Articles by M

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Johnson & Johnson Knew about Carcinogens in Baby Powder for Decades: Reuters
Jessica M. Goldstein | ThinkProgress – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

15 Dec 2018 – Was there a carcinogen in the baby powder, all this time? The company reportedly has known about the asbestos in its signature product since the early 1970s.

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Stairway to Heaven (Music Video of the Week)
TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

Flashmob – Led Zeppelin Immortal Forever!

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(Castellano) En defensa del individuo humano
Robert Burrowes, Ph.D. | Pressenza – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

Trágicamente, es la más sagrada de las instituciones -la escuela- que yo llamo “prisión para niños”, donde se produce gran parte del daño. Diseñada para aterrorizar a los niños para que obedezcan y se conformen, sobre la base de que “una sola talla sirve para todos”, la escuela destruye las capacidades físicas, sensoriales, intelectuales y emocionales de los niños, produciendo individuos con una capacidad casi nula de sentir algo profundo, pensar creativamente y comportarse poderosamente con integridad.

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The Kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

16 Dec 2018 – Just as the United States once declared its independence from Britain, so Europe and the remainder of the world ought to declare independence from the United States. Clearly, insane arrogance, hubris, contempt for international law, racism and many of the aspects of fascism do not deserve to be blindly followed. Whatever moral authority the USA may once have had has evaporated in a seemingly endless series of aggressive foreign wars and drone killings.

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Thomas Piketty’s Proposal to Remake Europe: Three Comments and a Suggestion
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

13 Dec 2018 – In the midst of more than one crisis, a stellar group of left-leaning intellectuals led by Thomas Piketty has written a proposal to remake Europe. It includes a manifesto, a treaty establishing what would amount to a new European legislature, and a budget. As its authors say, the greatest merit of their proposal is that it exists. Everyone is invited to comment on it and to suggest improvements. Taking them at their word, here are three comments and one suggestion.

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Of Cockroaches and Humans
Roberto Savio | IPS - Human Wrongs Watch, 17 Dec 2018

16 Dec 2018 – Rita Levi-Montalcini, the Italian Nobel laureate honoured for her work in neurobiology, once gave a splendid conference with the title “The imperfect brain”. There she explained that man has a brain that is not used completely, while the reverse is true for the cockroach.

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US Genocide Resolution Welcome, but Rohingya Need More
Maung Zarni | Anadolu Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

US will not intercede, and Myanmar’s neighbors see it through economic lens, so international coalition for Rohingya needed.

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A Message to Today’s Young People: Put an End to the Nuclear Weapons Era
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

Nuclear weapons were created to kill indiscriminately. That means women, men, children – everyone. Even during war, under the rules of international law, that kind of mass killing is illegal. It is also immoral.

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On the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

10 Dec 2018 – This Declaration was a notable step in the direction of asserting that persons by virtue of their humanness are entitled to protection in the exercise of a broad spectrum of rights, and hence, that sovereignty is subject to certain constraining limitations. Much progress has been made since 1948, although we live in a period of mounting pressure on human rights deriving from a surge of right-wing populism combined with the effects of an insufficiently regulated capitalism.

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Ludwig van Beethoven (17 Dec 1770 – 26 Mar1827)
Biography – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

Ludwig van Beethoven was a deaf German composer and the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. He was baptized on Dec 17, 1770 in Bonn, Holy Roman Empire. He was an innovator, widening the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto and quartet, and combining vocals and instruments in a new way. His personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life, when he was quite unable to hear.

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Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves? Leo Tolstoy on Why We Drink
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

The cause of the world-wide consumption of hashish, opium, wine, and tobacco, lies not in the taste, nor in any pleasure, recreation, or mirth they afford, but simply in man’s need to hide from himself the demands of conscience. When a man is sober he is ashamed of what seems all right when he is drunk. In these words we have the essential underlying cause prompting men to resort to stupefiers.

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At 70: A Few Problems with the Human Rights Concept
Jan Oberg | The Transnational – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

10 Dec 2018 – The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70 today. Thirty fine demands that, if you read them today, leaves a lot to be desired in all four corners of the world, including the Western. While people struggle to get them implemented and struggle against those who violate them, it may also be relevant to discuss the concept as such at an occasion such as this.

