Articles by RD
We found 3495 results.
Tobacco Companies Ordered to Pay C$15.6 Billion to Quebec Smokers
Richard Smallteacher, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jun 2015
4 Jun 2015 – Over one million people in the Canadian province of Quebec will receive a total of C$15.6 billion ($12.5 billion) in damages for smoking related diseases from three of the biggest tobacco companies in the country. The settlement is the result of a 17-year long court battle.
→ read full articleTurkish Elections: It’s Not Just Erdoğan!
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jun 2015
9 Jun 2015 – The Turkish general election on June 7th ended more or less as the polls predicted. Turkey has been put back on the shelf and yet relieved that the AKP was again supported by a significant plurality of Turkish citizens in an impressively free and fair electoral process.
→ read full article(Português) A Era das Grandes Transformações
Leonardo Boff - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jun 2015
A reflexão ecológica se complexificou. Não se pode reduzi-la apenas à preservação do meio ambiente. A totalidade do sistema mundo está em jogo. Vivemos na era das Grandes Transformações. Entre tantas, destaco apenas duas: a primeira no campo da economia e a segunda no campo da consciência.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden: The World Says No to Surveillance
Edward J. Snowden – The New York Times,
8 Jun 2015
Two years ago today, three journalists and I worked nervously in a Hong Kong hotel room, waiting to see how the world would react to the revelation that the National Security Agency had been making records of nearly every phone call in the United States.
→ read full article(Italiano) Un avvertimento contro l’argomentazione di Kaplan per cui “È tempo di riportare l’imperialismo in Medio Oriente”
Johan Galtung e Naakow Hayford – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jun 2015
Piuttosto li si aiuti a creare un califfato con le migliori qualità del suo predecessore ottomano: la tolleranza, i millet per le minoranze, addirittura la saldatura potenziale dello squarcio fra sunniti e sciiti. Si usi il peacekeeping militare per proteggere, difensivamente, le minoranze esposte e minacciate. Si negozi uno spazio per Israele. Ma non ci si perda in sterili rivalità di potere militari; già perse dagli USA.
→ read full articleNo Progress on Nuclear Weapons Control – As Planned
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
8 Jun 2015
US Leadership Vetoes Steps toward Nuclear Weapons-Free World
→ read full articleFIFA Scandals Are Worse Than Bribes
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jun 2015
The Palestinian Soccer Association was persuaded by Blatter to drop its charges, with a renewal of previously empty pledges to ameliorate conditions confronting Palestinians coupled with a surely ironic plea to keep ‘politics’ from intruding on ‘the beautiful game.’ As if the humiliations and constraints imposed on the Palestinian teams were not political!
→ read full articleThe Era of the Great Transformations
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jun 2015
We live in the Era of the Great Transformations. There are many, but I will mention just two: the first relating to the economy and the second to the realm conscience.
→ read full articleHSBC Pays Out £28m over Money-Laundering Claims
Juliette Garside – The Guardian,
8 Jun 2015
4 Jun 2015 – HSBC has been ordered to pay a record 40m Swiss francs (£28m) (US$43m) (€38m) for money laundering in the bank’s Swiss subsidiary. The settlement means the Swiss will not prosecute HSBC or publish the findings of their investigation into alleged aggravated money laundering.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Releases Documents Related to Controversial US Trade Pact
Sam Thielman in New York and Phillip Inman in London – The Guardian,
8 Jun 2015
WikiLeaks on Wednesday [3 Jun 2015] released 17 different documents related to the Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa), a controversial pact currently being hashed out between the US and 23 other countries — most of them in Europe and South America — day after organization put $100,000 bounty on documents from series of US trade treaties.
→ read full articleDaniel Ellsberg Credits Edward Snowden with Catalysing US Surveillance Reform
Ewen MacAskill in London, and Dan Roberts and Ben Jacobs in Washington – The Guardian,
8 Jun 2015
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden should be thanked for sparking the debate that forced Congress to change US surveillance law, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, said Monday [1 Jun 2015].
→ read full articleIn Myanmar [Burma], Muslims Arrested for Joining Terror Group That Doesn’t Exist
Carlos Sardiña Galache and Veronica Pedrosa – The Intercept,
1 Jun 2015
The crackdown is part of a wave of anti-Muslim persecution in the Buddhist country, this time under the cover of the U.S. war on terror.
→ read full articleAgainst Kaplan “Bring Imperialism Back to the Middle East”
Johan Galtung and Naakow Hayford,
1 Jun 2015
Rather, help them create a Caliphate with the best qualities of its Ottoman predecessor: tolerance, minority millets, even potentially bridging the Sunni-Shia gap. Use military peacekeeping to protect, defensively, exposed and threatened minorities. Negotiate space for Israel. But do not get lost in sterile military power rivalries; already lost by the USA.
