Articles by The Guardian
We found 927 results.
Facts vs. Feelings: How to Stop Our Emotions Misleading Us
Tim Harford | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Sep 2020
10 Sep 2020 – The pandemic has shown how a lack of solid statistics can be dangerous. But even with the firmest of evidence, we often end up ignoring the facts we don’t like.
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Operation Condor: The Cold War US Conspiracy That Terrorized South America
Giles Tremlett | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Sep 2020
3 Sep 2020 – During the 1970s and 80s, eight US (Henry Kissinger)-backed right wing military dictatorships jointly plotted the cross-border kidnap, torture, rape and murder of hundreds of their left wing political opponents. Now some of the perpetrators are finally facing justice.
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Covid Vaccine Rush Could Make Pandemic Worse, Say Scientists
Sarah Boseley | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Aug 2020
30 Aug 2020 – The rush to immunise populations against Covid-19 could lead to the rollout of a vaccine that is not very effective and risk worsening the pandemic, leading scientists have said. Experts say strong evidence of efficacy needed to avoid approval of inferior vaccines.
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Palestinians Stage Surprise ‘Thank You’ Event for Banksy in Bethlehem
Jessie McDonald | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Aug 2020
21 Aug 2020 – Photographs of works go on display in Manger Square to celebrate British street artist’s contribution to diversifying tourism.
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Modi’s Brutal Treatment of Kashmir Exposes His Tactics – And Their Flaws
Arundhati Roy | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2020
At midnight on 4 August 2019, phones in Kashmir went dead and internet connections were cut. On 5 August 2019, a year ago today, 7 million people were locked into their homes under a strict military curfew. Up to 10,000 people, from young children and teenage stone pelters to former chief ministers and major pro-India politicians, were arrested and put into preventive detention, where many of them still remain. On 6 August, a bill was passed in parliament stripping the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy and special status enshrined in the Indian constitution. It was stripped of statehood, downgraded into two union territories, Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir. Ladakh would have no legislature and would be governed directly by New Delhi.
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While Israel Celebrates a New Peace Accord, Palestinians Once Again Lose
Jonathan Freedland | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Aug 2020
14 Aug 2020 – Who could be against an announcement of peace between two nations formally at war? Netanyahu may have agreed to halt annexation of parts of the West Bank, but the UAE has ensured the occupation itself is normalised. With this deal, it has signalled that Israel can remain an occupier, closing off the possibility of Palestinian self-determination, and still win regional acceptance.
→ read full articleThe Last of the Zoroastrians
Shaun Walker | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Aug 2020
6 Aug 2020 – A funeral, a family, and a journey into a disappearing religion.
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‘Floating Bomb’: How the Beirut Blast Was Predicted
Michael Safi, Andrew Roth and Martin Chulov | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Aug 2020
6 Aug 2020 – The Lebanese prime minister on Tuesday [4 Aug] blamed the explosion on 2,750-tonne store of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in bombs and fertilisers, stored at the port. Media reports from 2014 claimed a vessel carrying that load was impounded at Beirut’s after making an emergency stop in the city and being denied permission to leave by customs authorities because it was deemed unseaworthy. In a letter published by a journalist, the ship was described as “a floating bomb and the crew is a hostage aboard this bomb.”
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Only Bold State Intervention Will Save Us from a Future Owned by Corporate Giants
Joe Guinan and Martin O'Neill | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jul 2020
If small businesses fail after Covid-19, the big boys will become even more powerful. A radical 1930s policy could be the answer. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has seen his wealth increase by over US$30bn during the pandemic alone.
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This Is What Happens When the War on Terror Is Turned Inward, on the USA
Hamilton Nolan | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jul 2020
24 Jul 2020 – A strange and necessary ingredient of America’s descent towards fascism is that it will have little impact on the majority of people. Trying to determine when we slip into fascism is like staring at a baby to see when it turns into an adult. Once you perceive it, it’s already happened. The trick now is convincing that tranquil majority that their interests are more aligned with the antifa protesters than with the cops in fatigues.
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Sabotage, Sanctions and the Bullying of Iran Is Bound to Backfire on the West
Simon Tisdall | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jul 2020
12 Jul 2020 – The onslaught visited on Tehran by Trump, Israel and other bully boys can only increase tensions in the Middle East. Iran is now moving closer to acquiring a weapons manufacturing capability as a direct consequence of US bad faith.
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Warning of Serious Brain Disorders in People with Mild Coronavirus Symptoms
Ian Sample | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jul 2020
8 Jul 2020 – UK neurologists publish details of mildly affected or recovering Covid-19 patients with serious or potentially fatal brain conditions.
