Articles by AP

We found 817 results.


Why Fighting Donald Trump on Climate Change Is a Waste of Time
Captain Paul Watson | Sea Shepherd – The Huffington Post, 21 Nov 2016

Donald Trump’s denial of Climate Change is irrelevant. It is a scientific reality and its denial as a problem does not make the threat go away. The reality cannot be changed by the personal beliefs of the president of the United States. This is akin to King Canute demanding that the tide cease to rise. When he failed to force the ocean to his will, he proclaimed, “let all men know how empty and worthless the power of kings is.” Presidents, like kings, have no authority over Nature.

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International Conference on Gandhian Perspectives on Contemporary Conflicts and Peace
Dr. Aurobinda Mahapatra | Gandhi Center for Non-Violence, Human Rights and World Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Nov 2016

The Mahatma Gandhi Center for Non-Violence, Human Rights and World Peace at the Hindu University of America organized an international conference on Nov 3-4 2016, on the theme Gandhian perspectives on contemporary conflicts and peace. Speakers from Europe, Canada and India, besides the US, participated in the conference and focused on various aspects of Gandhian philosophy and its relevance for conflict resolution.

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The Balfour Declaration 99 Years Ago Marked the Beginning of a Settler Colonial Project of Tragic Proportions
Ilan Pappe – Al Jazeera, 7 Nov 2016

2 Nov 2016 – November is a painful month dotted with commemorative days that have one theme in common: the partitioning of Palestine. Today is the 99th anniversary of the Balfour declaration. Although it did not offer partition, it sowed the seeds for it, which eventually allowed the Zionist movement to take over Palestine.

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Shimon Peres from the Perspective of His Victims
Ilan Pappe |The Electronic Intifada – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Oct 2016

28 Sep 2016 – The obituaries for Shimon Peres have already appeared, no doubt prepared in advance as the news of his hospitalization reached the media. My guess is that very few of the obituaries will examine Peres’ life and activities from the perspective of the victims of Zionism and Israel.

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(Français) Shimon Peres du point de vue de ses victimes
Ilan Pappé | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Oct 2016

Les nécrologies de Shimon Peres ont déjà été publiées, préparées sans aucun doute à l’avance, dès que la nouvelle de son hospitalisation est parue dans les médias. Le verdict sur sa vie est très clair et a déjà été prononcé par le président américain Barack Obama : Peres était un homme qui a changé le cours de l’histoire humaine dans sa recherche incessante pour la paix au Moyen-Orient. Mon intuition est que très peu des nécrologies examineront la vie et les activités de Peres du point de vue des victimes du sionisme et d’Israël.

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Watch the Trailer for Leonardo DiCaprio’s New Documentary ‘Before the Flood’
National Geographic – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Oct 2016

Sep 27, 2016 – A riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change. BEFORE THE FLOOD will be in theaters in NYC and LA starting October 21, and air globally on the National Geographic Channel starting Oct 30.

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John Lennon (9 Oct 1940 – 8 Dec 1980)
Biography – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Oct 2016

“If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliché that should have been left behind in the ’60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.”
—John Lennon

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(Português) Telemóveis no frigorífico, fita-cola na webcam. “Não devemos ser paranóicos, mas para quê facilitar-lhes o trabalho?”
Catarina Santos | Renascença - Sapo, 26 Sep 2016

Uma história que ultrapassava a de “um Jason Bourne ou de um James Bond” e que o jornalista Luke Harding transformou no romance não ficcionado “Os ficheiros Snowden – A história secreta do homem mais procurado do mundo”. O livro inspirou “Snowden”, o filme de Oliver Stone. Em entrevista à Renascença.

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Chappatte on Hillary Clinton’s Health
Patrick Chappatte – The New York Times, 19 Sep 2016

Mrs. Clinton’s preference for privacy backfired.

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Israeli Settlements Have Grown During the Obama Years
Josef Federman | AP – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Sep 2016

As Obama heads into the home stretch of his presidency, he leaves behind an unfulfilled vision. Not only did he fail to stop it, but he watched Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem thrive — despite repeated White House condemnations.

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Turkey’s Military Operation in Syria
Patrick Chappatte – The New York Times, 5 Sep 2016

31 Aug 2016 – Turkey sent tanks, warplanes and special operations forces into northern Syria last week.

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Broadspectrum ‘Violating’ Human Rights at Australian Offshore Detention Centers
Pratap Chatterjee | CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Aug 2016

New reports accuse employees of Broadspectrum Limited of providing appalling living conditions and neglecting the care of their charges. Broadspectrum was awarded a A$1.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) contract by the Australian government in October 2012 to manage Australia’s detention centers on Manus and Nauru islands. At the present moment, an estimated 847 people are being held on Manus and 466 people are being held in Nauru.

