Articles by TRANSCEND Media Service
We found 27815 results.
New Russian Nuclear Weapon Can Travel 27 Times the Speed of Sound
Vladimir Isachenkov | AP News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
27 Dec 2019 – A new intercontinental weapon that can fly 27 times the speed of sound became operational today, Russia’s defense minister reported, bolstering the country’s nuclear strike capability. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that he believes “it’s probably a matter of a couple of years” before the U.S. has one.
→ read full article
We the People, We the Humanity are Victims of Political Insanity
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
22 Dec 2019 – “We have let the government’s evil-doing, its abuses, power grabs, brutality, meanness, inhumanity, immorality, greed, corruption, debauchery and tyranny go on for too long. We are approaching a reckoning. This is the point, as the poet W. B. Yeats warned, when things fall apart and anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
→ read full article
Bolivia’s Coup Dictator Seeks to Annihilate Opposition from Exiled
Ramona Wadi | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
27 Dec 2019 – In light of what is occurring in Venezuela, the latest imperialist intervention in Bolivia must be exposed as a plan not only to oust Morales, but also as one aimed at regional destabilisation. Deposed President Evo Morales will be working with an international team that includes the Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who in 1998 issued an international arrest warrant for Pinochet.
→ read full article
EU: China Must Close Its “Re-Education Camps” for Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Meps Say
News | European Parliament – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
19 Dec 2018 – MEPs express serious concern about China’s repression of the Uyghurs and call on the Chinese government to close the “re-education camps” in Xinjiang immediately.
• Torture, digital surveillance and arbitrary detentions without any charge
• Harassment of Uyghurs abroad
• Call on Council to adopt targeted sanctions and freeze assets
The Lies That Are Used for Denying the Legitimacy of Crimea’s Breakaway Vote
Eric Zuesse – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
24 Dec 2019 – Crimea’s breakaway from Ukraine and rejoining Russia is treated in the US-and-allied world as being justification for the explosive re-emergence in 2014 of America’s Cold War NATO alliance as being a restored war against Russia; and, so, whether or not that ‘justification’ is truthful is the paramount geopolitical issue in our era; and it will therefore be discussed and (via the links here) documented in this article.
→ read full article
On the Road to Gaza: The Freedom Flotilla Will Sail Again
Ramzy Baroud | Politics for the People – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
25 Dec 2019 – What is Gaza to us but an Israeli missile, a rudimentary rocket, a demolished home, an injured child being whisked away by his peers under a hail of bullets? On a daily basis, Gaza is conveyed to us as a bloody image or a dramatic video, none of which can truly capture the everyday reality of the Strip – its formidable steadfastness, the everyday acts of resistance, and the type of suffering that can never be really understood through a customary glance at a social media post.
→ read full article
AMLO is Bringing New Hope to Mexico
Rick Sterling – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
17 Dec 2019 – Jeremy Corbyn lost the election but one of his political friends, the progressive Mexican leader named Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has been in power for one year. He is carrying out the plans and priorities described in his 2018 book, New Hope for Mexico.
→ read full article
China Detaining Millions of Uyghurs? Serious Problems with Claims by US-Backed NGO and Far-Right Researcher ‘Led by God’ against Beijing
Ajit Singh and Max Blumenthal | The Grayzone – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
21 Dec 2019 – Claims that China has detained millions of Uyghur Muslims are based largely on two studies. A closer look at these papers reveals US government backing, absurdly shoddy methodologies, and a rapture-ready evangelical researcher named Adrian Zenz.
→ read full article
Families Fleeing from Guatemala: A Case of Corporate and State Aggression
Marc Pilisuk, Jennifer Rountree and Rebecca Ferencik | Council of Hemispheric Affairs – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
23 Dec 2019 – In its attempt to stem the number of Latin American men, women, and children traveling to the U.S. seeking asylum, the Trump administration has pushed Guatemala and other countries in the region to sign “safe third country” agreements. The U.S. is bound by law to receive asylum seekers and this new agreement is an attempt to avoid this obligation by declaring Guatemala as a safe third country. However, an agreement does not make it so.
→ read full article
The Most Important Free Press Stories of 2019
Leonard C. Goodman | Independent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
23 Dec 2019 -Assange and Manning are being persecuted for speaking truth to power.
→ read full article
Shelley’s Prescient Case for Animal Rights and the Spiritual Value of Vegetarianism
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
Since the dawn of our species and its consciousness, we have reverenced other animals and incorporated them into our myths and our metaphors, into the basic fabric of our stories. But we have also eaten them — we may be the storytelling animal, but we are fundamentally animal. “By all that is sacred in our hopes for the human race, I conjure those who love happiness and truth, to give a fair trial to the vegetable system.”
→ read full article
Do Your Best
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
In a recent symposium on Gandhi’s 150th Anniversary, a scholar mentioned that like Gandhi, we must do our best; we must be good patriots and work for the welfare of the people of our countries. This set me thinking–how can we do our best for our country or for society in general? I have completed seven decades of my life; have I been a good person, have I done anything for the welfare of our society? But how does one work for the good of other families, other people or society?