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By Recognising Palestine, Britain Can Help Right the Wrongs of the Balfour Declaration
Avi Shlaim | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jul 2020
22 Jun 2020 – The theft of Palestinian land is a legacy of British colonialism. The UK must stand in the way of further Israeli annexations.
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Explainer: What Is the Deadly India-China Border Dispute About?
Helen Davidson and Ben Doherty | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Jun 2020
17 Jun 2020 – At least 20 people have died in clashes between Indian and Chinese troops along the disputed Himalayan border running along the Ladakh area of Kashmir. It is the first fatal clash since 1975 and the most serious since 1967.
→ read full articleA $1.1M Hospital Bill after Surviving the Coronavirus? That’s America for You
Ross Barkan | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jun 2020
16 Jun 2020 – The bill included $9,736 per day for the intensive care room, nearly $409,000 for its transformation into a sterile room for 42 days, $82,000 for the use of a ventilator for 29 days, and nearly $100,000 for two days when he appeared to be on his deathbed.
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‘Rolling Emergency’ of Locust Swarms Decimating Africa, Asia and Middle East
Kaamil Ahmed | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jun 2020
8 Jun 2020 -Unseasonal rains have allowed desert pests to breed rapidly and spread across vast distances leaving devastation in their wake.
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Surgisphere: Governments and WHO Changed COVID-19 Policy Based On Suspect Data from Tiny US Company
Melissa Davey, Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Sarah Boseley | The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jun 2020
3 Jun 2020 – Surgisphere, whose employees appear to include a sci-fi writer and adult content model, provided database behind Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine hydroxychloroquine studies. The World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from the little-known US healthcare analytics company.
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‘Make Noise and Don’t Panic’: India Tries to Ward off Locust Invasion
Amrit Dhillon | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jun 2020
28 May 2020 – Delhi braces for swarm while farmers in badly-hit north play loud music and honk car horns to try to prevent decimation of fields.
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The Hawaii Navy Base Fueling Trump’s Quest for ‘Super Duper’ Missiles
Jon Letman | The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jun 2020
31 May 2020 – Hawaii’s “garden island”, Kauai, is known for its breathtaking scenery and laid-back vibe, a place of plunging waterfalls and cliffs cloaked in green tropical forests. But beyond its beauty it is one of the Pentagon’s most valued testing and training sites in the Pacific. But some residents view the islands’ highly militarized state as misguided or even illegal.
→ read full articleFirst Iranian Fuel Tanker Reaches Venezuelan Waters without US Interference
Reuters | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 May 2020
24 May 2020 – The first of five tankers loaded with gasoline sent from Iran has reached Venezuelan waters, expected to temporarily ease the South American nation’s fuel crunch while defying Trump administration sanctions targeting the two US foes. Iran’s president had earlier warned the US not to try to stop the flotilla sent to ease Venezuela’s fuel shortage.
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Europe Should Brace for Second Wave, Says EU Coronavirus Chief
Daniel Boffey | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 May 2020
20 May 2020 – The prospect of a second wave of coronavirus infection across Europe is no longer a distant theory, according to Dr Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. “The question is when and how big, that is the question in my view.”
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Naomi Klein: How Big Tech Plans to Profit from the Pandemic
Naomi Klein | The Intercept/The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 May 2020
For a few moments during NY governor Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus briefing on Wed 6 May, the grimace was replaced by a smile. The inspiration: a video visit from the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who announced that he will be heading up a panel to reimagine New York state’s post-Covid reality, with an emphasis on permanently integrating technology into every aspect of civic life.
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Clean Air in Europe during Lockdown ‘Leads to 11,000 Fewer Deaths’
Jonathan Watts | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 May 2020
30 Apr 2020 – The improvement in air quality over the past month of the coronavirus lockdown has led to 11,000 fewer deaths from pollution in Europe, a study has revealed. It also finds less asthma and preterm births.
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Malaysia Cites Covid-19 for Rounding Up Hundreds of Rohingya Migrants
Kaamil Ahmed | The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 May 2020
2 May 2020 – In move condemned by UN, refugees including Rohingya detained amid rise in xenophobia.
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From Trump to Erdoğan, Men Who Behave Badly Make the Worst Leaders in a Pandemic
Simon Tisdall | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Apr 2020
26 Apr 2020 – Around the world, authoritarian leaders are exploiting, exacerbating or grossly mishandling the response to the pandemic, placing selfish interest ahead of public good. Their behaviour is frequently appalling. They are a modern incarnation of TS Eliot’s “hollow men”. Sex is relevant, in that female leaders are generally thought to be behaving better.
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Second Wave of Locusts in East Africa Said to Be 20 Times Worse
Samuel Okiror | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Apr 2020
13 Apr 2020 – UN Warns of ‘Alarming and Unprecedented Threat’ to Food Security and Livelihoods in the Region – A second wave of desert locusts is threatening east Africa with estimates that it will be 20 times worse then the plague that descended two months ago.
