Articles by Al Jazeera
We found 980 results.
The Militarization of Development Aid
Rafia Zakaria – Al Jazeera America,
1 Jun 2015
How War Makes USAID a Dirty Word – Most of the initial criticism focused on [new head of USAID] Gayle Smith’s close relationships with various African despots and her belief that aid is the vehicle for obtaining foreign policy concessions. Humanitarian aid must not bear hidden agendas, and accepting assistance should not come at the cost of cowing to imperialism.
→ read full articleOrganic Is Going Mainstream
Anna Lappé – Al Jazeera America,
18 May 2015
Food-Industry-Funded Spin on Health and Sustainability Is Losing Traction
→ read full articleYarmouk and the Failures of Neutral Humanitarianism
Brent Eng & José Ciro Martínez – Al Jazeera America,
11 May 2015
Aid agencies should acknowledge their role in exacerbating the Syrian crisis. By bringing external resources into life-or-death situations characterized by scarcity, aid agencies have indirectly exacerbated the very situation that they are trying to ameliorate.
→ read full articleBrazil Passes Femicide Law to Curb Domestic Violence
Donna Bowater & Priscilla Moraes – Al Jazeera America,
11 May 2015
Legislation defines gender-based killings and sets out tougher punishments for attackers.
→ read full articleCountries around World Are Revoking Freedom of Assembly
Willie Osterweil – Al Jazeera America,
11 May 2015
Faced with mounting unrest and unwilling to offer reforms, democratic governments are rolling back traditional rights.
→ read full articleFeds Are Using Fear, Not Facts, in Anti-Encryption Crusade
Joshua Kopstein – Al Jazeera America,
4 May 2015
Federal agencies say encryption will doom us, but they’re already using spy tools that circumvent it. That law enforcement groups continue to ignore a broad consensus of experts speaks to how desperately their position relies on scaremongering and distortions.
→ read full articleNine Things You Might Want to Know about the Massive Pacific Trade Deal
E. Tammy Kim – Al Jazeera America,
4 May 2015
All this trade talk can seem an impenetrable thicket of arcane economics and alphabet soup. Here we provide answers to some basic questions.
→ read full articleRobbie Williams Rocks Tel Aviv and the Boycott
Ewa Jasiewicz – Al Jazeera,
27 Apr 2015
23 Apr 2015 – Robbie Williams’ performance in Tel Aviv helps normalise settler colonialism, war crimes, and apartheid in Palestine.
→ read full articleYouTube at 10: The Archive of Now
Mark Little – Al Jazeera,
27 Apr 2015
Ten years on, YouTube has put the power in our hands: eyewitnesses and journalists. Before YouTube, you needed a journalist, a satellite dish, and a TV network to spread news. Today, all you need is a camera-phone and internet connection, a YouTube account and a social network.
→ read full articleDon’t Arm Pakistan’s Teachers
Maham Javaid – Al Jazeera America,
13 Apr 2015
Distributing guns and weapons training to students and school staffers is the wrong way to fight terrorism. Requiring teachers to defend their schools against attack while awaiting security forces reveals the government’s utter failure to develop effective policies.
→ read full articleDestroying the Greek Economy in Order to Save It
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
13 Apr 2015
Blackmail is actually an understatement of what the troika is doing to Greece. It is trying to harm the Greek economy in order to pressure the new Greek government to agree to its demands. Recent European Central Bank actions are not about money or fiscal sustainability but about politics. European authorities are using dirty tactics to bring Greece to heel.
→ 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 articleCorporations That Benefit People and the Planet
Mary Turck – Al Jazeera America,
16 Mar 2015
Though they are still for-profit businesses, public benefit companies focus on environmental and social benefits. B Corps offer an alternative to capitalism run rampant – a choice to make profit just one of many corporate goals rather than the only or primary goal.
→ read full articleThe Convergence of Three Fundamentalisms
Ebrahim Rasool – Al Jazeera,
16 Mar 2015
Muslims Do Not Have a Monopoly on either Fundamentalism or Extremism – All three have the capacity for devastating violence. All three read texts literally, whether their scriptures or constitutions. All three feed on fear and ignorance and exploit an instinctive suspicion of those who are different.
→ read full articleThe Time for a New Economics Is at Hand
Julie Matthaei – Al Jazeera America,
16 Mar 2015
The crises we now face illustrate the limits of neoclassical orthodoxy. With capitalism beset by multiple interconnected crises, the hegemony of neoliberalism appears to have peaked.