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(Português) Todos p’ra Rotunda
Paulo Correia | Ideia Perigosa – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

9 dez 2018 – Povos da Europa, ergam-se e ajudem-nos! O movimento francês dos « Gilets Jaunes », está a tentar ser descrito pelos meios de comunicação, controlados pelo poder neo-liberal, como um movimento social desordenado, sem voz clara, animado por um bando de extremistas. Mas o que realmente acontece é que, este movimento não é social, mas sim de insurreição. Os média ficaram confusos com o fenómeno e já não sabem como tratar o assunto. Lutemos pelos nossos direitos, por uma vida digna e contra as guerras, pois caso contrário seremos obrigados a combater numa, sabe-se lá porquê! Gilets Jaunes, Coletes Amarelos, Yellow Vests, Chalecos Amarillos – Todos p’ra rotunda!

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Full Text of Alfred Nobel’s Will
The Nobel Prize – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

Paris, 27 Nov 1895 – I, the undersigned, Alfred Bernhard Nobel, after mature deliberation, hereby declare the following to be my last will and testament with regard to such property as I may leave upon my death:

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Climate Change Performance Index 2019
Germanwatch, et al. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an instrument designed to enhance transparency in international climate politics. Its aim is to put political and social pressure on those countries that have, until now, failed to take ambitious action on climate protection, and to highlight those countries with best practice climate policies.

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In Defense of the Human Individual
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

12 Dec 2018 – Tragically, it is that most hallowed of institutions – school – which I call ‘prison for children’ where much of the damage is done. Designed to terrorize children into obedience and conformity on the basis that ‘one size fits all’, school destroys the physical, sensory, intellectual and emotional capacities of children churning out individuals with near-zero capacity to feel anything profound, think creatively and behave powerfully with integrity.

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Employee Stock Ownership Plan
Stephanie Geller | The Next System Project – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) enables full or partial ownership of a business by its employees through a pension plan or trust.

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Global Arms Industry: US Companies Dominate the Top 100
SIPRI-Stockholm International Peace Research Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

10 Dec 2018 – Sales of arms and military services by the world’s largest arms-producing and military services companies totalled $398.2 billion in 2017, according to new international arms industry data released today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

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China’s “Golem Babies”: There Is another Agenda
F. William Engdahl | Journal NEO – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

6 Dec 2018 – Gene Editing and “Genetically Modified Humans”: Just a few engineered organisms could irrevocably alter an ecosystem.

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Institutional and Cultural Inertia
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

Politeness requires that we do not talk about issues that might be contrary to another person’s beliefs. Thus polite conversation is dominated by trivia, entertainment, sports, the weather, gossip, food, and so on. Worries about the distant future , the danger of nuclear war, the danger of uncontrollable climate change, or the danger of widespread famine seldom appear in conversations at the dinner table, over coffee or at the pub. In conversations between polite people, the situation is exactly the same as in the mass media.

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(Português) Mais de 115 Milhões de Animais São Usados como Cobaias a Cada Ano
David Arioch | Vegazeta – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

“Frequentemente, os sintomas e respostas aos tratamentos potenciais observados em outras espécies são diferentes daqueles de pacientes humanos”.

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Meet Antonio C. S. Rosa, Pioneer in Peace Journalism – Be the Change: Enter Peace Journalism (Parts 1 & 2)
Sebastian Eck, Antonio C. S. Rosa | Galtung Institut – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

Introducing the TMS editor: Peace Journalism, a new paradigm for journalists covering conflict situations.

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Biological Annihilation: A Planet in Loss Mode
Subhankar Banerjee - TomDispatch, 17 Dec 2018

11 Dec 2018 – If you’ve been paying attention to what’s happening to the nonhuman life forms with which we share this planet, you’ve likely heard the term “the Sixth Extinction.” If not, look it up. After all, a superb environmental reporter, Elizabeth Kolbert, has already gotten a Pulitzer Prize for writing a book with that title.

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Steps toward Governance in Yemen
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

14 Dec 2018 – Two useful steps were taken on the long road toward relative peaceful governance in Yemen. The first need of the country is an end the Saudi-led aggression and the civil war conditions.

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Asthma Attacks
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

A man organized a blind date for his friend. His friend was excited, but also a little worried and asked, “What shall I do if I really don’t like the girl?