→ read full articleAmerica at Its Best Is Strange
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jun 2015
America even at its best is a strange place, alive with contradictions, a Teflon political culture that has an unshakable faith in its innocent and virtuous national character and its overall impact on the world, impervious to the ghosts of slavery and of ethnic cleansing of native Americans that should be tormenting our sleep and darkening our dreams, comfortable with its robust gun culture, and with its promiscuous reliance on rogue drones engineered to kill on command and on the brutal happenings that take place in black sites immorally situated in countries whose leaders agree to avert their gaze from the dirty work taking place.
→ read full articleIndia´s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jun 2015
Today “governability” is standardly defined as the overall capacity for governance of any societal entity or system. This definition has the defect of being somewhat circular since it uses the word “governance” to define the word “governability.” But before busying ourselves with improving the definition of the word, let us instead look at some of the important issues at stake in governability-talk.
→ read full articleLatest Guilty Pleas Prove Big Bank Criminality ‘Rampant,’ But Jail Time Non-Existent
Deirdre Fulton – Common Dreams,
1 Jun 2015
In announcing settlement, Attorney General Loretta Lynch calls the crimes ‘a brazen display of collusion’ that caused ‘pervasive harm’. First, criminality is rampant on Wall Street. Second, the era of too-big-to-jail is alive and well. Even as they beat their chests announcing how tough they are, government regulators refuse to apply to the giant banks the same rules that apply to everyone else.
→ read full articleThe Years Since I Was Jailed For Releasing the ‘War Diaries’ Have Been a Rollercoaster
Chelsea E Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) – The Guardian,
1 Jun 2015
It can be difficult, sometimes, to make sense of all the things that have happened to me in the last five years… It didn’t help that a few of the Navy guards delivering meals would tell me that I was waiting for interrogation on a brig on a US cruiser off the coast of the horn of Africa, or being sent to the prison camps of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. At the very lowest point, I contemplated castrating myself.
→ read full articleWith Schizophrenia, My Thoughts Can Be like Pieces of a Mismatched Jigsaw Puzzle
Joshua Gliddon – The Guardian,
25 May 2015
I have schizophrenia but I’m determined not to be a victim of my illness. It’s part of me, and I have come to accept that fact and the limitations it entails, but it doesn’t define me. Schizophrenia, I’ve learned, might be misunderstood, but with the right treatment and support, it’s nothing to be feared.
→ read full articleSaudi Arabia Advertises For Eight New Executioners as Beheading Rate Soars
Reuters in Riyadh – The Guardian,
25 May 2015
• Jobs classified as ‘religious functionaries’ at lower end of civil service scale
• 85 reported executed so far this year, rivalling total for whole of 2014
(Português) A polêmica ferrovia que a China quer construir na América do Sul
Gerardo Lissardy – BBC Brasil,
25 May 2015
Uma ferrovia que começa no Rio de Janeiro banhada pelo Oceano Atlântico, atravessa a Floresta Amazônica e a Cordilheira dos Andes e termina na costa peruana em pleno Oceano Pacífico: este é o ambicioso plano que a China quer consolidar na América do Sul.
→ read full article[Banksters Mafia Orgy] Major World Banks Hit by Record Fine for Rigging Forex Markets
Jill Treanor in London and Dominic Rushe in New York – The Guardian,
25 May 2015
The reputation of the banking industry took another hammering on Wednesday [20 May 2015] as record fines imposed on Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Citi, JP Morgan and UBS, which pleaded guilty for rigging foreign exchange markets and over collusion by traders in several countries, topped [£6.3bn.] [€ 8.8bn.] [US$ 9.86bn.].
→ read full articleIsrael’s New Deputy Foreign Minister: ‘This Land Is Ours. All of It Is Ours’
Associated Press – The Guardian,
25 May 2015
Tzipi Hotovely gives speech to Israeli diplomats in which she says she will try to achieve global recognition for West Bank settlements. On Thursday [21 May 2015] she delivered a defiant message to the international community saying that Israel owes no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land and citing religious texts to back her belief that it belongs to the Jewish people.
→ read full article‘They Hit Us, with Hammers, by Knife’: Rohingya Migrants Tell of Horror at Sea
Kate Lamb – The Guardian,
25 May 2015
Up to 8,000 are believed to be stuck off Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian coasts, and those who made it to shore describe violence and starvation.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden: NSA Reform in the US Is Only the Beginning
Alan Rusbridger, Janine Gibson and Ewen MacAskill – The Guardian,
25 May 2015
In an exclusive interview from Moscow, Snowden cautions that more needs to be done to curb NSA surveillance two years after his disclosures.