→ read full articleLet Clowns Be Clowns and Elephants Be Elephants
Lori Gruen – Al Jazeera America,
16 Mar 2015
Ringling Bros. finally bows to public distaste for its exploitation of highly intelligent, social animals.
→ read full articleUN Expert Slams US as Only Nation to Imprison Kids for Life without Parole
Natasja Sheriff – Al Jazeera America,
16 Mar 2015
A sentence of life without parole means life and death in prison — a practice considered cruel and inhumane punishment for juveniles under both international and U.S. law.
→ 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
Myanmar’s [Burma’s] Buddhist Terrorism Problem
Usaid Siddiqui – Al Jazeera America,
23 Feb 2015
18 Feb 2015 – The country’s Rohingya minority is one of the most persecuted groups in the world. Burmese activists and leaders such as Suu Kyi must stand up for the human rights of the Rohingya community.
→ read full articleBan Greyhound Racing Now
Lori Gruen – Al Jazeera America,
23 Feb 2015
Empathy for animals demands an end to the practice. When people treat greyhounds as disposable things, they are not only hurting the dogs but also furthering a culture of cruelty and indifference toward animals.
→ read full articleThe Truth about West Bank Demolitions
Ben White – Al Jazeera,
16 Feb 2015
Driving Palestinians out of Area C will facilitate its future annexation to Israel. In January , UN official James W Rawley urged Israel to stop demolishing Palestinian structures, including those ‘provided by the international community to support vulnerable families’.
→ read full articleDon’t Blame Greece for the EU’s Woes
Stephen Kinzer – Al Jazeera America,
16 Feb 2015
The pan-European project is waning because of its inherent flaws. The deepest flaw in the EU concept was the fantasy that Europeans would steadily become less nationalistic.
→ read full articleJunk the Phrase ‘Human Capital’
Branko Milanovic – Al Jazeera America,
16 Feb 2015
It has added nothing but conceptual confusion for the last 50 years. The term “capital” should be used as it is used in common parlance and as it was used during more than 200 years of economics: for property distinct from one’s labor.
→ read full articleMy Gitmo Client’s Interpreter Worked for the CIA
Ramzi Kassem – Al Jazeera America,
16 Feb 2015
Latest embarrassing incident demonstrates that military tribunals cannot mete out justice to detainees. This revelation should undercut any trust the public retains in the integrity of the military commissions system at Guantánamo.
→ read full articleOpening Our Hearts to Syria’s Refugee Crisis
Sherif Elsayed-Ali – Al Jazeera,
9 Feb 2015
As the Syrian crisis worsens, the need for an international response is more crucial than ever. The statistics speak for themselves. The bloody conflict has displaced at least 7.6 million people within the country. Around four million have fled abroad as refugees – 95 percent of them currently live in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt.
→ read full articleFighting for Palestine
Hatem Bazian – Al Jazeera,
9 Feb 2015
Al-Arian’s deportation brings an end to a painful and torturous episode in the life of one of the most active Palestinian civil rights advocates. Al-Arian maintained that all along that the government case was political and directly connected to silencing Palestinian and Muslim voices critical of Israel and successive US administrations’ unconditional support for an occupying power.
→ read full articleGreece to the Troika: ‘You Don’t Own Us!’
Lynn Stuart Parramore – Al Jazeera America,
2 Feb 2015
Alarmists have warned that Syriza’s victory will ignite instability and economic disaster, but that threat sounds hollow to a country already laid to waste by flawed policies. While it is true that Greece is a small country of 10 million people that represents a mere 2.5 percent of Europe’s economy, the elections could have big consequences well beyond the country’s borders.
→ read full articlePlagiarism Is the New Pornography
Curtis Brown – Al Jazeera,
5 Jan 2015
“I feel delighted that he has borrowed heavily from my work,” says the scholar Fawaz Gerges, from whom Zakaria lifted three paragraphs virtually verbatim and without attribution. If anything, the wind is in Zakaria’s sails, for God helps those who help themselves, and this fellow helps himself to a lot. And even if the going gets rough and God begins to balk, CNN will hold fast.
→ read full articleCan 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
→ read full articleUN Security Council Rejects Resolution on Palestinian State
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jan 2015
Bid to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by 2017 garners eight votes, one short of total needed to pass:
YES: Jordan, China, France, Russia, Luxembourg, Chad, Chile, Argentina.