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Olympic Executioners: Guilty Until Proven Guilty
Mark Chapman – Oriental Review, 15 Aug 2016

The ‘Independent Commission’ did not question or interview any Russian athletes or officials except for the Stepanovs and Grigory Rodchenkov. “The IP did not seek to interview persons living in the Russian Federation …. I did not seek to meet with Russian government officials and did not think it necessary…” And, you see, that’s a problem. Because athletes on the Track and Field team who have never failed a drug test were banned, by association, from competing, on no grounds but their nationality.

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NATO: Increasing the Role of Nuclear Weapons
Susi Snyder | International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Aug 2016

The majority of countries are ready to end the danger posed by nuclear weapons and to start negotiations for a treaty banning them. However, both documents issued by the NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland 8-9 July 2016–the Summit Communiqué and the Warsaw Declaration on Transatlantic Security–reaffirmed the NATO commitment to nuclear weapons, and the Communiqué included a return to cold war style language on nuclear sharing.

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Japan Seeks Talks with U.S. over ‘No First Use’ Nuclear Policy Change
The Japan Times – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Aug 2016

The Japanese government has expressed concern over reports that the Obama administration may be planning to implement a policy of “No First Use,” meaning that the U.S. would pledge never to use nuclear weapons first in a conflict. A senior Japanese government official said, “From the [standpoint of] Japan’s security, it is unacceptable.”

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International Conference: Gandhian Perspectives on Contemporary Conflicts and Peace
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, Ph.D. - Mahatma Gandhi Center for Nonviolence, Human Rights and World Peace, 8 Aug 2016

November 3-4, 2016 ~ Orlando [Florida] Campus of the Hindu University of America ~ The Conference aims at exploring Gandhian principles, their problem solving potentials, and relevance of Gandhi for addressing global problems such as inter-state and intra-state conflicts, international peace, religious extremism, degeneration of human values, social and religious discord and violation of human rights.

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(Français) La propagande d’Israël (extrait)
Ilan Pappé | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Aug 2016

« Par une nuit chaude de juillet 1994, des centaines de personnes s’étaient rassemblées dans une salle d’université à Tel-Aviv pour écouter un débat sur le savoir et le pouvoir en Israël…

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Cairn Energy Demands India Pay $5.6 Billion or Drop Back Tax Claim
Pratap Chatterjee | CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jul 2016

15 Jul 2016 – The Scottish oil exploration company has demanded compensation for losses it claims are a result of a tax assessment…. Vodafone also has another pending case on taxation of offshore transactions in India…. The Indian government lost a similar case against Shell in the Bombay High Court and chose not to appeal.

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Nelson Mandela (18 Jul 1918 – 5 Dec 2013)
Biography – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jul 2016

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in Mveso, Transkei, South Africa. Becoming actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement in his 20s, he joined the African National Congress in 1942. Mandela became the first black president of South Africa in 1994, serving until 1999. A symbol of global peacemaking, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

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Uruguay Defeats Philip Morris in Major Win for Anti-Smoking Advocates
Pratap Chatterjee | CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jul 2016

11 Jul 2016 – Uruguay has defeated Philip Morris, the global tobacco giant, in a major international lawsuit over the country’s tough anti-smoking regulations. On March 26, 2010, Philip Morris filed a complaint against Uruguay at the World Bank arbitration tribunal. The action was intended to escalate the fight to an international level and to take advantage of trade laws that typically favor major corporations by allowing them to claim damages from laws that deny them profits from their investments.

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(Português) Uruguai vence processo contra gigante do tabaco por causa das políticas restritivas
Nuno Noronha – Sapo, 18 Jul 2016

Vitória sobre o Capitalismo Predatório: Diversas organizações internacionais e nacionais congratulam-se pela vitória do governo do Uruguai sobre a tabaqueira Philip Morris numa decisão ímpar classificada como “modelo na luta contra a epidemia do tabaco”.

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Tears in Heaven (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Eric Clapton – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jul 2016

“Tears in Heaven” is a ballad written by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings about the pain Clapton felt following the death of his four-year-old son, Conor, who fell from a window of the 53rd-floor New York apartment of his mother’s friend, on March 20, 1991.