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‘Tip of the Iceberg’: Is Our Destruction of Animals and Nature Responsible for Covid-19?
John Vidal | The Guardian, Age of Extinction - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Apr 2020
18 Mar 2020 – As habitat and biodiversity loss increase globally, the coronavirus outbreak may be just the beginning of mass pandemics.
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US and Russia Blocking UN Plans for a Global Ceasefire amid Crisis
Simon Tisdall | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Apr 2020
19 Apr 2020 – The Trump administration and Russia are blocking efforts to win binding UN security council backing for a global ceasefire to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, called for an immediate end to fighting involving governments and armed groups in all conflict areas almost one month ago.
→ read full articleHere’s How Your Body Gains Immunity to Coronavirus
Zania Stamataki | The Guardian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Apr 2020
10 Apr 2020 – Unprecedented efforts and diverted resources mean we are fast learning about human defences against this new threat. Importantly, Covid-19 cannot gain entry to our homes or bodies by itself – we have to let it in.
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Brazil Scales Back Environmental Enforcement amid Coronavirus Outbreak
The Guardian | Reuters - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Apr 2020
27 Mar 2020- Brazil will reduce efforts to fight environmental crimes during the coronavirus outbreak, despite concerns that reduced protection could lead to a surge in deforestation.
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China Shows Way to Ease Lockdowns before Vaccine, Says Report
Sarah Boseley - The Guardian,
30 Mar 2020
25 Mar 2020 – UK Experts Say Easing Physical Distancing Would Depend on Rigorous Testing and Isolation
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‘All We Can Offer Is the Chain’: The Scandal of Ghana’s Shackled Sick – Exposé
Tracy McVeigh – The Guardian,
17 Feb 2020
3 Feb 2020 – For the families of Ghanaians with mental health or substance abuse issues, shackling their loved ones can seem the only option, as faith healers compete to fill the mental health void.
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Deaths of 16 Rohingya at Sea Raises Fears Trafficking Ring Has Been Revived
Kaamil Ahmed – The Guardian,
17 Feb 2020
12 Feb 2020 – Activists fear a dangerous transnational trafficking network is being revived after at least 16 Rohingya refugees drowned in the Bay of Bengal yesterday morning. Smugglers responsible for mass atrocities in Thailand may be linked to capsized boat carrying refugees from Bangladesh to Malaysia.
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Drought and Hunger: Why Thousands of Guatemalans Are Fleeing North
José García Escobar and Melisa Rabanales – The Guardian,
17 Feb 2020
7 Feb 2020 – The threat of famine and the battle for dwindling natural resources are increasingly being recognised as major factors in the exodus.
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‘Try to Stop Me’ – The Mantra of Our Leaders Who Are Now Ruling with Impunity
George Monbiot – The Guardian,
10 Feb 2020
5 Feb 2020 – Trump, Bolsonaro, Modi, Johnson. Across the world, flouting the law has become normalised. We have to stop it. It is not a sufficient condition for fascism to take root, but it is a necessary one: the willingness of political leaders not only to break the law but to revel in breaking it is a fatal step towards the replacement of democracy with authoritarian terror.
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How the ‘Venice of Africa’ Is Losing Its Battle against the Rising Ocean
Monika Pronczuk – The Guardian,
3 Feb 2020
28 Jan 2020 – Saint-Louis, the old colonial capital of Senegal, faces a flooding threat that has already seen entire villages lost to the Atlantic.
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World’s 22 Richest Men Wealthier Than All the Women in Africa, Study Finds
Kate Hodal – The Guardian,
3 Feb 2020
20 Jan 2020 – The world’s 22 richest men have more combined wealth than all 325 million women in Africa. Startling scale of inequality laid bare as Oxfam report highlights chronically undervalued nature of care work.
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The Far-Right Bolsonaro Movement Wants Us Dead. But We Will Not Give Up
Glenn Greenwald and David Miranda – The Guardian,
3 Feb 2020
29 Jan 2020 – Courage is contagious. Those are the people who inspire us and so many like us in Bolsonaro’s Brazil who are confronting state repression to defend the democracy that so many people suffered so much to bring about. Demagogues and despots like Bolsonaro are a dime a dozen. They centrally rely on intimidation, fear and the use of state repression to consolidate power. A refusal to give into that fear, but instead to join hands with those who intend to fight against it, is always the antidote to this toxin.
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Chilling Role of ‘the Preacher’ Confirmed at CIA Waterboarding Hearing in Guantánamo
Julian Borger – The Guardian,
27 Jan 2020
25 Jan 2020 – There were three men authorised by the CIA to carry out waterboarding on detainees in America’s “war on terror”. Two of them were contractors who are in Guantánamo Bay this week to give evidence. The third has still not been identified 17 years after the torture was committed.