NO: United States, Australia.
ABSTAINED: United Kingdom, Lithuania, Nigeria, South Korea, Rwanda.
Shame Is Good. Shame Is Right. Shame Works
Lynn Stuart Parramore – Al Jazeera America,
29 Dec 2014
Shaming may not bring America’s corporate Scrooges immediately around to a Dickensian redemption, but it can play a key role in creating a societal consensus that certain behaviors are indeed disgraceful — and that’s a start. No shame, no blame, you might say.
→ read full articleEgypt’s Freedom of Repression
Khaled Diab – Al Jazeera,
29 Dec 2014
The freedom of expression promised by the Egyptian revolution has given way to repression and muzzling of the media.
→ read full articleFacing the Truth about Brazil’s Dark Past
Renan Quinalha – Al Jazeera,
29 Dec 2014
The recent release of a truth commission report reveals that Brazil still struggles with the legacy of a violent past.
→ read full articleHacked Corporations Don’t Deserve Our Sympathy
Joshua Kopstein – Al Jazeera America,
29 Dec 2014
There is no cyber Pearl Harbor. Sony has been falling on its own sword for a long time.
→ read full articleThe Death of International Development
Jason Hickel – Al Jazeera,
22 Dec 2014
The development industry needs an overhaul of strategy, not a change of language. Poverty is created by rules that rig the economy in the interests of the rich.
→ read full articleNew York Fracking Ban Reverberates Nationally
Peter Moskowitz – Al Jazeera America,
22 Dec 2014
Activists say the ban will embolden the anti-fracking movement in several states.
→ read full articleBrazil’s “Truth Commission” Panel Details Dictatorship’s Brutality
Reuters – Al Jazeera,
15 Dec 2014
11 Dec 2014 – A “truth commission” investigating abuses during Brazil’s 1964-85 dictatorship has called for the prosecution of former military officers and some private companies for their role in human rights atrocities, in a long-awaited report.
→ read full articleThinking Outside the Oslo Box
Mark LeVine & Mathias Mossberg – Al Jazeera America,
8 Dec 2014
The Oslo Accord has failed to bring justice to Palestinians or peace and security to Israelis. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once again spirals toward large-scale violence, the United States’ policymaking establishment is finally coming to grips with the demise of the Oslo peace process.
→ read full article‘Concerning Violence’: Fanon Lives On
Belen Fernandez – Al Jazeera,
8 Dec 2014
After all, violence is the prerogative of empire. ‘Concerning Violence’ is inspired by ‘The Wretched of the Earth,’ the 1961 book of Martinique-born psychiatrist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon, excerpts of which serve as the film’s narrative. A new documentary on colonial legacies in Africa raises questions about the colonialisms of today.
→ read full articleUN Urges for Rohingya Citizenship in Myanmar
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Dec 2014
UN rights committee urges Myanmar government to scrap its identity plan and grant Rohingya access to citizenship.
→ read full articleUS Joins Somalia and South Sudan in Failing to Support Child Rights
Arjun Sethi – Al Jazeera America,
24 Nov 2014
25 years later, as the world celebrates Universal Children’s Day, only three countries bear the shame of not having ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Somalia, South Sudan and the United States.
→ read full articleNo Escape for Civilians in Syria
David Miliband – Al Jazeera,
24 Nov 2014
The number of Syrians able to flee violence in their country has dropped dramatically. The responsibility to shelter those fleeing lies with the whole world. Meeting it grows daily more urgent.
→ read full articleBrave Little Denmark Leads War against Coal
Paul Hockenos – Al Jazeera America,
24 Nov 2014
Danish energy policies offer model even more admirable than Germany’s. A coal-free Denmark would be a beacon not just for the rest of Europe but also for a world gradually coming to grips with the reality of climate change.
→ read full articleBehind The Barbarism: Misreading Online Militant Magazines
Rafia Zakaria – Al Jazeera America,
24 Nov 2014
In focusing narrowly on ISIL’s barbarities, the media are missing crucial insights on the group’s evolution. The proliferating militant magazines offer rare glimpses into the ascent of militancy, their appeal to Western youth and shifting political realities in the Muslim world.