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(Português) Relembre grifes e estilistas que abandonaram produtos de origem animal em 2018
Julia Cortezia- ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais, 17 Dec 2018

15 dez 2018 – Grandes marcas abandonaram peles e pelos em suas futuras coleções em 2018, marcando um grande avanço para a causa animal.

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Why It’s so Hard for Most Countries to Be Economically Independent from the West—Look No Further than Brazil
Justin Podur | Independent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

Western countries insist both on “free trade” with poor countries and farm subsidies for themselves.

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Nourishing Communities
Prof. George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

There are many guidelines for dealing with specific nutrition problems. Often treatments are delivered by specialists through community-based nutrition programs. Some are initiated and designed by outside experts and are community-based only in terms of their geographic location. Some community-based programs involve local people in implementation. In some cases, nutrition programs are initiated and carried out by people in the local community. It is important to recognize that the need for such interventions is likely to be far lower when the community itself is healthy.

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The Foolishness of Anti-Globalism
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

15 Dec 2018 – An anti-globalist wave is breaking out around the world. This is perhaps one of the most regressive and absurd things in the world today. Why is this a senseless blunder? Because it contravenes the logic of an uncontrollable historical process. We have reached a new phase in the history of the Earth and Humanity.

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William Blum (6 Mar 1933 – 9 Dec 2018), Renowned U.S. Foreign Policy Critic, Dead at 85
Chris Agee and Louis Wolf – CovertAction Magazine, 17 Dec 2018

William Blum died in Virginia early this morning on December 9, 2018 after falling in his Washington D.C. apartment and sustaining serious wounds 65 days ago. Blum left the State Department in 1967 and became a founder and editor of the Washington Free Press, the first “alternative” newspaper in the capital. In 1969, he wrote and published an exposé of the CIA in which were revealed the names and addresses of more than 200 CIA employees.

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Governments Adopt UN Global Migration Pact to Help ‘Prevent Suffering and Chaos’
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

The Global Compact for Migration was adopted on Monday [10 Dec] by leading representatives from 164 Governments at an international conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, in an historic move described by UN Chief António Guterres as the creation of a “roadmap to prevent suffering and chaos”.

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Merck & Company and Big Pharma’s Nefarious Search for Profits
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

An Example of how a Small-Town German Apothecary Shop Morphed into a Greedy Multinational Corporation that Disregards Ethical Principles

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Meanwhile in Burma/Bangladesh
Stephen – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

Reality sets in…

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The Turn towards a Global Police State is Structurally Rooted in Capitalism’s Achilles Heel
William I. Robinson | Films for Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

12 Dec 2018 – A global police state is emerging as capitalism descends into an unprecedented crisis, given the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration, and the sheer scale of the means of violence deployed around the world. “Global police state” refers to three interrelated developments:

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Washington Using Legal Cover to Conceal Economic Banditry
Finian Cunningham - RT, 17 Dec 2018

12 Dec 2018 – The blatant arrest of a Chinese telecoms executive in Canada on behalf of the US is shrouded in obscure legalistic claims. But the bottom line is clear; the US is abusing the legal process to pursue lawless economic interests. Increasingly in the eyes of the world, it is a renegade state which absurdly justifies its criminality with lofty claims of rule of law.

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Systemic Function of Highly Unrepresentative Minorities
Anthony Judge – Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

8 Dec 2018 – Produced on the occasion of the unexpected riots of the Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) throughout France, symbolically paralleled by a UN Climate Change Summit to implement the Paris Agreement. – Recognizing the Role of the “Dark Riders” of Social Change

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(Português) Esperança: Indignação e Coragem
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

3 dez 2018 – Vivemos no Brasil nos últimos dois anos dois grandes golpes: o primeiro, o impeachment e a deposição de Dilma Rousseff e neste ano de 2018 a ascensão da extrema-direita com a eleição de Jair Bolosonário a presidente do Brasil. Não foi Bolsonaro que ganhou. Foi o PT que perdeu e com ele o Brasil.

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Never Again, and Again: Can the World Stop Genocide?
The Economist – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

As the UN convention against genocide turns 70 on 9 Dec, its failures are tragically apparent… Democracy cannot be built on the bones of those who are butchered.