→ read full articleNew Missions for the UN and a Secretary-General to Fit
Rene Wadlow – Toward Freedom,
18 May 2015
What should be the role for the UN in dealing with the changing scene of world politics? What qualities should the Secretary-General and the leadership team around him possess? The UN system is operating in a world of much greater complexity today than when it was founded. Thus to be effective, the UN, its program and Specialized Agencies need leadership which can promote world interests without undue influence of individual states.
→ read full articleA Picture of Loneliness: You Are Looking At the Last Male Northern White Rhino
Jonathan Jones – The Guardian,
18 May 2015
The image of Sudan the rhino, surrounded by the armed guards who protect him from poachers, shows how little humans have learned since the ice age. Today, immense love is invested in rhinos, yet they are being slaughtered in ever greater numbers.
→ read full articleIsraeli Soldiers Cast Doubt on Legality of Gaza Military Tactics
Peter Beaumont – The Guardian,
18 May 2015
Testimonies of Israeli combatants about last year’s war show apparent disregard for safety of civilians.
→ read full articleArgentina Sues Citigroup over Debt Repayments
Agence France-Presse – The Guardian,
18 May 2015
Bank says some employees of Citi Argentina could face criminal charges due to court battle between South American nation and US hedge funds.
→ read full articleParodies of Parity: Israel & Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 May 2015
Peace will come to Israel and Palestine, and be sustained, if and only if the oppressor becomes ready to dismantle its oppressive regime by withdrawing, not merely by disengaging Gaza style. So long as this is not so, direct negotiations and these periodic calls issued by Washington to resume direct talks have one main effect–to free Israel to realize its ambition to establish ‘Greater Israel’ while keeping the Palestinians in chains.
→ read full articleGeopolitics Is a Fluid Game: Negotiations and Their Enemies
Immanuel Wallerstein – Toward Freedom,
18 May 2015
We must always remember that geopolitics is a fluid game, and most particularly in this time of structural crisis of the modern world-system with its chaotic and rapid swings in all arenas, not least in geopolitical alignments.
→ read full articleThe Capitalist Culture Is Contrary to Life and Happiness
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 May 2015
Where is the genius of capitalism found? In the exacerbation of the ego to the maximum possible extent, of the individual and of self-affirmation, neglecting the greater whole, integration and the “we”. In this way it has thrown off balance all of human existence, due to the excess of one force, ignoring the other.
→ read full articleThe Semantics of Struggle
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 May 2015
What is not helpful, actually diversionary, is to respond as if the struggle was between good and evil, and that is what happens as soon as the insurgent challenger is labeled ‘a terrorist.’ Such language exempts the defenders of the status quo from self-criticism and considering accommodationist tactics, proscribing negotiation and assessment of grievances.
→ read full articleThe Day After: The Israeli Defense Forces’ New Tactics
Neve Gordon – London Review of Books,
11 May 2015
Turning Civilians into Legitimate Targets
→ read full article3 Reasons Healthy Gut Flora Are Important
Dr. Edward F. Group III, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 May 2015
Your gut should be home to over 100 billion bacteria, but antibiotics, pesticides, stress, and genetically-modified foods are just a few of the things that can weaken that diversity. Your gut’s bacteria needs to stay healthy or problems like irritable bowel syndrome, gluten allergies, and even obesity can be more likely. Let’s look at just 3 reasons that healthy gut flora are so important.
→ read full articleWe’re Citizens, Not Subjects. We Have the Right to Criticize Government without Fear
Chelsea E. Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) – The Guardian,
11 May 2015
The American public needs more access to what the government is doing in its name. That requires increasing freedom of information and transparency.
→ read full articleCIA’s Torture Experts Now Use Their Skills in Secret Drones Program
Trevor Timm – The Guardian,
4 May 2015
There are many similarities between CIA’s use of drones and torture: Secrecy, lack of oversight and yes, even some of the people overseeing the programs.
→ read full articleWho Counts? Body Counts, Drones, and “Collateral Damage” (aka “Bug Splat”)
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
4 May 2015
In the twenty-first-century world of drone warfare, one question with two aspects reigns supreme: Who counts? In Washington, the answers are the same: We don’t count and they don’t count.