→ read full articleCreditors Use New Devices to Put Squeeze on Debtors
Jathan Sadowski & Frank A. Pasquale – Al Jazeera America,
10 Nov 2014
Technologies of control promise dystopian future if public doesn’t fight back. The device allows lenders to track and monitor the location of the vehicle — both in real time and over time — and provides them with the ability to remotely shut off vehicles if, say, the borrower falls behind on payments (sometimes by just a few days) or drives outside an approved area.
→ read full articleEcuador’s FM Wants Transnational Corporations Held Accountable
Ricardo Patino – Al Jazeera,
3 Nov 2014
It’s time to reign in the arbitrary actions of corporate power and create the conditions for a more just world.
→ read full articleThe Decline of Journalism from Watergate to ‘Dark Alliance’
Nick Schou – Al Jazeera America,
27 Oct 2014
What if Ben Bradlee had overseen Gary Webb’s investigation into the CIA, Contras and crack cocaine? “We are trying to follow in Gary Webb’s footsteps not only because the reporting he did was so important and fearless, but how vindictive the way the CIA and media reacted underscores how urgent it is to shine a light on what they are doing.” –Glenn Greenwald
→ read full articleThe Case for a Europe of Regions
Paul Hockenos – Al Jazeera America,
20 Oct 2014
The critical lessons that Europe’s political elite would do well to take away from Scotland and Catalonia should be the same as the ones that invigorated European integration from the beginning: more democracy, fewer borders. There’s a middle road between out-and-out separatism and rigid centralized states, even if finding it will be time-consuming and contentious.
→ read full articlePacific Islanders on Canoes Blockade Australia Coal Export Terminal
Al Jazeera and Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Oct 2014
Environmental activists teamed up with Pacific islanders in eastern Australia on Friday [17 Oct 2014] in an attempt to block the world’s largest coal export terminal by forming a blockade of canoes, surfboards and kayaks.
→ read full articleJournalism in the Age of Surveillance
Listening Post – Al Jazeera English,
6 Oct 2014
The ‘Snowden effect’ and challenges to the media in the age of state supervision. We spoke to journalists and technologists at the forefront of the effort to keep our communications – both the content and its related metadata – unavailable to the governments who might take advantage of them.
→ read full articleGermany’s Energy Model Can Save the World
Paul Hockenos – Al Jazeera America,
6 Oct 2014
The US and China can switch to renewables now – and prosper from it. The shift to citizen-owned energy in Germany has dethroned the big utilities that for so long put the brakes on anything that looked like a threat to fossil fuels.
→ read full articleHard Choices: Hillary Clinton Admits Role in Honduran Coup Aftermath
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
6 Oct 2014
Clinton’s embrace of far-right narrative on Latin America is part of electoral strategy.
→ read full articleObama Inches US Closer to Accepting Land Mine Ban
Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate – Al Jazeera America,
29 Sep 2014
Land mines are illegal, indiscriminate weapons that can kill long after the end of armed conflicts, which means that those affected by this lethal detritus of war are civilians.
→ read full articleGaza and the ‘Crime of Crimes’
Ronnie Kasrils – Al Jazeera,
29 Sep 2014
Nelson Mandela frequently declared that “Palestine was the greatest moral issue of our time”. After we toppled the Apartheid regime in 1994, he went further, saying “We South Africans cannot consider ourselves free until the Palestinian People are free”.
→ read full articleConfidence Men and Their Masquerade: The Spanish Inquisition Provides a Telling Parallel to ISIL’s Extremism
John Bell – Al Jazeera,
22 Sep 2014
One of the most surreal events of the Spanish Inquisition, was the “Auto da Fe”, a ritual procession that took the victim to his or her punishment. The “guilty” would be dressed in a special yellow garment and a long pointed cap, both strangely decorated with hellish images of effigies, flames, and demons.
→ read full articleThe New (Religious) Face of Civil Disobedience
Sanford Levinson – Al Jazeera America,
22 Sep 2014
A resurgent sanctuary movement may complicate the precepts of the Christian right. Conservatives and liberals might find themselves rethinking some of their views about the meaning of religious freedom and the responsibilities of good citizenship.
→ read full articleAn Ideological Pendulum in the Arab World
Sharif Nashashibi – Al Jazeera,
22 Sep 2014
The tragedy of the Arab world is that people seem to be stuck between nationalistic and religious fascism.
→ read full articleNATO: The Alliance That Should Have Been Dissolved
Ian Klinke – Al Jazeera,
8 Sep 2014
3 Sep 2014 – The focus on Moscow’s bullish behaviour has obscured both NATO’s recent attempts of joining the Ukrainian proxy war and its long-term strategy of Eastern expansion. The summit in Wales is only the most recent reminder that NATO should have been disbanded long ago.