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New Violation Tracker Tool Helps Public Track U.S. Corporate Misconduct
Pratap Chatterjee | CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jul 2016

Bank of America leads with $56 billion in fines. Second on this list is JP Morgan Chase which has paid out $28 billion in fines and penalties to the U.S. government while BP comes in at third place with $25.4 billion. Conclusions from 110,000 cases and $270 billion in fines and penalties since the beginning of 2010 that have been added to Violation Tracker. Most surprising is that less than one half of one percent of the cases involve criminal charges.

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Franz Kafka (3 Jul 1883 – 3 Jun 1924)
Biography – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Jul 2016

Born in Prague, capital of what is now the Czech Republic, writer Franz Kafka grew up in an upper middle-class Jewish family. After studying law at the University of Prague, he worked in insurance and wrote in the evenings. In 1923, he moved to Berlin to focus on writing, but died of tuberculosis shortly after. His friend Max Brod published most of his work posthumously, such as Amerika and The Castle.

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Free at Last
Chappatte - International New York Times, 4 Jul 2016

What now?

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(Português) Cientistas europeus descobrem anticorpos que atacam vírus Zika
Nuno Noronha | Sapo – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Jun 2016

Cientistas europeus anunciaram esta quinta-feira[23 Jun] a descoberta de anticorpos que atacam o Zika, um passo que pode permitir o desenvolvimento de uma vacina contra o vírus que causa lesões cerebrais em fetos e distúrbios neurológicos em adultos.

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(Italiano) Quando la Siria ospitava i rifugiati europei
Evan Taparata e Kuang Keng Kuek Ser | PRI – Frontiere News, 30 May 2016

Nei primi anni ’40, Aleppo (così come Nuseirat in Palestina e diverse località in Egitto) ha accolto migliaia di europei in fuga dagli orrori e dalle tragedie della seconda guerra mondiale.

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During WWII European Refugees Fled to Syria – Here Is What the Camps Were Like
Evan Taparata and Kuang Keng Kuek Ser – Public Radio International-PRI, 30 May 2016

Since civil war erupted in Syria five years ago, millions of refugees have sought safe harbor in Europe by land and by sea, through Turkey and across the Mediterranean. Refugees crossed these same passageways 70 years ago. But they were not Syrians and they traveled in the opposite direction. At the height of World War II, the Middle East Relief and Refugee Administration (MERRA) operated camps in Syria, Egypt and Palestine where tens of thousands of people from across Europe sought refuge.

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A Brief History of the ‘Nakba’ in Israel
Eitan Bronstein Aparicio | Mondoweiss – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 May 2016

This text describes the discourse on the Nakba — mostly the concept but also the historical event — in Israel. When did it appear? When did it decline and was repressed? What caused these changes? It deals with the attitude towards the Nakba in Hebrew and does not attempt to describe the attitudes and changes it went through in Arabic and in the Arab world.

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A Perfect Storm
Andrew P. Napolitano | LewRockwell – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 May 2016

A below the radar yet largely known debate in the Kremlin between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Intelligence Services to determine whether they should release some 20,000 of Mrs. Clinton’s emails they obtained either by hacking her directly or by hacking into the email of her confidante, Sid Blumenthal.

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US Army’s Depleted Uranium Licencing Saga Highlights Post-Conflict Contradictions
International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 May 2016

The saga of the M101 contamination should serve as a reminder of the contradictory and often hypocritical approach taken by the states that employ DU weapons – and of the challenge that the use of DU weapons poses to fundamental international radiation protection norms.

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AP Investigation: Are Slaves Catching the Fish You Buy?
Robin Mcdowell, Margie Mason and Martha Mendoza, AP –TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Apr 2016

Update: On 18 Apr 2016 the all-woman Associated Press team won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for this investigation [published on TMS in 30 Mar 2015].
25 Mar 2015 – The men the AP interviewed on Benjina were mostly from Myanmar, also known as Burma, one of the poorest countries in the world. They were brought to Indonesia through Thailand and forced to fish. Their catch was then shipped back to Thailand, where it entered the global stream of commerce.

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Drone Whistleblowers Step Out of the Shadows: In Washington’s Drone Wars, Collateral Damage Comes Home
Pratap Chatterjee – TomDispatch, 25 Apr 2016

“I just want people to know that not everybody is a freaking terrorist and we need to just get out of that mindset. And we just need to see these people as people — families, communities, brothers, mothers, and sisters, because that’s who they are,” says Lisa. In addition to those they kill, Washington’s drones turn out to wound (in ways both physical and psychological) their own operators and the populations who live under their constant surveillance.