→ read full article(Italiano) Volti, sguardi, voci dall’India… ci invitano a una difesa comune della Terra
Elena Camino e Silvano Folco - Istituto di Ricerche Interdisciplinari sulla Sostenibilità (IRIS),
4 May 2015
La perdita di suolo, e più in generale la distruzione dei sistemi naturali dai quali tutta l’umanità dipende, è in larga misura la conseguenza della realizzazione pratica di un ‘immaginario’, cioè di una visione del mondo che è nata e si è sviluppata in Occidente, basata sulla convinzione che l’uomo possa ‘dominare’ la natura.
→ read full articleUN Aid Worker Suspended for Leaking Report on Child Abuse by French Troops
Sandra Laville – The Guardian,
4 May 2015
29 Apr 2015 – A senior United Nations aid worker has been suspended for disclosing to prosecutors an internal report on the sexual abuse of children by French peacekeeping troops in the Central African Republic. Anders Kompass said to have passed confidential document to French authorities because of UN’s failure to stop abuse of children in CAR.
→ read full articleSouth African Airways Bans the Transport of Hunting Trophies on All Their Carriers
Gerhard Jacobs – The South African,
4 May 2015
No more lion heads and leopard-skins for those who seek to plunder Africa’s eco resources as SAA takes a hard line against hunters. It’s a leap in the right direction and conservationists have hailed SAA as a beacon of action among major corporations.
→ read full article
Galtung Book Launching
Perdana Global Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 May 2015
Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, launches Johan Galtung’s two new books at the closing of the International Conference The ‘New World Order: A Recipe for War or Peace!’ in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
→ read full articleApartheid and the Palestinian National Struggle
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 May 2015
American citizens have a special responsibility for the long ordeal of the Palestinian people. The Jewish philosopher, Abraham Heschel observed “[f]ew are guilty, but all are responsible.” The Legitimacy War scenario gives each of us ample opportunities to exercise our individual responsibility. We owe the Palestinian people and ourselves nothing less.
→ read full articleIsrael’s Early Nuclear Deceit Damages Iran Nuclear Talks Today
Richard Silverstein – Middle East Eye,
27 Apr 2015
Instead of demonising Iran and treating it as a pariah state, wouldn’t there be more to gain from collaboration and cooperation? American Jewish money built Israel’s bomb.
→ read full articleThe Geopolitical Right of Exception at the United Nations
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Apr 2015
Overcoming the geopolitical right of exception would require its repudiation by the United States, in particular, through a recognition that it is incompatible with a peaceful, just, sustainable, and more participatory world order. This geopolitical right is also a vehicle of influence by private sector corporate and financial interests contrary to the global public interest.
→ read full articleWeakening and Discrediting the UN: The Mission of Israeli QGOs [Quasi-Government Organizations]
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Apr 2015
This is the full text of my presentation at the conference “The Israeli Lobby: Is it good for US? Is it good for Israel?” National Press Club, April 10, 2015. Although there were many illuminating presentations during the day, I would call particular attention to the memorable remarks of two highly informed Israelis, Gideon Levy and Miko Peled.
→ read full articleThe Harm of Regulatory Disharmony in Global Finance
Howard Davies – Project Syndicate,
20 Apr 2015
The problems caused by the global financial system’s new legal uncertainties.
→ read full article(Português) Como Reproduzimos a Cultura do Capital
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Apr 2015
Quem não tem, quer ter, quem tem, quer ter mais e quem tem mais diz: nunca é suficiente. E para a grande maioria, a competição e não a solidariedade e a supremacia do mais forte prevalecem sobre qualquer outro valor, nas relações sociais, especialmente, nos negócios.
→ read full articleThe Bank of International Settlements: Meet the Secretive Group That Runs the World
Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Apr 2015
When it comes to the historic record, nothing comes closer to the stereotypical, secretive group determining the fate of over 7 billion people, than the Bank of International Settlements, which hides in such plain sight, that few have ever paid much attention. -This Is Their Story-
→ read full articleArmenians 1915: The Genocide Controversy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Apr 2015
According to the great American novelist William Faulkner, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” This year being the centenary of the contested events of 1915 makes it understandable that was simmering through the decades has come to a boil, with the anniversary day of April 24th likely to be the climax of this latest phase of the unresolved drama.
→ read full articleClimate Change: At Last a Breakthrough to Our Catastrophic Political Impasse?
Julia Powles and Tessa Khan – The Guardian,
13 Apr 2015
30 Mar 2015 – Today a group of eminent jurists accuse governments and enterprises of being in clear and flagrant breach of their legal obligations on climate change – under human rights law, international law, environmental law, and tort law.