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James Murdoch Criticises Father’s News Outlets for Climate Crisis Denial
Jim Waterson – The Guardian,
20 Jan 2020
14 Jan 2020 – Rupert Murdoch’s son has strongly criticised his family’s news outlets for downplaying the impact of the climate crisis, as bushfires continue to burn in Australia. James Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn, issued a rare joint statement directly criticising his father’s businesses for their “ongoing denial” on the issue, which has been reflected in the family’s newspapers repeatedly casting doubt on the link between the climate emergency and the bushfires.
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Greenpeace Included with Neo-Nazis on UK Counter-Terror List
Vikram Dodd and Jamie Grierson – The Guardian,
20 Jan 2020
17 Jan 2020 – Extinction Rebellion, Sea Shepherd, Stop the Cull and PETA also named in anti-extremism briefing alongside Combat 18 and National Action.
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Welcome to Hawaii’s ‘Plastic Beach’, One of the World’s Dirtiest Places
Liz Barney and Michelle Broder Van Dyke – The Guardian,
13 Jan 2020
10 Jan 2020 – Hawaii has long evoked images of a Pacific paradise but Kamilo Beach, located on the Big Island, presents a starkly different reality.
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Iran Ends Nuclear Deal Commitments as Fallout from Suleimani Killing Spreads
Martin Chulov and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad – The Guardian,
13 Jan 2020
5 Jan 2020 – Iran has announced that it will no longer abide by any of the limits imposed by the unravelling 2015 nuclear deal, and Iraq’s parliament urged its leaders to expel troops from the US-led coalition, as the aftershocks of the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani reverberated through the Middle East.
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DRC: I Saw the Unbearable Grief Inflicted on Families by Cobalt Mining–I Pray for Change
Siddharth Kara – The Guardian,
23 Dec 2019
16 Dec 2019 – When Raphael turned 15, he started digging tunnels at the cobalt mine where he worked – two years later he was dead. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is that global tech companies have yet to devote adequate attention and resources to ensure safety, dignity, and decency for those who mine their cobalt in DRC.
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Nepal Makes First ‘Period Hut’ Arrest after Woman Dies during Banned Custom
Arun Budhathoki – The Guardian,
23 Dec 2019
9 Dec 2019 – A 21-year-old woman has died after spending three nights in an outdoor “period hut”, prompting police in Nepal to make their first ever arrest in connection with the illegal practice. The tradition of chhaupadi, where menstruating women in Nepal are banished from their homes, is still widespread in remote and poorer parts of the country.
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‘I Feel Constant Pain’: Drug Resistance Adds to Misery of Gaza Gun Victims
Karen McVeigh and Hazem Balousha – The Guardian,
23 Dec 2019
5 Dec 2019 – The suffering of people wounded in conflict zones is being compounded by what doctors say are ‘horrifying levels’ of antibiotic resistance. “I thought about suicide several times,” says Nasser, 28, a former blacksmith. “I was wishing the Israeli soldier [who shot me] had killed me with the bullet.”
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Turner Prize Awarded Four Ways after Artists’ Plea to Judges
Mark Brown – The Guardian,
9 Dec 2019
3 Dec 2019 – All four artists shortlisted for the 2019 Turner prize have been named winners after they came together and made a plea for judges to recognise the causes of “commonality, multiplicity and solidarity”.
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‘Our only Aim Is to Go Home’: Rohingya Refugees Face Stark Choice
Sarah Marsh and Redwan Ahmed – The Guardian,
11 Nov 2019
4 Nov 2019 – Life in the world’s largest refugee camp has grown harder in the past few months. With citizenship in Myanmar still denied, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh must either live under severe restrictions or move to an isolated island.
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A Foie Gras Ban Was Overdue – but What About Other Foods Made from Animal Suffering?
Jacy Reese – The Guardian,
4 Nov 2019
On 30 Oct the New York City Council passed a ban on foie gras, which has transformed many animal lovers from conscious consumers to passionate protesters. Its production process is particularly disturbing: a bird is painfully force-fed three times a day with a long, metal pipe down their throat. But there are countless other foods made from animal suffering. Fish and octopus are chewed to death while still alive. Others are boiled alive, ripped or cut apart, or even salted to death.
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Amazon Rainforest ‘Close to Irreversible Tipping Point’
Dom Phillips – The Guardian,
28 Oct 2019
23 Oct 2019 – Soaring deforestation coupled with the destructive policies of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, could push the Amazon rainforest dangerously to an irreversible “tipping point” within two years, a prominent economist has said. Forecast suggests rainforest could stop producing enough rain to sustain itself by 2021.