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World Bank Orders Venezuela to Pay Crystallex $1.4 Billion for Imataca Forest Reserve Gold Mine
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Apr 2016

Imataca, one of four major pristine forest reserves in the country, is home to the indigenous Akawaio, Arawako, Karina, Pemon and Warao peoples. It also sits above what geologists believe to be the largest gold deposits in the continent worth some $20 billion. The court decision marks yet another milestone in corporate victories against national governments using international trade treaties.

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Peace May Be With You (Music Video of the Week)
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter [The Horsemen of the Apocalypse] – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Apr 2016

Politically Correct Heavy Metal from Germany

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(Português) Estudar na universidade é um sonho tornado realidade para cada vez mais ciganos em Portugal
Susana Venceslau, André Kosters e Pedro Martins, Lusa – Sapo24, 11 Apr 2016

8 abr 2016 – Ser cigano e estudante universitário é uma realidade que começa a ser cada vez mais frequente, como José e Francisco, dois ciganos em busca do mesmo sonho, mas sem perderem a identidade que os une.

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Global Military Spending Nearly $1.7T amid Mideast Conflicts
Jon Gambrell, AP – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Apr 2016

Global military spending rose in 2015 to nearly $1.7 trillion, the first increase in several years, driven by conflicts including the battle against the Islamic State group, the Saudi-led war in Yemen and fears about Iran, a report released Tuesday [5 Apr 2016] shows.

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Thinking: The Missing Link
Sutapa Das – ISKCON News, 4 Apr 2016

How does inspiration turn into transformation? What does it take to cash in on this spiritual wealth that we gather? Why do striking moments of insight inconspicuously fade away upon re-entering the routine of life?

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Consciousness versus Computers
Jon Rappoport - The Conscious Reporter, 28 Mar 2016

Can machines truly be spiritual? Are they free? Or are freedom and spirituality born from consciousness, which machines sorely lack? The author explores whether consciousness is being negated and replaced with a technocratic religion as a subtle form of social control.

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Aung San Suu Kyi in Anti-Muslim Spat with BBC Presenter
Jennifer Rigby and Nicola Harley – The Telegraph, 28 Mar 2016

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate made an off-air comment about BBC Today presenter Mishal Husain after losing her temper, new book reveals. “No-one told me I was going to be interviewed by a Muslim.”

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Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps—A First
Ker Than - National Geographic News, 22 Feb 2016

“Very confident” four-year-olds outsmart hunters and protect their clan. Just days after a poacher’s snare had killed one of their own, two young mountain gorillas worked together to find and destroy traps in their Rwandan forest home, according to conservationists on the scene.

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The Predators behind the TPP
Karel Van Wolferen – The Japan Times, 15 Feb 2016

If signed and ratified, the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic agreements, which seek to organize business activity under one gigantic umbrella of new rules, are likely to change our living environment in ways very different from what elected officials have been misled to imagine.

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Why Our World Needs Peace Literacy
Paul K. Chappell, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Feb 2016

Peace literacy is the next step in the development of our global civilization, because peace literacy is necessary in an interconnected world where the fate of every nation is tied to the fate of our planet. Because of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons, war, and environmental destruction, being preliterate in peace puts humanity and our planet at great risk. During an era when humanity has the technological capacity to destroy itself, peace literacy means survival literacy.

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By 2050, There Will Be More Plastic than Fish in the World’s Oceans, Study Says
Sarah Kaplan – The Washington Post, 25 Jan 2016

About a third of all plastics produced escape collection systems, only to wind up in the stomach of some unsuspecting bird. That amounts to about 8 million metric tons a year — or, as Jenna Jambeck of the University of Georgia put it to The Washington Post, “Five bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world.”

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How Our Naive Understanding of Violence Helps ISIS
Paul K. Chappell, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Dec 2015

During the era of the Internet revolution, it is naive to believe that we can use violence to defeat the ideologies that sustain terrorism. ISIS and Al Qaida are global movements, and with the Internet and social media, they can recruit people from all over the world, including people on American and European soil. And they only have to recruit a tiny amount of Americans and Europeans, initiate a single attack, and kill a few people to cause the huge overreactions that they want from their opponents.

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(Português) Organização Sea Shepherd alerta Japão contra o recomeço da caça a baleia
Sapo24 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Nov 2015

A organização ambiental Sea Shepherd alertou hoje o Japão contra o recomeço da “caça para fins científicos” no Antártico, apelando ao Governo australiano que intervenha.