→ read full article(Português) Transgenicos, Glifosato e Cancro
Sílvia Ribeiro – Diário Liberdade,
13 Apr 2015
6 Abr 2015 – A Organização Mundial da Saúde confirmou que o glifosato, o agrotóxico mais difundido no mundo, que se usa em 85% dos cultivos transgénicos, é causa provável de cancro. Comunidades e famílias afetadas na Argentina, Paraguai e outros países vinham denunciando esta relação há anos, por sofrê-la diretamente. Agora a ONU confirmou-o.
→ read full article(Castellano) “La filosofía europea no es universal”
Steven Navarrete Cardona – El Espectador,
13 Apr 2015
3 Abr 2015 – El filósofo Enrique Dussel explica la apuesta a la descolonización del conocimiento en América Latina como una salida a la crisis medioambiental actual.
→ read full articleDoes Coffee Harm Your Gut?
Dr. Edward F. Group III – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Mar 2015
We know that coffee is full of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, plant-compounds, fats, and carbs. In small amounts, coffee can actually be beneficial for most healthy individuals. The main downside to coffee is that it’s highly acidic, and this acidity can have possible repercussions on the gut.
→ read full articleAmerican Sniper and America’s “War on Terror”
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Mar 2015
The issue I want to emphasize here is how extreme focus, eliminating both breadth and depth, historical context and psychological motivation, afflicts our general approach to the “War on Terror” and effectively rules out conflict resolution.
→ read full articleChange versus Continuity in the Philippines
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Mar 2015
When I asked how was it possible that the Marcos past has been so cleanly erased from the contemporary blackboard of Filipino awareness, I received various answers: “They have lots of money” “They never lost popularity in their home province where lots of development took place while Marcos governed ” “The past no longer matters; it is the present that counts” “the oligarchy still rules the country and includes all leading families regardless of their political affiliations.”
→ read full articleMonsanto Asks World Health Organization to ‘Retract’ Cancer Link
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Mar 2015
25 Mar 2015 – Just days after the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer released a report publicly declaring the well-known link between Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide and cancer, the GMO leviathan is already calling on the entire agency to issue a ‘retraction.’ Will the WHO Make the Change?
→ read full articleUniversities and the Challenge of Climate Change
Harvard President Drew Faust – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Mar 2015
There is a proverb that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago—and the second best time is now. When I first visited Tsinghua seven years ago, I planted a tree with President Gu in the Friendship Garden… Universities have the unique capacity and a special responsibility to fulfill the promise of that dream. Let us not waste a moment. It is already the second best time to plant a tree.
→ read full articleTwitter Puts Trillions of Tweets up for Sale to Data Miners
Juliette Garside – The Guardian,
23 Mar 2015
Company plans to make content generated by users available to commerce, academia and even police involved in crowd control.
→ read full articleThe NSA’s Plan: Improve Cybersecurity by Hacking Everyone Else
Trevor Timm – The Guardian,
23 Mar 2015
The NSA’s plan to protect America by starting cyberwars is absurd. Their argument that they need more power to do it is more so.
→ read full articleBuddhist Nationalists Stoke Hatred in Myanmar
Richard Bennett – Al Jazeera,
23 Mar 2015
Myanmar’s Proposed ‘Race and Religion Laws’ Fuel Hatred and Fear – Authorities should work for reconciliation between religious and ethnic groups – not play into hatred and fear, and seek to cement already widespread discrimination.
→ read full articleIran’s Nuclear Program: Diplomacy, War, and (In)Security in the Nuclear Age
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Mar 2015
Iran is expected not only to forego the option to acquire nuclear weapons, but to agree to a framework of intrusive inspection if it wants to be treated as a ‘normal’ state after it proves itself worthy. As indicated, this approach seems discriminatory and hypocritical in the extreme.
→ read full articleStalking Netanyahu’s Victory: Palestine and Iran
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Mar 2015
My immediate reaction to the outcome of the Israeli elections is that for Palestinian solidarity purposes, it was desirable for Netanyahu to receive this electoral mandate. It exhibits as clearly as possible that the long discredited Oslo ‘peace process’ is truly ‘discredited.’
→ read full articleOligarchy and Climate Change: A Catastrophic Coincidence
Naomi Klein - The Guardian,
16 Mar 2015
It is our great collective misfortune that the scientific community made its decisive diagnosis of the climate threat at the precise moment when an elite minority was enjoying more unfettered political, cultural, and intellectual power than at any point since the 1920s.
→ read full articleWhy Are White People Expats when the Rest of Us Are Immigrants?
Mawuna Remarque Koutonin – The Guardian,
16 Mar 2015
Surely any person going to work outside their country is an expatriate? But no, the word exclusively applies to white people. Africans are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. However, Europeans are expats because they can’t be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are superior. Immigrants is a term set aside for ‘inferior races’.