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From Marc Lamont Hill to the Quakers, No Criticism of Israel Is Allowed
Jonathan Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

7 Dec 2018 – The reactions to Marc Lamont Hill, the Quakers and Airbnb reveal that in practice there is no criticism of Israel that will be treated as legitimate – and that when it comes to the suffering of Palestinians, the only acceptable stance is silence.

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China – A New Philosophy of Economics
Peter Koenig | Journal NEO – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

China’s economic philosophy is a far cry from that of the west.

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America’s Permanent-War Complex
Gareth Porter | The American Conservative - TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

Nov/Dec 2018 Issue – Eisenhower’s worst nightmare has come true, as defense mega-contractors climb into the cockpit to ensure we stay overextended. The privatization of military and intelligence institutions began even before the end of the Cold War. It is a system of war that powerful arms contractors and their bureaucratic allies may have the ability to maintain indefinitely.

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(Castellano) El engaño humano y nuestra destrucción de la biósfera: ¡Ni siquiera lo estamos intentando!
Robert Burrowes, Ph.D. | Pressenza – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

3 diciembre 2018 – ¿Ha escuchado la expresión “cambio climático”? Esa encantadora expresión que sugiere unas vacaciones en un lugar con un clima más agradable… La extinción nos llama. La elección es suya.

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Thousands of Myanmar Women Forced into Marriages in China
Deutsche Welle – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

7 Dec 2018 – Over 7,000 Myanmar women and girls have been sent to China and forced into marriage and childbirth. The crisis is being fueled by problems on both sides of the border.

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Migrants: A UN Conference Undermined by 11th Hour Withdrawals
Thalif Deen | IPS News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

7 Dec 2018 – When the long-awaited UN conference focusing on the rights and safety of migrants and refugees takes off in Morocco [10-14 Dec], it will be a rare, if not an unprecedented meeting, for one reason: the withdrawal of at least seven member states almost at the 59th minute of the eleventh hour.

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(Français) Les Gilets jaunes, révélateur d’un modèle de société en crise
Alex Anfruns | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

6 Déc 2018 – Il est temps de faire un premier bilan et de revenir sur les dessous de cette affaire, à la croisée des enjeux sur le modèle énergétique, l’urgence sociale, le défi climatique ainsi que la géopolitique mondiale.

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The Big Capital Formula: µ – Φ = Fascism
Paulo Correia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

µ – φ = fascism : This is the big capital formula, applied in France, the country of the people that found a way to take the Bastille, write the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights – 1789 – and whose motto is « Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité » (“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”).

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New Report Provides First Comprehensive Legal Analysis of the Role of Gender in Genocide
Sareta Ashraph & Liz Olson | Global Justice Center – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

7 Dec 2018 – Today, the Global Justice Center released the first comprehensive legal analysis of the gender-based crimes of genocide. Over the past four years, the world has witnessed at least two genocidal campaigns—against the Yazidis in Iraq and against the Rohingya in Myanmar. Widespread sexual and gender-based violence was central to both, as in the genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Guatemala. The new report, Beyond Killing, details the role that gender plays in the commission of genocide and the role it must therefore play in efforts to prevent and punish it.

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Baalak Trust — Rehabilitating Lost Children
Dr. Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

Where do these lost children go? Many of them just roam around aimlessly, lonely, hungry not knowing what to do, where to go. Often they walk up to a railway station or a bus stand where there are large crowds of people and where the lost child will not be pushed away or asked to leave. And where do such children land? In a small factory, or a restaurant to work as child labour, or forced to beg on the streets, or pushed into a brothel if the child is female.

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Responding to the Unique Challenge of Nuclear Weapons
Jonathan Granoff | Parliament of the World’s Religions – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

3 Dec 2018 – “Somehow our politicians and military generals have convinced themselves that nuclear deterrence can safely go on forever. The recent statement from the Parliament of the World’s Religions to eliminate nukes puts the “mutual deterrence” rationalization for security to rest.” — Roger Kotila, President, Democratic World Federalists

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DUDH, dude!
Ravi Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

Today 10 December is United Nations Day of the Declaration of Human Rights. In French it is called DUDH (Declaration Universal de Droits Humain)

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From Central America to Syria: the Conspiracy against Refugees
Ramzy Baroud | Politics for the People – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

5 Dec 2018 – Watching the ongoing debate between liberal and right-wing pundits on US mainstream media, one rarely gets the impression that Washington is responsible for the unfolding chaotic situation in Central America. In fact, no other country is as accountable as the United States for the ongoing chaos and resulting refugee crisis.