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The Boom and Bust of CIA’s Secret Torture Sites
Crofton Black and Sam Raphael – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 19 Oct 2015

In nine months of research, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Rendition Project have pieced together the hidden history of the CIA’s secret sites. Although many published accounts of individual journeys through the black site network exist, this is the first comprehensive portrayal of the system’s inner dynamics from beginning to end.

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Burma: Divisive Ceasefire Won’t Bring Peace
Maung Zarni and Saw Kapi, DVB – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Sep 2015

Burma’s leaders, particularly generals past and present, lack both genuine acceptance of multi-ethnic peace on equal terms and an appreciation for the decades of bitter experiences of war-torn communities. Without these two essential pillars, sustainable peace in my country of birth is not conceivable, formal ceasefire or not.

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Anti-Abe Feeling Grows in SDF
Sentaku Magazine – The Japan Times, 31 Aug 2015

Aug 26, 2015 – Bitter feelings against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are quietly permeating through members of the Self-Defense Forces, who fear being sent to battlefields abroad as chances are growing for the Diet to pass his security-related bills, which he hopes will give his name a prominent place in history.

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Change Everything or Face a Global Katrina
Naomi Klein, The Leap – TRANSCEND Media Service, 31 Aug 2015

Today I am posting, for the first time, the entire section on Hurricane Katrina from my last book, ‘The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.’ The same military equipment and contractors used against New Orleans’ Black residents have since been used to militarize police across the United States, contributing to the epidemic of murders of unarmed Black men and women. That is one way in which the Disaster Capitalism Complex perpetuates itself and protects its lucrative market.

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Mediterranean Desperation: Saving Lives at the World’s Most Dangerous Border
Juliane von Mittelstaedt and Christian Werner (Photography) – Der Spiegel, 17 Aug 2015

Doctors Without Borders is the only major humanitarian organization actively rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean. So far, it has saved more than 10,000 people. But in the world’s biggest crisis region, timing is everything.

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Outsourcing the Kill Chain: Eleven Drone Contractors Revealed
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Aug 2015

3 Aug 2015 – Hundreds of private sector intelligence analysts are being paid to review surveillance footage from U.S. military drones in Central Asia and the Middle East, according to a new report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

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Hiroshima Peace Declaration by Mayor Kazumi Matsui
The Japan Times - TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Aug 2015

Below is the full text of the Peace Declaration delivered Thursday [6 Aug 2015] by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui at the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the USA.

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Dr. Walter Palmer’s Crime Must Not Be Forgotten: Killing Cecil the Lion
Captain Paul Watson – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Aug 2015

Our outrage is having a positive impact. Delta, Air France, Emirates, Air Canada and United have banned the shipment of wildlife trophies. Zimbabwe has banned lion hunting. The U.S. Congress is considering a bill to ban wildlife trophies into the U.S. Botswana has banned big game hunting. We need to keep this outrage alive and we need to focus on destroying the Safari Club International and their 50,000 sadistic members. We need to create an understanding that anyone who puts a head of an animal on the wall as a trophy should be ostracized and publicly shamed.

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Are Foreign NGOs Rebuilding Haiti or Just Cashing In?
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus, 20 Jul 2015

Haiti plays host to over 10,000 NGOs, whose foreign workers make up an affluent class of their own. By spending exorbitant sums on incentives for non-locals, NGOs effectively undermine the work they’re supposedly trying to do in Haiti

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The Billion-Dollar Business to Sell Us Crappy Food
Anna Lappé – Al Jazeera, 13 Jul 2015

New report sheds light on the covert tactics used to shape public opinion about what we eat. Because the food industry employs under-the-radar PR strategies, often people don’t realize the stories are being crafted behind the scenes.

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Killing by Committee in the Global Wild West: The Perpetrators Become the Victims of Drone Warfare
Pratap Chatterjee - TomDispatch, 13 Jul 2015

There’s nothing “lone” about drone warfare. Think of the structure for carrying out Washington’s drone killing program as a multidimensional pyramid populated with hundreds of personnel and so complex that just about no one involved really grasps the full picture.

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BRICS: A New Way of Global Partnership
Dr Alexander Yakovenko, LEAP/GEAB – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jul 2015

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of solidarity of BRICS voices calling for major cooperation on the peaceful settlement of conflicts based on the UN Charter. The world is at a turning point.