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‘It Breaks Down Innocent People’: The Interrogation Method at Center of Ava Duvernay Lawsuit
Sam Levin – The Guardian,
21 Oct 2019
16 Oct 2019 – Police consulting firm behind widely criticized ‘Reid interrogation technique’ claims Netflix drama When They See US misrepresents method. The Central Park Five case is one of the most notorious examples of police coercing people into giving false confession. The five teens went to prison and were eventually exonerated by DNA evidence.
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Without Encryption, We Will Lose All Privacy. This Is Our New Battleground
Edward Snowden – The Guardian,
21 Oct 2019
15 Oct 2019 – The vulnerability of our computers and computer networks has been ranked the number one risk in the US Intelligence Community’s Worldwide Threat Assessment – that’s higher than terrorism, higher than war. Your bank balance, the local hospital’s equipment, among many, many other things, all depend on computer safety. The US, UK and Australia are taking on Facebook in a bid to undermine the only method that protects our personal information.
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Revealed: The 20 Firms behind a Third of All Carbon Emissions
Matthew Taylor and Jonathan Watts – The Guardian,
14 Oct 2019
9 Oct 2019 – New data from world-renowned researchers reveals how this cohort of state-owned and multinational firms are driving the climate emergency that threatens the future of humanity, and details how they have continued to expand their operations despite being aware of the industry’s devastating impact on the planet.
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Those Fancy Tea Bags? Microplastics in Them Are Macro Offenders
Adrienne Matei – The Guardian,
7 Oct 2019
30 Sep 2019 – “The tea bag… is in the process of a large-scale reinvention.” So reads a 2006 New York Times article on the rise of nylon mesh tea bags, an innovation that diversified the tea market. New study finds nylon tea bags leech billions of microplastics into every single cup of tea.
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US Drone Strike Kills 30 Pine Nut Workers in Afghanistan
Reuters – The Guardian,
23 Sep 2019
19 Sep 2019 – A US drone strike intended to hit an Islamic State hideout in Afghanistan has killed at least 30 civilians who were resting after harvesting pine nuts. Forty were also injured in the Wednesday [18 Sep] attack which struck farmers and labourers who just finished work. The UN says nearly 4,000 civilians were killed or wounded in the first half of the year. Afghan Government and NATO Killing More Civilians than the Taliban
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India: Almost 2 Million People Left Off Assam Register of Citizens
Rebecca Ratcliffe and Kakoli Bhattacharya – The Guardian,
16 Sep 2019
31 Aug 2019 – Almost 2 million people in north-east India face the threat of statelessness and detention after they were excluded from an official list designed to root out illegal immigrants. Rights groups warn of possible humanitarian crisis as those left off list face statelessness and detention.
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Inside Exarcheia: The Self-Governing Community Athens Police Want Rid of
Alex King and Ioanna Manoussaki-Adamopoulou – The Guardian,
9 Sep 2019
26 Aug 2019 – The central Athens neighbourhood of Exarcheia, which has helped house refugees, is in the crosshairs of a government crackdown. Ringed by university buildings, Exarcheia has long been the home of Greece’s intellectual left, antiauthoritarian and anarchist movements.
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Amazon’s Indigenous Warriors Take on Invading Loggers and Ranchers
Fabiano Maisonnave – The Guardian,
2 Sep 2019
29 Aug 2019 – Trincheira Bacajá indigenous land: Under threat from fire, deforestation and Bolsonaro, Xikrin people take matters into own hands.
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‘A New Hawaiian Renaissance’: How a Telescope Protest Became a Movement
Michelle Broder Van Dyke – The Guardian,
19 Aug 2019
17 Aug 2019 – On Hawaii’s Big Island, a protest against a $1.4bn observatory on Mauna Kea, a mountain considered sacred by many Native Hawaiians, is entering a second month. In that time, the protest site has swelled from a few hundred to several thousands, attracted celebrity visitors, and built a community of Native Hawaiians who see it as a pivotal moment.
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Toni Morrison
Lyn Innes – The Guardian,
12 Aug 2019
Toni Morrison (Chloe Anthony Wofford), writer, born 18 Feb 1931; died 5 Aug 2019. Nobel prizewinner and author whose stories have a strong historical and cultural base and a style, structure and tone that is specifically African American.
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Amazon Deforestation: Bolsonaro Government Accused of Seeking to Sow Doubt over Data
Jonathan Watts – The Guardian,
5 Aug 2019
1 Aug 2019 – The Amazon forest is being burned and chopped down at the most alarming rate in recent memory, but the Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro is focused on reinterpreting the data rather than dealing with the culprits, monitoring groups have said.