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Researcher Claims CRISPR-edited Twins Are Born – How Will Science Respond?
Dimitri Perrin and Gaetan Burgio – The Conversation, 10 Dec 2018

27 Nov 2018 – Gene editing technology is revolutionising biology – and now twin human baby girls may be a living part of this story. Today several media outlets report that a team of scientists in China has used CRISPR to modify the DNA of healthy human embryos to genetically “vaccinate” against HIV infection. This is the first reported case of humans born with CRISPR-modifed DNA.

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Why the Moral Argument for Nonviolence Matters
Kazu Haga | Waging Nonviolence – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

The philosophy of nonviolence and the moral question of violence are often considered too messy or complicated, even by those who do believe it to be a principle. The civil rights movement was led largely by leaders who believed in nonviolence as a moral imperative. It was not only the most effective thing, but also the ‘right’ thing.

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We Need to Talk about Racism in the Aid Sector
Tindyebwa Agaba and Anonymous | Shine A Light – Open Democracy, 10 Dec 2018

Casual racism, implicit bias and jobs offered over beer. Two humanitarian workers reveal the ugly side of the international aid sector.

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Humans
Steve Cutts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

An Animated History of Taker Culture in 4 Minutes

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UNGA President Launches New Initiative to Purge Plastics and Purify Oceans
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

The President of the UN General Assembly launched a new global call to action on Tuesday [4 Dec] to help end the scourge of plastic pollution in the ocean.

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G20: You Can Smell Tear Gas in the Streets as the Oil Industry Squabbles
Vijay Prashad | Independent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

4 Dec 2018 – Last week, two important meetings took place—one, in Buenos Aires, of the G20 nations, and two, in Vienna, of the OPEC. The two meetings did not produce any resolution to the major economic challenges in the world. But they did soothe the nerves of financial markets… From the air-conditioned rooms of the oligarchy, we go to the tear gas of the streets.

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Limits of Dissent – Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian
Editorial | Media Lens – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

6 Dec 2018 – Even a comparatively honest, Chomskyite journalist like Greenwald is either not willing or not able to tell the whole truth about a paper that has done enormous harm in promoting Perpetual War with endless nonsense about ‘our’ supposed ‘responsibility to protect’ civilians in oil-rich countries like Iraq and Libya. The Guardian has, at last, begun responding to the climate extinction crisis, but it has long downplayed the gravity of the crisis and the truth of corporate denialism, while promoting high status consumerism and fossil fuel advertising.

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(Português) “É preciso ter a coragem de assumir o sofrimento que causamos aos animais”
Jacinto Antón - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais, 10 Dec 2018

Filósofa francesa Corine Pelluchon defende que o maltrato aos animais possa ser um sinal precursor da violência contra os seres humanos, especialmente contra os mais frágeis.

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‘There Are No People’: China’s Crackdown in the Uyghur Heartland
Ann Scott Tyson – The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Dec 2018

Ann Scott Tyson found reporting especially challenging in the western region of Xinjiang, where she went to witness the impact of China’s forced ‘reeducation’ of its Uyghur minority. But that work produced a rare and nuanced look at the project’s effect.

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Going to the Gym Is a Sign of Being Gay, Says Malaysian Newspaper
RT – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

A Malaysian newspaper has published a gay-spotter’s checklist. It includes things like being a gym member or having a beard as signs of male homosexuality. Hugging, holding hands, being alone and talking disparagingly about men, meanwhile, are a sure-fire way of telling someone is a lesbian, according to the guide.

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Norms, Analysis, Action: Our Tasks
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

9 December was the 70th anniversary of the 1948 Genocide Convention written in light of the events of WWII; the prevention of Genocide has become a world norm. 10 December is the 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has also become a world norm. However, we know that many human rights norms are not being reached and in some cases are deliberately violated. Thus, our task today is to reflect on avenues of action.