→ read full articleTechnology Should Be Used to Create Social Mobility – Not to Spy on Citizens
Cory Doctorow – The Guardian,
16 Mar 2015
NSA and GCHQ mass surveillance is more about disrupting political opposition than catching terrorists.
→ read full articleThe CIA’s Torturers and the Leaders Who Approved Their Actions Must Face the Law
Chelsea E Manning – The Guardian,
16 Mar 2015
According to the Senate Torture Report these programs were authorized at the highest levels of government and carried out in foreign places to avoid domestic detection and the issues of custody and jurisdiction: a premeditated and intentional conspiracy to violate US law and to avoid oversight and criminal liability.
→ read full articleThe Untold Story of How the Sugar Industry Shaped Key Government Research about Your Teeth
Roberto A. Ferdman – The Washington Post,
16 Mar 2015
11 Mar 2015 – Decades-old documents have surfaced showing that the powerful U.S. sugar industry skewed the government’s medical research on dental care. More recently, the industry attempted to influence changes to the nutrition facts label, for the inclusion of “added sugar,” to communicate how much sugar was added during processing. The industry is vehemently opposed.
→ read full article7 Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Colon Cancer
Dr. Edward F. Group III – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Mar 2015
Not only is there a sharply increasing rate in patients under 50, but also advanced stages of the cancer are being developed.
→ read full articleThe Sinister Treatment of Dissent at the BBC
Nick Cohen – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2015
9 Mar 2015 – The BBC is forcing out or demoting the journalists who exposed Jimmy Savile as a voracious abuser of girls. As Meirion Jones put it to me: “There is a small group of powerful people at the BBC who think it would have been better if the truth about Savile had never come out. And they aim to punish the reporters who revealed it.”
→ read full article(Português) Kiev [Ucrânia], Um Ano Depois
Rafael Poch - La Vanguardia,
9 Mar 2015
A população ucraniana dribla massivamente o recrutamento militar e vive uma situação econômica catastrófica. Um ano depois daquele desfile de ministros europeus néscios repartindo solidariedades e bolinhos na praça de Kiev, encontramo-nos com uma guerra na qual não se vê a marcha para trás.
→ read full articleMarch 5, 1871: Rosa Luxemburg Is Born
Richard Kreitner and The Almanac – The Nation,
9 Mar 2015
5 Mar 2015 – Rosa Luxemburg, founder of the Spartacus League, brutally murdered by proto-fascists in January 1919, was born on this day in 1871, just two weeks before the Paris Commune took hold.
→ read full articleNetanyahu: The Day After
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Mar 2015
4 Mar 2015 – My reaction to Netanyahu’s theatrical performance yesterday in Congress led me to recall that the deepest thinkers turned against democracy in ancient Greece because of the susceptibility of the Athenian citizenry to demagogic oratory from opportunistic politicians. Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides all became sensitive to the degree to which the rhetoric of demagogues contributed to the decline, and eventual downfall, of ancient Athens.
→ read full article
Turn! Turn! Turn! (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
The Byrds – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Mar 2015
–1960’s the Golden Decade–
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late!
Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Silencing Techniques: As Terrifying As Child Abuse Itself
Candace Conti – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2015
Elders in my congregation knew that there was a predator in our midst. But they threatened to punish those who spoke out. Candace Conti was the first child sexual abuse victim to win a jury trial against Watchtower.
→ read full articleUnder The Sun: Australia’s Largest Solar Farm Set to Sprout in a Queensland Field
Joshua Robertson – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2015
A sea of glass panels may soon be sprawling across Queensland cranking out 100 times more energy than the largest solar farm in Australia today. “Obviously there’s a great amount of opportunity out there but it does take a fair bit of boldness as well to be able to participate in this paradigm shift.” — Angus Gemmell
→ read full articleCommentary on Netanyahu’s Visit to the United States
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Mar 2015
2 Mar 2015 – It is far too simple to be merely outraged by the arrogant presumptuousness of tomorrow’s speech by the Israeli Prime Minister to a joint session of Congress two weeks prior to national elections in Israel. The Netanyahu visit has encouraged various forms of wishful thinking.
→ read full articleFormer Guantanamo Detainee David Hicks Speaks Up
Richard Phillips, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Mar 2015
Hicks, an Australian citizen, was captured in Afghanistan by the Northern Alliance in late 2001, sold to the US military and sent to Guantanamo Bay. He spent five and a half years in the prison hellhole where he was subjected to sleep deprivation, beatings, solitary confinement and was injected with unknown substances.