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Amazon Deforestation Accelerating Towards Unrecoverable ‘Tipping Point’
Jonathan Watts – The Guardian,
29 Jul 2019
25 Jul 2019 – Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has surged above three football fields a minute, according to the latest government data, pushing the world’s biggest rainforest closer to a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover. Data confirms fears that Pres. Jair Bolsonaro’s policy encourages illegal logging.
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Satellite Images Reveal Scale of Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis
Hannah Ellis-Petersen – The Guardian,
29 Jul 2019
24 Jul 2019 – Analysis of satellite imagery has cast further doubt on promises that arrangements are being made by Myanmar for the safe and humane return of Rohingya Muslims, and revealed that the destruction of their villages has continued.
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Punjab: The Indian State Where Farmers Sow the Seeds of Death
Vivek Chaudhary – The Guardian,
8 Jul 2019
1 Jul 2019 – Cancer rates are the highest in the country, drug addiction is rife, and 900 farmers have killed themselves in two years. How did Punjab turn toxic?
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This Photo Is about Bodies – Migrant Bodies, and Our Body Politic. Don’t Look Away
Sabrina Vourvoulias – The Guardian,
1 Jul 2019
26 Jun 2019 – This is a story about bodies. Monday’s [24 Jun] image of a drowned two-year-old and her father will haunt us. I hope it changes us, too.
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Pictures of Dead Migrants Inspire Our Sympathy. But what Use Is That to Them?
Gary Younge – The Guardian,
1 Jul 2019
The photograph of a drowned Salvadoran migrant and his daughter provoked a global outcry. That’s not enough.
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The New Left Economics: How a Network of Thinkers Is Transforming Capitalism
Andy Beckett – The Guardian,
1 Jul 2019
After decades of rightwing dominance, a transatlantic movement of leftwing economists is building a practical alternative to neoliberalism.
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Forest Twice Size of UK Destroyed in Decade for Big Consumer Brands – Report
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
24 Jun 2019
11 Jun 2019 – An area twice the size of the UK has been destroyed for products such as palm oil and soy over the last decade, according to analysis by Greenpeace International. It estimates 50m hectares cleared by 2020, warning companies must evolve to prevent ‘climate breakdown’.
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‘Socialism for the Rich’: The Evils of Bad Economics
Jonathan Aldred – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2019
6 Jun 2019 – In most rich countries, inequality is rising, and has been rising for some time. The economic arguments adopted by Britain and the US in the 1980s led to vastly increased inequality – and gave the false impression that this outcome was not only inevitable, but good.
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The Climate Crisis Is Our Third World War. It Needs a Bold Response
Joseph Stiglitz | Nobel Economics Laureate – The Guardian,
10 Jun 2019
4 Jun 2019 – Advocates of the Green New Deal say there is great urgency in dealing with the climate crisis and highlight the scale and scope of what is required to combat it. They are right. They use the term “New Deal” to evoke the massive response by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the United States government to the Great Depression. An even better analogy would be the country’s mobilization to fight World War II.
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Raw Ivory Sales: Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia Call for End to Ban
Nyasha Chingono – The Guardian,
27 May 2019
21 May 2019 – The watchdog, Cites, prohibits unregulated commercial trade in endangered species around the world. The three southern African countries, home to 61% of the continent’s elephants, will make their application for the change at the next Cites conference in Sri Lanka. Their last appeal for a lifting of the measures was rejected.
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Eco-Friendly Ending: Washington State Is First to Allow Human Composting
Associated Press – The Guardian,
27 May 2019
Ashes to ashes, guts to dirt. Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation Tuesday [21 May 2019] making Washington the first state to approve composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains.
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Monsanto Must Pay Couple $2bn in Largest Verdict Yet Over Cancer Claims
Sam Levin – The Guardian,
20 May 2019
13 May 2019 – A California jury has ordered Monsanto to pay more than $2bn to a couple that got cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, after using its weedkiller, marking the third and largest verdict against the company over Roundup.
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Plastic in Paradise: The Battle for the Galápagos Islands’ Future
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 May 2019
3 Apr 2019 – The Galápagos Islands are one of the most pristine locations on the planet, but plastic pollution arriving by sea is threatening this unique habitat. How the archipelago is hoping to lead the worldwide fight against plastic.
→ read full articleMy TED Talk: How I Took on the Tech Titans in Their Lair
Carole Cadwalladr – The Guardian,
29 Apr 2019
21 Apr 2019 – For more than a year, the writer has been probing a darkness at the heart of Silicon Valley. Last week, at a TED talk that became a global viral sensation, she told the tech billionaires they had broken democracy. What happened next? [Watch the Video in the end]
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‘We Are Hostages’: Indigenous Mapuche Accuse Chile and Argentina of Genocide
Mat Youkee – The Guardian,
29 Apr 2019
12 Apr 2019 – Representatives of South America’s indigenous Mapuche people have petitioned the International Criminal Court to take action against the governments of Chile and Argentina for acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.