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The Opposite of Evil Is No Longer Goodness
Frances Moore Lappé – Common Dreams, 10 Dec 2018

3 Dec 2018 – My point is simple. It’s now time to focus on courage. Goodness without courage is no longer good enough.

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On the DIGNIprominence of Applied Peace Linguistics
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

Among the branches of Applied Linguistics, Peace Linguistics stands out
because much deeper goals a peace linguist locally and globally carries out

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(Português) Dezembro é o mês mais violento para os animais
David Arioch | Vegazeta – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

Com a chegada do Natal, mais do que nunca, bebês, pais e mães de outras espécies são servidos sobre uma mesa.

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A World Adrift
José Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Laureate | Human Wrongs Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

29 Nov 2018 – As I stared at the picture of seven-year-old Amal Hussain dying of hunger I couldn’t contain my anguish, tears flooding my eyes. Some hours earlier I was wining and dining with friends whom I told about my revulsion at the world’s indifference at the Yemen tragedy, at the hypocrites of the West who shamelessly crawl at the feet of the butcher of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman.

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Here’s Facebook’s Former “Privacy Sherpa” Discussing How to Harm Your Facebook Privacy
Sam Biddle – The Intercept, 10 Dec 2018

6 Dec 2018 – In a chat seized by U.K. authorities, privacy officer Yul Kwon discussed how Facebook planned to circumvent an Android privacy dialog.

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Seeing Yemen from Jeju
Kathy Kelly – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

4 Dec 2018 – Jeju, a visa-free port, has been an entry point for close to 500 Yemenis who have traveled nearly 5000 miles in search of safety. Traumatized by consistent bombing, threats of imprisonment and torture, and the horrors of starvation, recent migrants to South Korea, including children, yearn for refuge.

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Homeland Security Will Let Computers Predict Who Might Be a Terrorist on Your Plane — Just Don’t Ask How It Works
Sam Biddle – The Intercept, 10 Dec 2018

3 Dec 2018 – The software, developed under contract, will be given to foreign governments. It is already being tested.

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Why We Are Not Ready for Genetically Designed Babies
Françoise Baylis, Graham Dellaire and Landon J Getz – The Conversation, 10 Dec 2018

27 Nov 2018 – Chinese researcher, Jainkui He claims to have created the world’s first genome-edited twins. Such action would pose unknown risks to the lives of these children and to humanity as a whole.

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Summer of ’42 (Music Video of the Week)
Peter Nero – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

Peter Nero plays his million selling Summer of ’42 in concert.

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Unlike a Globalized Food System, Local Food Won’t Destroy the Environment
Helena Norberg-Hodge | Independent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

The global food system is inefficient, illogical and damaging to the environment. In contrast, small-scale local farming offers both economic and food security with several net benefits to the environment and life on the planet.

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Don’t Let [Nobel Peace Laureate] Aung San Suu Kyi Off the Hook for Her Role in the Myanmar Genocide
Khin Mai Aung | Lion’s Roar – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

6 Dec 2018 – Last week, a prominent Buddhist teacher defended Aung San Suu Kyi, the Buddhist Nobel Peace Prize laureate, against criticism that she is party to genocide. Why that defense doesn’t hold up. Suu Kyi lived in Bhutan where her late husband was working as the English tutor for the Bhutanese royal family. This lama moves in that ruling class circle.

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How Big Brother Grips Americans’ Minds to Support Invasions
Eric Zuesse | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

U.S. the World’s Invasion Nation

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Global Coalition of Scholars Calls for Added Pressure on China over Uygur Internment Camps in Xinjiang
Owen Churchill – China Morning Post, 10 Dec 2018

• A statement delivered on behalf of 278 academics from 26 countries called for the release of detainees and an end to China’s campaign against Muslim minorities
• The group also included an appeal to countries engaged in China’s Belt and Road Initiative

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Sometimes a Pair of Pants Can Give You Vertigo
Edward Curtin – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

6 Dec 2018 – Between my desire for a changed world and the world that seemed to change only for the worse lay the desolation Berger identified. Many people feel it, I know, especially dissidents who fight in various ways against the powerful. But we prefer not to go there, to see what it consists of and how we may transmute it into acts and words that might make a difference.

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The Joke Is on Us
Daily Ros – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

Reality of Perception

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Time Is Running Out on Climate Change, but Geoengineering Has Dangers of Its Own
Catriona McKinnon – The Conversation, 10 Dec 2018

3 Dec 2018 – The realities of climate change look bleak, but is relying on a climate engineering project like solar radiation management the answer?

