to cancel this reality TV show that likens military combat to Olympic athletics.

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The Death of Socrates: Celebrating a Sports/Politics Soccer Legend
Dave Zirin and Zach Zill – The Nation, 19 Dec 2011

International soccer lost a hero last weekend [4 Dec 2011] when Socrates, the masterful Brazilian midfielder who captained Brazil’s famed 1982 World Cup squad, died from an intestinal infection at age 57. Socrates’ interests, talents, and achievements were staggering. He was a medical doctor, a musician, an author and news columnist, a political activist, and a TV pundit. Somewhere in all of this, he managed not only to lead what may have been the most artful team to ever grace the pitch, but also to fearlessly challenge the decades-long military dictatorship that ruled Brazil.

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The World Joe Pa Made
Dave Zirin – Al Jazeera, 28 Nov 2011

Sympathies for Joe Paterno, former Penn State coach, are blinded by the real issue of overlooking child abuse. I don’t doubt the emotions in Happy Valley are genuine. I don’t doubt the searing shock and pain that must be coursing through campus. But this is the pain of self-pity not reflection. It’s the pain of the exposed not the penitent. Words ring as false as the apologists for the Vatican, Wall Street, the military command at Abu Ghraib and any industry deemed “too big to fail”.

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Two Scandals, One Connection: The FBI link between Penn State and UC Davis
Dave Zirin – The Nation, 28 Nov 2011

Over the last month, we’ve seen Penn State University President Graham Spanier dismissed from his duties and we’ve seen UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi pushed to the brink of resignation. Spanier was jettisoned because of what appears to be a systematic cover-up of assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s serial child rape. Katehi has faced calls to resign after the she sent campus police to blast pepper spray in the faces of her peaceably assembled students, an act for which she claims “full responsibility.” In 2010, Spanier chose Katehi to join an elite team of twenty college presidents on what’s called the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, which “promotes discussion and outreach between research universities and the FBI.”

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Intricacies of Bahrain’s Shia-Sunni Divide
Shirin Sadeghi – Al Jazeera, 5 Sep 2011

In Bahrain, the problem is colonialism, not sectarianism. Bahrain [is] a geostrategically important island nation right in the middle of the Persian Gulf where the largest base for the US Navy exists, outside of the US itself. Bahrain, like so many other countries in the region and in the world, is just another victim of British mapmaking, American business interests and the seedy intersection of these forces.

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How Best to Remove Guns from Post-Conflict Zones?
IRIN News (UN) – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Aug 2011

Cash for guns or buy-back programmes in post-conflict states have fallen out of favour as a method of ridding a society of weapons, and have been replaced by often elaborate schemes designed to remove money from the equation, but the debate continues as to the best way forward.

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DRC: Children Still in Prison despite Law
IRIN News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jul 2011

The law, which came into effect in January 2009, replaced a 1950 colonial law on juvenile delinquency that set the age of criminal responsibility at 16, leading to a number of severe penalties against children, including life imprisonment and the death sentence.

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Mauritania: Activists’ Trial Puts Spotlight on Anti-Slavery Law
IRIN News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Jan 2011

Six anti-slavery activists are in prison in Mauritania in a case rights experts say points to the challenges of ensuring a 2007 law criminalizing slavery is more than just words on paper.

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Liberia: Searching For Solutions to Land Disputes
IRIN (*) – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Nov 2010

Having served as the launch-pad for the insurgency led by former President Charles Taylor in December 1989, Nimba was caught up repeatedly in the 14-year conflict that followed. Thousands fled, many into neighbouring Guinea, prompting a series of land and property transfers, forced and voluntary, legal and illegal. The reintegration of returning communities has been complicated by continuing confusion over who rightfully owns what.

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Mps Push for Continent-Wide Ban on Female Genital Mutilation
UN IRIN-TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 May 2010

Parliamentarians from all over Africa are pushing for a continent-wide ban on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and are calling on the UN to pass a General Assembly resolution appealing for a global FGM/C ban, as it violates human rights, they say.

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LET CASTER RUN!
Dave Zirin and Sherry Wolf – Znet, 12 Apr 2010

Caster Semenya showed up to race in Stellenbosch, South Africa, this week and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) wouldn’t let her run. Before we get into the specifics, let’s take a moment to appreciate the courage involved in her simple desire to compete.

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HOWARD ZINN: THE HISTORIAN WHO MADE HISTORY
Dave Zirin – The Nation, 28 Jan 2010

Howard Zinn, my hero, teacher, and friend died of a heart attack on Wednesday at the age of 87. With his death, we lose a man who did nothing less than rewrite the narrative of the United States. We lose a historian who also made history. Anyone who believes that the United States is immune […]

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SOMALIA: WHO IS FIGHTING WHOM?
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 10 Sep 2009

Somalia has experienced conflict since 1991 when the late President Mohamed Siad Barre’s government was overthrown by opposition forces. Up to 2006, the fighting was largely between clan-based warlords clashing over territory and resources. In the process, one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world was created. In 2006, Islamic groups in Mogadishu fought […]

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