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Obama Administration Spied on German Media As Well As Its Government
Jake Tapper – CNN, 6 Jul 2015

4 Jul 2015 – An investigation by the German parliament is raising questions on whether the Obama administration not only spied on journalists in that country, but also interfered in the exercise of the free press. The NSA continues to upset free press advocates and those with memories of repressive governments both Communist and Nazi.

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IMF Admits: We Failed to Realize the Damage Austerity Would Do to Greece
LEAP/GEAB – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jul 2015

The International Monetary Fund admitted it had failed to realize the damage austerity would do to Greece as the Washington-based organization catalogued mistakes made during the bailout of the stricken eurozone country.

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Why We Should All Be Indebted to Syriza: Three Victories of the Greek Government
Jacques Sapir - CounterPunch, 29 Jun 2015

It is from now on clear that the Greek Government has achieved a spectacular victory. It has been improperly labeled ‘a government of the radical left’ or ‘the Syriza government’, but in reality it is a coalition (and the fact that this union has been made with the ‘sovereignist’* party ANEL is significant).

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International Yoga Day: Some Reflections
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Jun 2015

Last year, the UN declared 21 June as International Yoga Day. The Yoga lovers all over the world rejoiced at the UN declaration. Let me briefly analyze what I understand by the term Yoga.

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(Français) Les Trois Victoires du Gouvernement Grec
Jacques Sapir, RussEurope – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Jun 2015

Il est désormais clair que le gouvernement grec, abusivement appelé « gouvernement de la gauche radicale » ou « gouvernement de SYRIZA », mais en réalité gouvernement d’union (et le fait que cette union ait été faite avec le parti souverainiste ANEL est significatif), a remporté des succès spectaculaire.

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Is China Reclaiming the Law of the Sea?
Mira Rapp-Hooper – Lawfare Institute, 25 May 2015

In the last year, China has undertaken extensive efforts to transform at least 6 of these 7 reefs into artificial islands. China is not the only Spratly claimant to have engaged in serious construction efforts. Indeed, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam have all performed significant construction of some sort on the features that they occupy.

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Organic Is Going Mainstream
Anna Lappé – Al Jazeera America, 18 May 2015

Food-Industry-Funded Spin on Health and Sustainability Is Losing Traction

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The Nakba: A Crime Watched, Ignored and Remembered
Ilan Pappe – Middle East Eye, 18 May 2015

The steadfastness of the Palestinians is like the age-old olive trees in Palestine that succeed in resurfacing between the European pines. The 15th of May is usually a trigger for a journey back in time. And for an unfathomable reason each such journey conjures up a different aspect of the Nakba.

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Deutsche Bank Pays $2.5 Billion Fine for Interest Rate Rigging
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 May 2015

27 Apr 2015 – Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay out a record $2.5 billion fine to settle U.K. and U.S. government investigations into allegations of fixing global interest rates, just months after six other banks paid out $4.3 billion on similar charges. Activists say that the banks should have faced criminal charges.

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The West against Itself
Johan Galtung, 27 Apr 2015 - TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Apr 2015

Take the 70th anniversary demarcation of the victory over nazism… Poland lost 20% of its population; the Soviet Union 27.1 million, 16%, with 1,710 cities and 70,000 villages erased; UK 1.1%; USA 0.4%; Norway 0.32%.

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Hindu Rashtra and Two-Nation Theory
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Apr 2015

A debate has recently gained momentum in India around the idea of Hindu Rashtra or Hindu nation-state… Hinduism is not dogmatic; it embraces pluralism. It believes in coexistence with other religions. Mahatma Gandhi was a proponent of this coexistence.

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How a Gay Man Saved 14 Million Lives – Alan Turing
Captain Paul Watson – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Apr 2015

This gay atheist man saved the lives of over 14 million people in World War II. He broke the “unbreakable” Nazi ‘Enigma Code.’ And yet in 1952 he was sentenced to two years in prison. His crime: he was a homosexual. He was offered an alternative to prison – chemical castration. It destroyed his health and caused depression. In 1954 he was dead at 41 of suspected suicide.

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Former Ambassador: 40 Years Ago, US Handed Cambodia to ‘Butcher’
Denis D. Gray, AP, Stars and Stripes - TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Apr 2015

John Gunther Dean recalls what he describes as one of the most tragic days of his life: April 12, 1975, the day the United States “abandoned Cambodia and handed it over to the butcher. We’d accepted responsibility for Cambodia and then walked out without fulfilling our promise. That’s the worst thing a country can do,” he says in an interview in Paris. “And I cried because I knew what was going to happen.”