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Behind the US Attack on Chinese Smartphones
Manlio Dinucci – Global Research, 10 Dec 2018

5 Dec 2018 – After having imposed heavy taxes on Chinese merchandise President Trump accepted a “truce” mainly because the US economy has been struck by Chinese retaliation. While China is building dams, railways and bridges, useful not only for its commercial network, but also for the development of the countries concerned, in the US wars, dams, railways and bridges are the first targets to be destroyed.

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India’s Agrarian Crisis: Father of Green Revolution Rejects GM Crops
Colin Todhunter | Asia Pacific Research – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

2 Dec 2018 – “Genetically Modified cotton in India is a failure. India should reject GM mustard. GM agriculture poses risks and is unsustainable. Regulatory bodies are dogged by incompetency and conflicts of interest. GM crops should therefore be banned.”
— M.S. Swaminathan, renowned agricultural scientist/geneticist and the father of the Green Revolution in India

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Sheikh Sayakh Will Go to Prison, the Disgrace to His Judges
Amos Gvirtz – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

5 Dec 2018 – Sheikh Sayakh is about to be imprisoned for not accepting the robbery of his lands and the expulsion of his village members by the state of Israel that expelled them in 1952. He returned to his land and reconstructed it. The state demolished the village 130 times trying to expel Sheikh Sayakh and his people from the village. It has now charged and convicted him for invading the very lands it robbed from him.

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(Português) A Fórmula do Fascismo
Paulo Correia | Ideia Perigosa – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

18 Nov 2018 – µ – φ = fascismo : A fórmula fundamental do grande capital, aplicada à política de França, a terra da tomada da Bastilha, da Declaração dos Direitos do Homem e do Cidadão e da divisa « Liberté Égalité Fraternité ». Micron (µ) foi eleito com o slogan « nem de esquerda, nem de direita ». Viu-se no que deu.

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John Scales Avery Interviews David Krieger from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

“My understanding is that a nuclear war would largely destroy the ozone layer allowing extreme levels of ultraviolet radiation. Additionally, a nuclear war would dramatically lower temperatures, possibly throwing the planet into a new Ice Age. Atmospheric scientists tell us that even a “small” nuclear war between India and Pakistan in which each side used 50 nuclear weapons would block sunlight, shorten growing seasons, causing mass starvation and two billion human deaths.”

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Rationale for an Alternative to the UN Security Council
David Adams | Transition to a Culture of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

3 Dec 2018 – In last month’s blog, I returned to a previous theme of an Alternative UN Security Council. It has been pointed out to me that I did not provide a very explicit rationale about this proposal and why it should be given priority. So let me try to do that now in terms of the following strategy and tactics involved.

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The Significance of Human Duties and Responsibilities
Chandra Muzaffar – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

As we observe the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UNGA on the 10th of December 1948, it is imperative that we remind ourselves of the vital importance of Human Duties and Responsibilities in the life of a society. There is a profound link between rights, on the one hand, and duties and responsibilities, on the other. It is a link that is acknowledged in almost every religious philosophy.

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We All Buy Slave-Made Products: Here’s How We Avoid Feeling Guilty
Michal Carrington, Andreas Chatzidakis and Deirdre Shaw – The Conversation, 10 Dec 2018

3 Dec 2018 – Hidden slavery is a growing global problem but we continue to turn a blind eye and embrace a seemingly insatiable demand for fast, cheap goods and services.

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Broader Global Coalition Can Solve Rohingya Issue
Sorwar Alam | Anadolu Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

9 Dec 2018 – Returning Rohingya refugees is like sending Holocaust survivors to gas chambers, says Myanmar rights activist Maung Zarni.

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Truth, Justice, and Public Good: Simone Weil on Political Manipulation, the Dangers of “For” and “Against,” and How to Save Thinking from Opinion
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Dec 2018

“True attention is a state so difficult for any human creature, so violent, that any emotional disturbance can derail it. Therefore, one must always endeavour strenuously to protect one’s inner faculty of judgment against the turmoil of personal hopes and fears.”