→ read full articleMali: 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.
→ read full articleThe Outlaw State of Israel (Part I)
Richard Falk and Akbar Ganji – Al Jazeera,
25 Aug 2014
Since 1948 Israel has drawn a long list of military aggression, human rights violations and war crimes. It has become an outlaw state.
→ read full articleThe Outlaw State of Israel (Part II)
Richard Falk and Akbar Ganji – Al Jazeera,
25 Aug 2014
Unconditional US support for the state of Israel has precluded a peace settlement and destabilised the Middle East. In Part I we described the reasons that Israel has become an outlaw state. In this part we discuss US support for Israel and its consequences.
→ read full articleThe Rise of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Ahmed Moor – Al Jazeera,
25 Aug 2014
The BDS movement was founded by a broad coalition of Palestinian civil society groups in 2005. It has developed and gained force in tandem with two phenomena that will define the Palestinian fight for freedom for the foreseeable future:
→ read full articleWhy Latin American Leaders Are Standing Up to Israel
Laura Carlsen – Al Jazeera America,
18 Aug 2014
A Latin America freed from U.S. dictums has the capacity, if not to isolate a wayward state, at least to send a powerful message of opprobrium. Hopefully, other nations will see the example and follow suit.
→ read full articleCan Universal Jurisdiction Help Palestinians Seek Justice?
Rawan Abdulnabi – Al Jazeera,
18 Aug 2014
15 Aug 2014 – Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Maliki recently visited the International Criminal Court in The Hague seeking clarification about the legal procedures and mechanisms necessary for Palestine to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).
→ read full articlePower to the People: Extending the Israel Boycott
Hatem Bazian – Al Jazeera,
11 Aug 2014
Every consumer is empowered by a moral imperative to boycott nations which support the subjugation of Palestine.
→ read full articleThe Uphill Battle to Hold US Corporations Accountable for Abuses Abroad
Lauren Carasik – Al Jazeera America,
11 Aug 2014
Big companies employ their considerable resources to invoke the protections of international law when it suits them, taking advantage of free trade agreements that grant corporations the right to sue governments. Yet they aggressively resist efforts to impose accountability across borders.
→ read full articleAustralian Government: Pirates of the Indian Ocean
Fiona Broom – Al Jazeera,
28 Jul 2014
As Australia’s conservative government falls further in opinion polls, it is willing to eschew international refugee conventions to cling to what is winning it support – the illegal and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers.
→ read full articleHow US Evangelicals Are Shaping Development in Uganda
James Kassaga Arinaitwe – Al Jazeera,
28 Jul 2014
US evangelical groups are increasingly shaping Uganda’s development policies to suit their religious agenda.
→ read full articleOn ‘Human Shielding’ in Gaza
Nicola Perugini and Neve Gordon – Al Jazeera,
21 Jul 2014
The Israeli army has tried to justify striking civilian areas. For Palestinians living in Gaza today, simply spending time in their own homes, frequenting a mosque, going to a hospital or to school has become a dangerous enterprise since any one of these architectural edifices can become at any moment a target.
→ read full articleBolivia Makes Child Labor Legal from Age 10
The Associated Press – Al Jazeera America,
21 Jul 2014
Child labor has been common in a nation that ranks as one of the poorest in the Americas.
→ read full articleUS-German Relations Reach Breaking Point
John Batchelor – Al Jazeera America,
14 Jul 2014
Berlin holds the whip hand in the EU. The way Berlin goes, Paris, London, Rome and the other NATO members will follow. Berlin’s inclination since well before the Ukraine crisis was to move closer to Moscow in the “Common Eurasian home” narrative.
→ read full articleAfrican Leaders Vote to Give Themselves Immunity from War Crimes
The Associated Press – Al Jazeera,
7 Jul 2014
July 1, 2014 – African leaders gathered for a continent-wide summit voted to give themselves and their allies immunity from prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide at a new African Court of Justice and Human Rights.
→ read full articleUS Signals Intention to Eliminate Its Land Mines, Join Treaty
Renee Lewis – Al Jazeera America,
7 Jul 2014
The U.S. military will not be expanding its land mine stockpile and aims to eventually eliminate its entire supply so that it can accede to the Ottawa Convention, a 15-year-old international treaty on mines, the White House announced Friday [27 Jun 2014].