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One Year after Russia Annexed Crimea, Locals Prefer Moscow to Kiev
Kenneth Rapoza - Forbes, 30 Mar 2015

20 Mar 2015 – The U.S and European Union may want to save Crimeans from themselves. But the Crimeans are happy right where they are. One year after the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea, poll after poll shows that the locals there — be they Ukrainians, ethnic Russians or Tatars are mostly all in agreement: life with Russia is better than life with Ukraine.

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A Desolate World without GMO Crops: Inside Monsanto’s Demented Spin Campaign
Anna Lappe, Earth Island Journal – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Mar 2015

Fifty years after “Silent Spring” hit bookstores, Big Ag is still trying to win the public’s hearts and minds.

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Non-Proliferation Treaty: US Attempts to Bully Allies into Inaction
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Mar 2015

Mar 18, 2015 – The Norwegian Under Secretary of State admitted that Norway has been ‘demarched’ by the USA to not sign the pledge to fill the legal gap on nuclear weapons. This revelation follows a recent story exposing similar pressures directed towards Japan to prevent them from supporting the pledge.

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Barbie the Spy!
Alfredo Lopez – This Can’t Be Happening, 16 Mar 2015

This doll can converse with your child, record the answers and transmit them to a data-bank at the company’s headquarters, storing them under the child’s name and other personal information. It then analyzes this data and responds to it… immediately or months later. Given a little time, it will have profiled your child and turned her into an information gathering source.

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American Drone Operators Are Quitting in Record Numbers
Pratap Chatterjee - TomDispatch, 9 Mar 2015

An internal Air Force memo reveals that the US military’s drone wars are in major trouble. The pilots themselves say that it’s humiliating to be scorned by their Air Force colleagues as second-class citizens. Some have called drone war a “coward’s war.” Perhaps a sense of dishonor in fighting from behind a screen is having an impact that psychologists never before witnessed.

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33 Latin American and Caribbean States Call for a Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Mar 2015

Latin American and Caribbean states [CELAC] have once again shown a united front and a clear vision for the future of nuclear disarmament.

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TPP Chief Negotiators to Meet in Mid-March in Hawaii
Jiji Kyodo – The Japan Times, 2 Mar 2015

The chief negotiators’ meeting is being arranged from March 9 to 15, according to the sources. The 12 TPP negotiating countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, USA, Japan and Vietnam.

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Ten Enduring Mysteries of the Longyou Caves
April Holloway, Ancient Origins – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Feb 2015

In China lies the Longyou caves – an extensive, magnificent and rare ancient underground world considered in China as ‘the 9th wonder of the ancient world’. Despite decades of research, very few answers have emerged to explain its enigma. Our ancient ancestors have achieved many wondrous things, but this truly is an unexplained mystery.

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(Português) Por que o ocidente não admite as verdadeiras raízes do terrorismo?
Mediapart – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Feb 2015

A violência política se alimenta da violência de Estado e da violência social. O radicalismo se alimenta das presepadas geopolíticas ocidentais.

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Can GMOs Save the World?
Anna Lappé – Al Jazeera America, 5 Jan 2015

Monsanto Claims That Biotech Can Feed the Planet. Here’s Why It Won’t

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2015, Conversion to Hinduism
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Jan 2015

India currently has witnessed intense debates on religious conversion particularly after some people converted into Hinduism. I am against forceful conversion. I apply this principle to all religions. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Jews, and people without religion, have all called India their home. This is the beauty of India.

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Torture Report: CIA Interrogations Chief Was Involved in Latin American Torture Camps
Peter Foster – The Telegraph, 15 Dec 2014

The CIA officer tasked with interrogating the most important prisoners in America’s secret detention programme allegedly abused captives during the agency’s covert operations in Latin America in the 1980s, it has emerged.

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Richard Katz on the Failures of ‘Voodoo Abenomics’
Jeff Kingston - The Japan Times, 24 Nov 2014

Richard Katz, editor-in-chief at The Oriental Economist, is the author of “Voodoo Abenomics: Japan’s Failed Comeback Plan,” an article published in the July/August [2014] issue of Foreign Affairs magazine.

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The Ebola Virus and the Islamic State
Jude Fernando – Colombo Telegraph, 17 Nov 2014

The scarcity of resources for managing the Ebola crisis is a not a natural problem, but a systemic and manufactured one, upon which rests profits of the bio-medical industrial complex. The same is true of IS as its surge didn’t come about “naturally,” but it is closely tied with the military industrial complex and geopolitical interests.