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Genome-Edited Baby Claim Provokes International Outcry
David Cyranoski & Heidi Ledford | Nature – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

26 Nov 2018 – He Jiankui, a genome-editing researcher at the Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, says that he impregnated a woman with embryos that had been edited to disable the genetic pathway HIV uses to infect cells. The announcement has provoked shock and outrage among scientists around the world.

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Chinese Researcher Claims First Gene-Edited Babies
Marilynn Marchione | AP – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

26 Nov 2018 — A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life. If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.

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‘It Is Time for Progressives of the World to Unite’: Sanders-Varoufakis Issue Open Call for New Global Movement
Common Dreams – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

30 Nov 2018 – With fascist movements on the rise and controlling the levers of power in the USA and across the world, the U.S.-based Sanders Institute and Europe’s DiEM25—the groups founded by Jane Sanders and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, respectively—announced the launch of Progressive International today with the goal of beating back rightwing forces with an organized “grassroots movement for global justice.”

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19 of 20 World Leaders Just Pledged to Fight Climate Change-Trump Was the Lone Holdout
Rebecca Leber – Mother Jones, 3 Dec 2018

1 Dec 2018 – It is telling that on two of the most contentious topics at the Buenos Aires Group of 20 meeting, the USA eventually joined 19 other world leaders on trade, but when it comes to climate change, President Donald Trump remained firmly alone: “The United States reiterates its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.”

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The Uighurs and China’s Long History of Trouble with Islam
Ian Johnson | The New York Review of Books – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

23 Nov 2018 – While cloaked in the war on terrorism, many of the state’s actions are aimed at Islam itself. This has culminated in the reintroduction of a Mao-era measure: re-education camps. Then, the idea was to punish people who had the wrong class background; now, it is Muslims who have not assimilated enough. At first, reports of this seemed like an impossibility in the twenty-first century. Recently, though, the state has admitted they exist, saying they are needed to control extremism.

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Big Pharma Greed and Bad Government Policy Are Keeping the World from Ending AIDS
Vijay Prashad | Independent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

December 1 marks the 30th World AIDS Day—and despite leaps forward in medicine and awareness in affluent parts of the world, it’s still a big problem elsewhere.

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Academic Withdraws from China-Backed Event for Uyghurs
Sena Guler | Anadolu Agency [Turkey] – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

1 Dec 2018 – Human rights activist and intellectual Maung Zarni said he withdrew from a Beijing-sponsored forum in London to protest the detention of a million Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang and until the country reverses its ‘troubling path.’

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The G20 Meeting and U.S./Russia Relations
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

2 Dec 2018 – What follows are my responses to questions addressed to me by Sputnik News Agency in Moscow. Although the focus was on the ongoing G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, the real concern was the future of U.S./Russia relations and how these relations should be managed to avoid arms races, geopolitical rivalry, and ideological tensions.

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Why Is Canada Punishing This Brave Woman?
Rick Sterling – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

The Canadian government forced Damian’s mother, Christianne Boudreau, to surrender her Canadian passport. This article examines the strange circumstances and seeming irrationality. Unlike her son, who had been indoctrinated then recruited to join a terrorist group, Christianne Boudreau has worked with other parents internationally to create and promote educational programs to counter extremism. She converted her grief at the loss of Damian to help educate others how to prevent the same thing happening again.

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Israel Seizes More Land Speeding Division of Occupied Palestine
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

28 Nov 2018 – Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked confirmed today during an interview that the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in occupied Palestine will be demolished very soon. The village is situated a few kilometers from the occupied city of East Jerusalem, between two major illegal Israeli settlements, namely Ma’ale Adumim and Kfar Adumim.

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US Mass Mobilizations: Wars and Financial Plunder
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Dec 2018

25 Nov 2018 – This paper will begin by discussing the major wars of our time, namely the two US invasions of Iraq. We will proceed to analyze the nature of the popular response and the political consequences. In the second section we will discuss the economic crises of 2008 -2009, the government bailout and popular response. We will conclude by focusing on the potential powerful changes inherent in mass popular movements.

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(Português) Imagens angustiantes mostram a realidade dos animais criados para indústria de peles
Julia Cortezia - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais, 3 Dec 2018

Em uma investigação feita pela Humane Society International (HSI), foi revelado as condições em que minks, raposas e cães-guaxinins estão confinados nas fazendas de pele finlandesas.

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