→ read full articleNew Zealand Spying on Pacific Allies for ‘Five Eyes’ and NSA, Snowden Files Show
Toby Manhire – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2015
5 Mar 2015 – New Zealand is spying indiscriminately on its allies in the Pacific region and sharing the information with the US and the other “Five Eyes” alliance states, according to documents from the whistleblower Edward Snowden.
→ read full articleSilicon Valley Pioneers and Michael Jordan Join Forbes Billionaires List
Rupert Neate – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2015
3 Mar 2015 – As list swells to 1,826 global billionaires, poverty charity Oxfam calls extreme inequality a ‘moral outrage’ as billions ‘go to bed hungry every night’. Silicon Valley created 23 new billionaires last year as the global elite increased its total wealth to an obscene $7tn.
→ read full article‘Lawfare’ and Liberation
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Mar 2015
In opposition to a law-oriented foreign policy for the United States are arguments of ‘American exceptionalism.’ Such arguments condition its applicability to American behavior and insist on the implementation of international law in relation to the alleged unlawful conduct of adversaries (e.g. Russia involvement in eastern Ukraine)
→ read full articleThe Warming World: Is Capitalism Destroying Our Planet?
Alexander Jung, Horand Knaup, Samiha Shafy and Bernhard Zand – Der Spiegel,
2 Mar 2015
25 Feb 2015 – World leaders decided in Copenhagen that global warming should be limited to 2 degrees Celsius. Achieving that target, though, would take nothing less than a miracle. With another round of climate negotiations approaching, it is becoming increasingly clear that mankind has failed to address its most daunting problem.
→ read full article(Italiano) Diagnosi & Prognosi: Valutazione del conflitto ucraino. Formazione da una prospettiva di pace
Naakow Grant-Hayford – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Mar 2015
La riuscita espansione dei codici e delle istituzioni economico-politico-militari dell’UE e della NATO nella direzione generale della Russia sin dalla fine della Guerra Fredda, confligge di nuovo apertamente, come nel caso della Georgia nel 2008, con gli interessi russi nella sua orbita immediata e ha incendiato l’Ucraina orientale.
→ read full article(Italiano) Quando un terrorista non è un terrorista
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Mar 2015
Ciò che la polizia di Chapel Hill, nella Carolina del Nord ha inizialmente pubblicizzato nel mondo come ‘un litigio per un parcheggio’, è stata l’uccisione deliberata di tre giovani e devoti studenti musulmani americani per mano di un assassino, ‘nuovo ateo’ di nome Craig Stephen Hicks, motivato ideologicamente. Quello che The Economist chiama senza esitazione ‘terrorismo a Copenhagen ha implicato il tentativo di sparare a un vignettista danese che ripetutamente deride il Profeta e le convinzioni islamiche e ha implicato anche l’uccisione con arma da fuoco di una guardia di sicurezza ebrea davanti a una sinagoga.
→ read full articleRohingya and National Identities in Burma [Myanmar]
Carlos Sardiña Galache, New Mandala – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Mar 2015
Rather than attempting to defend Rohingya claims, I argue that the notion of “national races” itself, and thus the set of assumptions hitherto determining the terms of the debate, are fundamentally false and do not facilitate any understanding of the history and present social realities of Burma.
→ read full articleSpy Cables: Greenpeace among Intelligence Targets
Rahul Radhakrishnan & Will Jordan – Al Jazeera,
2 Mar 2015
S Korea asked for a “specific security assessment” of Greenpeace Director Kumi Naidoo
Cameroon’s agency asked to spy on an opposition leader weeks ahead of elections
Rwanda tried to list “genocide fugitives” and “negationists” as surveillance targets
A deal with Zimbabwe to spy on “rogue NGOs”
Continuous requests from Sri Lanka for S Africa to spy on Tamil diaspora groups
Morgan Stanley Strikes $2.6bn Deal to Settle Mortgage Bubble Case
Associated Press – The Guardian,
2 Mar 2015
The investment bank said late on Wednesday [25 Feb 2015] the $2.6bn will go to “resolve certain claims” the Justice Department intended to bring against Morgan Stanley over its role in the mortgage bubble and subsequent financial crisis.
→ read full articleMulticulturalism and Its Dilemmas
Immanuel Wallerstein – Toward Freedom,
2 Mar 2015
And then there are in-migrations of wealthy persons from the Global North into zones where they buy out the desirable land, raise costs generally, and force groups that had been previously there into marginal existences. This is now happening around the globe in zones that are climatically more desirable.
→ read full articleHow to Pay for Social Programmes
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Mar 2015
Chapter Eight of: Economic Theory and Community Development – Where we are going with our analysis: What we need is not so much a new economics as a new psychology. We need alignment with the common good. We need community.