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Why Can’t the World’s Greatest Minds Solve the Mystery of Consciousness?
Oliver Burkeman – The Guardian,
22 Apr 2019
Philosophers and scientists have been at war for decades over the question of what makes human beings more than complex robots. The answer might lie with the spiritualists.
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Dismay as Trump Vetoes Bill to End US Support for War in Yemen
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
22 Apr 2019
17 Apr 2019 – Donald Trump has vetoed a bill passed by Congress to end US military assistance in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Politicians decry Trump’s decision as a cynical move and missed opportunity for humanitarian help.
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Zimbabwe’s £118,000 Outlay on Judges’ Wigs Met with Fury
Nyasha Chingono – The Guardian,
15 Apr 2019
5 Apr 2019 – Lawyers in Zimbabwe have hit out at a government decision to spend thousands of pounds on wigs made in England for local judges, saying the tradition evokes a colonial past that should not exist in modern Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans reacted with anger questioning the wisdom of the government’s expenditure at a time when courtrooms are cramped and ill-equipped, the national economy is crumbling and, according to the World Food Programme, 63% of the population live below the poverty line.
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I Fought South African Apartheid. I See the Same Brutal Policies in Israel
Ronnie Kasrils – The Guardian,
8 Apr 2019
3 Apr 2019 – As a Jewish South African anti-apartheid activist I look with horror on the far-right shift in Israel ahead of this month’s elections, and the impact in the Palestinian territories and worldwide. I was shut down in South Africa for speaking out, and I’m disturbed that the same is happening to critics of Israel now.
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Brunei Introduces Death by Stoning as Punishment for Gay Sex
Hannah Ellis-Petersen – The Guardian,
1 Apr 2019
28 Mar 2019 – Brunei is to begin imposing death by stoning as a punishment for gay sex, rape and adultery from next week, as part of the country’s implementation of sharia law. Homosexuality has been illegal in Brunei since British colonial rule but under the new laws it is now punishable by whipping or death by stoning rather than a prison sentence. The announcement was met with horror by human rights groups.
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Total Recall: The People Who Never Forget
Linda Rodriguez McRobbie – The Guardian,
25 Mar 2019
An Extremely Rare Condition May Transform Our Understanding of Memory – If you ask Jill Price to remember any day of her life, she can come up with an answer in a heartbeat. What was she doing on 29 August 1980? “It was a Friday, I went to Palm Springs with my friends.
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Facebook’s New Move Isn’t about Privacy. It’s about Domination
Siva Vaidhyanathan – The Guardian,
18 Mar 2019
7 Mar 2019 – Mark Zuckerberg announced on 6 Mar that Facebook would be ‘pivoting to privacy’. That’s an empty pledge.
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Elizabeth Warren Is Right – We Must Break Up Facebook, Google and Amazon
Robert Reich – The Guardian,
18 Mar 2019
10 Mar 2019 – The presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren announced on Friday [8 Mar] she wants to bust up giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon. The titans of the new Gilded Age must be busted and the idea has bipartisan support. It’s time big tech was brought to heel.
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Debunking the Myth That Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitic
Peter Beinart – The Guardian,
11 Mar 2019
7 Mar 2019 – It is a bewildering and alarming time to be a Jew, both because antisemitism is rising and because so many politicians are responding to it not by protecting Jews but by victimising Palestinians. Conflating anti-Zionism with Jew-hatred is a tragic mistake.
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Neoliberalism – The Ideology at the Root of All Our Problems
George Monbiot – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2019
15 Apr 2016 – Imagine if the people of the Soviet Union had never heard of communism. The ideology that dominates our lives has, for most of us, no name. Mention it in conversation and you’ll be rewarded with a shrug. Even if your listeners have heard the term before, they will struggle to define it. Neoliberalism: do you know what it is? Financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump – neoliberalism has played its part in them all. Why has the left failed to come up with an alternative?
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Rohingya Crisis: UN Investigates Its ‘Dysfunctional’ Conduct in Myanmar
Emanuel Stoakes and Hannah Ellis-Petersen – The Guardian,
4 Mar 2019
27 Feb 2019 – The UN has launched an inquiry into its conduct in Myanmar over the past decade, where it has been accused of ignoring warning signs of escalating violence prior to an alleged genocide of the Rohingya minority.
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Trump Has Turned Foreign Aid into Shabby Political Theatre
Peter Beaumont - The Guardian,
4 Mar 2019
20 Feb 2019 – Stalled relief supplies for Venezuela at the Colombian border are a stark illustration of Trump’s crudely transactional approach to aid. The flights look something more shabby: a dangerous stunt utilising aid for other purposes, alluded to by UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric: “Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or any other objectives.”