→ read full articleRussia, China Sign Deal to Bypass U.S. Dollar
Michael Pizzi – Al Jazeera America,
26 May 2014
In a blow to U.S. global financial hegemony, Russia and China on Tuesday [20 May 20114] signed a deal to pay each other in domestic currencies, followed by the announcement on Wednesday of a $100 billion annual trade on natural gas, 10 years in the making.
→ read full articleChevron Uses Deep Pockets to Win Ecuador Legal Battle
Lauren Carasik – Al Jazeera America,
19 May 2014
Chevron’s bid to embolden transnational corporations to use their deep pockets to thwart justice underestimates the tenacity and resourcefulness of their opposition.
→ read full articleMultinational Corporations Play Key Role in Qatar Labor Abuses
Arezo Yazd – Al Jazeera America,
19 May 2014
While many cited the Qatari government’s responsibility for labor-related abuses that resulted in over 500 deaths of Indian migrant workers since 2012, few mention the importance of corporate responsibility, primarily in light of construction for World Cup 2022.
→ read full articleExclusive: Emails Reveal Close Google Relationship with NSA
Jason Leopold – Al Jazeera America,
12 May 2014
6 May 2014 – Email exchanges between NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander and Google executives Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt suggest a far cozier working relationship than was implied by Silicon Valley brass after last year’s revelations about NSA spying.
→ read full articleUkraine: Lies, Propaganda and the West’s Agenda
Alastair Sloan – Al Jazeera,
5 May 2014
Is the Western narrative obscuring what’s really going on in Ukraine? Washington and Brussels are the heroes of the Ukrainian saga, if you believe the Western media. Putin is cast as the Big Bad Russian Bear, Obama and Kerry are the Democratic A-Team. Kerry has called Ukraine an “incredible act of aggression”, conveniently ignoring drone strikes, the Iraq War, and the numerous illegal coups the US has pulled off since World War II.
→ read full articleNetanyahu’s ‘Destruction of Israel’ Mantra
John V. Whitbeck – Al Jazeera,
5 May 2014
Hamas is not remotely close to being in a position to cause Israel’s territory to sink beneath the Mediterranean or to wipe out its population or even to compel the Israeli regime to transform itself into a fully democratic state pledged to equal rights and dignity for all who live there.
→ read full articleRemembering Chernobyl
Evgenia Ivanova – Al Jazeera,
28 Apr 2014
The fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion remains as politicised as ever, 28 years on. Over 100 radioactive elements released during the explosion contaminated substantial amounts of soil and waterways in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Many other neighbouring countries – Austria, Finland, Germany, Norway, Romania and Sweden – suffered radioactive contamination as well.
→ read full articleWhy 21st Century Capitalism Can’t Last
Bhaskar Sunkara – Al Jazeera America,
28 Apr 2014
The response to French economist Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” has been surprising, to say the least. Though the Amazon best-seller is well written and artfully translated from French by Arthur Goldhammer, the 696-page text is filled with enough charts and footnotes to occupy experts for months.
→ read full articleMarshall Islands Sues Nuclear Powers for Failure on Disarmament
The Associated Press – Al Jazeera America,
28 Apr 2014
“I personally see it as kind of David and Goliath, except that there are no slingshots involved,” said David Krieger, president of the California-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Krieger is acting as a consultant in the case. There are hopes that other countries will join the legal effort, he said.
→ read full articleWhen Will the World Act on Myanmar’s Abuses?
Emanuel Stoakes – Al Jazeera,
28 Apr 2014
Most of all, highly credible allegations of crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya minority underline the country’s enduring backwardness on urgent moral issues. The offences continue to this day, perpetrated as a matter of long-standing state policy.
→ read full articleTerrorism: The Legacy of US War in Iraq
Haifa Zangana – Al Jazeera,
7 Apr 2014
Words with noble meanings are used to camouflage acts of state terror: liberation rather than occupation; democratic government rather than a sectarian regime; transparency rather than corruption by bribes, theft, and extortion; communal violence rather than dirty war with manufactured terrorism and black operations.
→ read full articleThe New Shock Doctrine: ‘Doing Business’ With the World Bank
Jason Hickel – Al Jazeera,
7 Apr 2014
A yearly World Bank report encourages countries to undertake extreme deregulation. In 2003 the World Bank published the first Doing Business Report, which ranks the world’s countries based on the “ease of doing business” in them. Investors and CEOs use the rankings to decide where to move their money or headquarter their businesses for maximum profit.