→ read full article(Português) Internet de banda larga como ‘bem público’ nos EUA
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Mar 2015
Por três votos contra dois, a neutralidade da rede ganhou uma importante batalha nos EUA contra os grandes distribuidores e produtores de conteúdos online.
→ read full article(Português) SwissLeaks: revelações sobre um sistema de fraude fiscal internacional
Fabrice Lhomme e Gérard Davet - Le Monde,
23 Feb 2015
19 Fev 2015 – Os números são de tirar o fôlego. A série de reportagens publicada pelo jornal Le Monde, espetacular e inédita, é fruto de investigações realizadas entre Paris, Washington, Bruxelas e Genebra, e revela os bastidores de um grande sistema de evasão fiscal aceito, e até encorajado, pelo britânico HSBC, o segundo maior banco do mundo, através da sua filial suíça HSBC Private Bank.
→ read full articleFebruary 19, 1942: FDR Orders the Internment of the Japanese
The Almanac and Richard Kreitner – The Nation,
23 Feb 2015
19 Feb 2015 – The Nation’s response to the president’s evacuation, relocation and internment order was not nearly as firmly opposed as one now wishes it had been.
→ read full articleWorld Press Freedom Index 2015: Decline on All Fronts
Reporters Without Borders – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Feb 2015
The Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index ranks the performance of 180 countries according to a range of criteria that include media pluralism and independence, respect for the safety and freedom of journalists, and the legislative, institutional and infrastructural environment in which the media operate.
→ read full articleWorld’s Biggest Offshore Windfarm Approved for UK Yorkshire Coast
Fiona Harvey – The Guardian,
23 Feb 2015
17 Feb 2015 – Plans for the world’s biggest offshore windfarm have been given the green light by the energy secretary, with planning permission for an array of up to 400 turbines 80 miles off the Yorkshire coast on the Dogger Bank.
→ read full articleThe CIA Asked Me about Controlling the Climate – This Is Why We Should Worry
Alan Robock – The Guardian,
23 Feb 2015
Geoengineering has many risks, and we don’t yet know the CIA’s intentions. But given the lack of political will on climate change, we have to look at it.
→ read full articleWhen a Terrorist Is Not a Terrorist
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Feb 2015
What the Chapel Hill police in North Carolina initially pitched as ‘a parking dispute’ was the deliberate killing of three young and devout Muslim American students by an ideologically driven ‘new atheist’ killer named Craig Stephen Hicks. What the The Economist unhesitatingly calls ‘terrorism in Copenhagen’ involved the attempted shooting of a Danish cartoonist who repeatedly mocks the Prophet and Islamic beliefs as well as the lethal shooting of a Jewish security guard outside a synagogue.
→ read full article(Português) Morrem Três Jornalistas Que Investigavam a Participação dos EUA na Demolição das Torres Gêmeas
Diário Liberdade – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Feb 2015
Três jornalistas que trabalhavam em um documentário sobre o envolvimento do governo norte-americano na demolição das torres gêmeas morreram nos últimos dias. Trata-se do ex-repórter internacional da NBC Ned Colt, o correspondente da CBS News [60 Minutes] Bob Simon, e o jornalista do New York Times David Carr.
→ read full article(Português) O Bem Comum Foi Enviado ao Limbo
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
23 Feb 2015
O neoliberalismo demoliu a noção de bem comum. Em seu lugar, entraram as noções de rentabilidade, de flexibilização, de adaptação e de competitividade.
→ read full articleYanis Varoufakis: How I Became an Erratic Marxist
Yanis Varoufakis – The Guardian,
23 Feb 2015
Before he entered politics, Yanis Varoufakis, the iconoclastic Greek finance minister at the centre of the latest eurozone standoff, wrote this searing account of European capitalism and how the left can learn from Marx’s mistakes.
→ read full articleInterview with William Schabas, Former Chair, UN Commission of Inquiry for 2014 Israeli Attack on Gaza
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Feb 2015
Interview with Prof. William Schabas, recently resigned under pressure as Chair of the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to Investigate Allegations of State Crimes associated with Israel’s military attack on Gaza, code named Operation Protective Edge.
→ read full articleUSA: Accused of ‘Terrorism,’ Animal Rights Activists Head to Federal Court
Deirdre Fulton – Common Dreams,
23 Feb 2015
“The profits of these industries depend not only on keeping animals inside cages but, more significantly, on keeping the idea of animal rights marginalized.” — Rachel Meeropol, Center for Constitutional Rights
→ read full article