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Avoiding Western Networks
Ramesh Thakur – The Japan Times, 10 Nov 2014

How should the institutions of global economic governance reflect the changed balance of economic power? Given toxic Washington politics, can any U.S. administration recalibrate policies to the new geopolitical realities?

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New European Commission Marred by Corporate Conflicts of Interest
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Nov 2014

Jean-Claude Juncker was elected as European Commission president after eight years as prime minister of Luxembourg, where he helped transform the country into the largest tax haven on the continent. “He has dedicated his career to ensuring that society becomes less fair; that wealthy institutions and individuals can avoid the taxes little people and small businesses must pay,”

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Indian Laborers in the Gulf
Dr. Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Nov 2014

I am puzzled at the Indian government’s apathy at the deplorable situation of Indian laborers in the Gulf. Why does not India take a note of this situation and raise the issue with the Gulf countries with which it has diplomatic relations?

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Data Secrecy Company [Whisper] Accused of Sharing Information with Media and Military
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Oct 2014

Whisper – a new social network that claims to provide anonymity – has been accused of secretly tracking users. The allegations were made by the Guardian newspaper, provoking renewed scrutiny of a multitude of data privacy claims made by software companies.

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One of Last Remaining Northern White Rhinos Dies in Kenya
Harriet Alexander – The Telegraph, 27 Oct 2014

Only six northern white rhinos are left after Suni, a 34-year-old male, died in a conservancy in Kenya. As late as 1960, there were more than 2,000 northern white rhinos remaining – but widespread poaching decimated the population, and in 1984 only about 15 individuals survived in the wild.

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Old Masters
Lewis H. Lapham – The New York Times Magazine, 27 Oct 2014

After 80, some people don’t retire. They reign.

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Terror, Repression, and Diaspora in Haiti: The Baby Doc Legacy
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus, 27 Oct 2014

Haiti’s late dictator leaves behind a 1-million-strong Diaspora unlikely to ever return home.

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First Hint of ‘Life after Death’ in Biggest Ever Scientific Study
Sarah Knapton – The Telegraph, 13 Oct 2014

Southampton University scientists have found evidence that awareness can continue for several minutes after clinical death which was previously thought impossible. It is a controversial subject which has, until recently, been treated with widespread scepticism.

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3,000 European Jihadis Now in Syria, Iraq: EU Counterterrorism Head
The Japan Times – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Sep 2014

In an exclusive interview with AFP, Gilles de Kerchove said the flow of Europeans may have been boosted by the Islamic State militant group’s declaration in June of a caliphate straddling Syria and Iraq.

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Philosophy of Life: Some Propositions
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Sep 2014

One needs to contribute to society in his own capability. A person who has no food needs to be busy to find means of subsistence. But a person who has no such worry should contribute to society.

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CIA ‘Tortured Al-Qaeda Suspects Close to the Point of Death by Drowning Them in Water-Filled Baths’
Peter Foster – The Telegraph, 15 Sep 2014

7 Sep 2014 – As the US Senate prepares to release a report documenting US torture programme after 9/11, Telegraph reveals new details about the scope of CIA excesses.

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The Disturbing Story from Within: 43 Israeli Elite Veterans Testify for Palestinians
Meron Rapoport – Middle East Eye, 15 Sep 2014

43 veterans from Unit 8200, the top unit of Israeli intelligence, testify how they use information to blackmail Palestinians.

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Mali: The Forgotten War
Pape Samba Kane – Al Jazeera, 8 Sep 2014

6 Sep 2014 – As representatives of the Malian government and various rebel groups meet in Algiers for peace talks, violence in northern Mali continues and so does the French military presence. France launched its military intervention in Mali in January 2013.

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Russia Demands Publication of Recordings from Downed Flight MH17
Reuters – The Telegraph, 1 Sep 2014

The data from the black boxes should be published, says Russia’s deputy defence minister, saying the ‘Boeing catastrophe throws up more and more questions’.

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The Historical Perspective of the 2014 Gaza Massacre
Ilan Pappé – The Plymouth Institute for Peace Research, 25 Aug 2014

The Israeli strategy of branding its brutal policies as an ad hoc response to this or that Palestinian action is as old as the Zionist presence in Palestine itself. It was used repeatedly as a justification for implementing the Zionist vision of a future Palestine that has in it very few, if any, native Palestinians.

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