→ read full articleNuclear Summit: Upgrade Or Downsize?
Kate Hudson – Al Jazeera,
31 Mar 2014
24 Mar 2014 – As world leaders gather to discuss securing fissile materials, nuclear arsenals remain the elephant in the room.The problem is that while steps certainly must be taken to reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism, nuclear risks are not reducible to terrorism.
→ read full articleCrimea: Whose Land Is This? (Part 1)
Sergei Khrushchev – Al Jazeera,
24 Mar 2014
In order to understand the conflict in Crimea, one has to know the history of the peninsula.
→ read full articleCrimea: Whose Land Is This? (Part 2)
Sergei Khrushchev – Al Jazeera,
24 Mar 2014
Is it fair for the US to expect unconditional obedience from Russia against its own national interests?
→ read full articleThe UN Is Not Above the Law
Lauren Carasik @ajam – Al Jazeera America,
10 Mar 2014
The US should support accountability claim for the cholera epidemic in Haiti.
→ read full articleNigeria Court Orders Men Whipped for Gay Sex
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Mar 2014
Four young men have been convicted of gay sex and whipped publicly as punishment in an Islamic court on Thursday [6 Mar 2014], with 15 strokes. They also face a year’s imprisonment if they cannot pay a fine of $120. They had to prostrate themselves on the floor of the court to be whipped on their bottoms.
→ read full articleGigabytes Gone Wild
Neil Richards and Jonathan King – Al Jazeera America,
3 Mar 2014
Big data has outpaced our legal system’s ability to control it — we need a new ethics for a new digital age.
→ read full articleIsrael Jittery over Global Boycotts
Dalia Hatuqa – Al Jazeera America,
24 Feb 2014
But never has the issue of boycotts caused so much vexation inside Israel’s corridors of power. Israeli politicians have been trading barbs about who is fueling the situation.
→ read full articleAustralian Terrorists in Syria Alarm Officials
Sophie Cousins – Al Jazeera,
10 Feb 2014
The Australian government has confiscated passports in an effort to prevent attacks by returning fighters. With estimates of up to 11,000 foreign mercenaries in Syria, Western powers are increasingly worried about the potential national security threat posed by returning fighters.
→ read full articleHomophobia: Africa’s New Apartheid
Azad Essa – Al Jazeera,
3 Feb 2014
Both African and western governments are using gay rights as a political tool.
→ read full articlePatterns of Impunity and Deceit in Myanmar
Emanuel Stoakes - Al Jazeera,
27 Jan 2014
A UN supervised investigation is needed before more atrocities are committed against the Rohingya Muslims.
→ read full articleHawks for Humanity
Chase Madar – Al Jazeera,
27 Jan 2014
To be fair, Human Rights Watch and Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., are far from alone in warmongering: In 2012, Amnesty International USA went so far as to put up bus-stop advertisements in Chicago during the NATO conference to urge the military alliance to “keep the progress going.”
→ read full articleHonduras: Audit Slams World Bank Agency
Kate Woodsome – Al Jazeera,
20 Jan 2014
Investigation says loan to Honduran palm oil magnate, alleged to be linked to activist deaths, violated bank’s rules.
→ read full articleUS in Iraq: They Broke It but Didn’t Fix It
Rachel Shabi – Al Jazeera,
13 Jan 2014
Even as news from Iraq is overwhelmingly of death, suffering and despair, the US still asserts that its ravaging venture in Iraq was designed to bring stability and democracy. It’s as though Iraqis, dealing with the senseless devastation of their country and longing for a normal life, are supposed to remember, above all, that the US is a force for good and that – well, it really means well.
→ read full articleThe Way Forward for South Sudan
Mahmood Mamdani – Al Jazeera,
6 Jan 2014
How does one understand the current conflict in South Sudan? Two major explanations are on offer.
→ read full articleResearchers Find 7,300-Sq-Mile Ring of Mercury around Tar Sands in Canada
Peter Moskowitz – Al Jazeera,
6 Jan 2014
Scientists have found a more than 7,300-square-mile ring of land and water contaminated by mercury surrounding the tar sands in Alberta, where energy companies are producing oil and shipping it throughout Canada and the U.S.
→ read full article