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Deflagging of Refugee Rescue Ship a ‘Dark Moment’ for Europe
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
18 Feb 2019
12 Feb 2019 – The deflagging of the Aquarius, the last migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean, represents a “dark moment” in European history, setting a dangerous precedent for states to flout international humanitarian laws.
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Young Woman Dies in Fourth ‘Period Hut’ Tragedy This Year in Nepal
Rebecca Ratcliffe – The Guardian,
18 Feb 2019
6 Feb 2019 – A 21-year-old woman has been become the fourth person known to have died this year as a result of the illegal practice of chhaupadi, whereby menstruating women in Nepal are banished from their homes and forced to sleep in huts.
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Revealed: FBI Investigated Civil Rights Group as ‘Terrorism’ Threat and Viewed KKK as Victims
Sam Levin – The Guardian,
11 Feb 2019
Bureau spied on California activists, citing potential ‘conspiracy’ against the ‘rights’ of neo-Nazis.
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US Nuclear Weapons: First Low-Yield Warheads Roll Off the Production Line
Julian Borger – The Guardian,
4 Feb 2019
28 Jan 2019 – The US has begun making a new, low-yield nuclear warhead for its Trident missiles that arms control advocates warn could lower the threshold for a nuclear confrontation. New type of weapon, ordered by Trump’s nuclear posture review, could make violent response to conflict more likely, say experts.
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Destroy ‘Period Huts’ or Forget State Support: Nepal Moves to End Practice
Rojita Adhikari – The Guardian,
28 Jan 2019
After the custom of consigning menstruating women to outdoor sheds claimed three more lives, a new system of penalties offers hope of change.
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Good News at Last: The World Isn’t As Horrific As You Think
Hans Rosling – The Guardian,
28 Jan 2019
Training yourself how to put the news into perspective – practising ‘factfulness’ – will change your outlook for the better.
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1,500 Private Jets Fly into Davos for World Economic Forum Climate Talks–Oxymoron?
Rebecca Ratcliffe – The Guardian,
28 Jan 2019
22 Jan 2019 – David Attenborough might have urged world leaders at Davos to take urgent action on climate change, but it appears no one was listening. As he spoke, experts predicted up to 1,500 individual private jets will fly to and from airfields serving the Swiss ski resort this week.
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The Guardian View on Israel’s Democracy: Killing with Impunity, Lying without Consequence?
Editorial – The Guardian,
28 Jan 2019
22 Jan 2019 – In the last nine months of 2018, according to the UN, hundreds of Palestinians – many of them children – were killed and many thousands injured. They included medics and journalists. Most of the dead were unarmed and posed no danger to anyone, with little more than rocks in their hands and slogans on their lips. Yet Israel continued with an immoral and unlawful policy that sees soldiers of its military teargas, shoot and kill protesters, including those who pose no credible threat. Hospitals in Gaza, which already struggle under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, have been stretched to breaking point in dealing with the flood of patients ferried in from the protests.
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Academic Who Defined News Principles, Galtung Says Journalists Are Too Negative
Ulrik Haagerup – The Guardian,
21 Jan 2019
18 Jan 2019 – The academic paper concluded with a warning on the consequences for society if news organisations continued to promote confrontation, tension and sensation over collaboration, resolution and compassion. “The consequence of all this is an image of the world that gives little autonomy to the periphery but sees it as mainly existing for the sake of the centre,” the paper said. “Conflict will be emphasised, conciliation not.” “And this is exactly what has happened,” Galtung said. “News media give a total biased picture of reality. The perception of reality in the public becomes overly negative.”
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When the Ice Melts: The Catastrophe of Vanishing Glaciers
Dahr Jamail – The Guardian,
14 Jan 2019
8 Jan 2019 – As global temperatures rise, shrivelling glaciers and thawing permafrost threaten yet more climate disruption. How should we confront what is happening to our world? While western colonialist culture believes in “rights”, many indigenous cultures teach of “obligations” that we are born into: obligations to those who came before, to those who will come after, and to the Earth itself.
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Chickens Freezing to Death and Boiled Alive: Failings in US Slaughterhouses Exposed
Andrew Wasley and Natalie Jones – The Guardian,
24 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 – Chickens slowly freezing to death, being boiled alive, drowned or suffocating under piles of other birds are among hundreds of shocking welfare incidents recorded at US slaughterhouses, according to previously unpublished reports.
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Google’s Earth: How the Tech Giant Is Helping the State Spy on Us
Yasha Levine – The Guardian,
24 Dec 2018
20 Dec 2018 – We knew that being connected had a price – our data. But we didn’t care. Then it turned out that Google’s main clients included the military and intelligence agencies.
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