→ read full article
(Italiano) Il nostro mondo che svanisce: fauna e flora selvatica
Robert Burrowes | Pressenza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
Nel corso della sua storia, la Terra ha vissuto cinque estinzioni di massa. Ora sta vivendo la sesta.
→ read full article
Por Una Cabeza (Music Video of the Week)
Tango Harmony – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
Delightful! Sensual! Simply Delicious!!
→ read full article
Education Is a System of Indoctrination of the Young
Noam Chomsky – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
Chomsky has been known to vigorously defend and debate his views and opinions on philosophy, linguistics, politics, life—controversially so for some!
→ read full article
(Português) Hambúrgueres vegetais salvam 250 mil animais por ano nos EUA
David Arioch | Vegazeta – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
23 dez 2019 – “São 140 mil suínos e 110 mil bovinos por ano sendo ‘salvos do sistema alimentar’’, destaca a WAP-World Animal Protection, que considerou números baseados nas vendas estimadas em restaurantes de fast food nos EUA.
→ read full article
Trump’s Wall
K. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
More to the point…
→ read full article
(Français) De nouveaux documents de WikiLeaks démentent les mensonges sur une attaque chimique en Syrie en 2018
Niles Niemuth | WSWS, Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
19 Déc 2019 – Des documents publiés par WikiLeaks le 15 décembre confirment l’existence d’une dissidence importante au sein de l’Organisation pour l’interdiction des armes chimiques (OIAC), l’organisme mondial de surveillance des armes chimiques. Les différences concernent la rédaction d’un rapport public sur l’attaque présumée du 7 avril 2018 à Douma, en Syrie, qui aurait tué 49 personnes et blessées jusqu’à 650.
→ read full article
Greenland Is Nearing a Climate Tipping Point–How Long Warming Lasts Will Decide Its Fate, Study Says
Bob Berwyn | InsideClimate News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
23 Dec 2019 – Past meltdowns occurred with temperatures only slightly higher than today’s, suggesting the world is overestimating the ice sheet’s stability, scientists say.
→ read full article
Afghanistan: Graveyard of Empires
Eric Margolis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
14 Dec 2019 – Arrogance and ignorance, backed by mammoth brute force, led US policy in the remote Asian nation. Attacking Afghanistan was revenge for the 9/11 attacks against the US. As this writer saw firsthand in Afghanistan, all the claims about Osama bin Laden’s ‘terrorist training camps’ in Afghanistan were lies. 9/11 was not planned in Afghanistan. Taliban were not ‘terrorists.’ They were lightly armed tribal warriors fighting bandits and the US-backed Afghan intelligence services.
→ read full article
Why Climate Change Is an Irrelevance, Economic Growth Is a Myth and Sustainability Is Forty Years Too Late
Kevin Casey | Global Comment – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
20 Nov 2019 – As someone who has been exploring the world’s most isolated wilderness regions for nearly half a century, I have some insight into the state of the planet and the human race’s current environmental befuddlement. While it’s reassuring that today’s young people are increasingly aware of the seriousness of their environmental plight, they are protesting up the wrong tree. They should direct their passionate attention to the real enemy – a greedy, arrogant, two-legged species that’s in furious denial and has become far too adept at making excuses for the inexcusable.
→ read full article
Climate Change–Let’s Just Pretend
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Why do we need to do anything? Inspired by the succession of UN Climate Change Conferences (COP). Manifesto:
→ read full article
Assange Gives Evidence in Spanish Case against Security Contractor
Thomas Scripps | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
21 Dec 2019 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was brought from Belmarsh Prison yesterday to appear in person at Westminster Magistrates Court and provide video-link witness testimony. The relentless nine-year persecution of Assange—including the flagrant violation of his human rights and the monitoring of his every word and movement while he was supposed to be protected by political asylum—is aimed at terrorising all would-be whistleblowers and journalists into silence.
→ read full article
Four Criteria for Differentiating Faith-Based Entities
Abbas Aroua | Cordoba Peace Institute Geneva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Religious currents, especially Islamic schools of thought, are often considered as monolithic blocs, and sometimes opposed to each other. In fact, not only do some academic and political elites regard various currents of Islamic thought as a form of extremism, but they also do the same with regard to the practice of religion itself.
→ read full article
Canada, Netherlands Join Gambia’s Fight for Rohingyas
The Standard [Gambia] – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
5 Dec 2019 – On 11 Nov 2019, The Gambia filed a lawsuit at The Hague demanding accountability on the systematic violations of the rights of minority Rohingya Muslims by the Government of Myanmar. Following this, Canada, Netherlands and The Gambia have agreed to form a tripartite joint working group to pursue the case.
→ read full article
2019 Latin America in Review: Year of the Revolt of the Dispossessed
Roger Harris | COHA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
2019 has not been an entirely bullish year for US imperialism, notwithstanding the hard turns to the right in Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Powerful winds against neoliberalism are gusting in Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, and even in the US “Commonwealth” of Puerto Rico. Regime-change operations failed in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
→ read full article
Sigh!
Reader’s Digest – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
My three favorite things…
→ read full article
Merry Christmas from Palestine
Banksy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Greetings from the Holy Land, Jesus’ Birthplace
→ read full article
Is Growth Passé?
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Economics Laureate | Project Syndicate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
9 Dec 2019 – Some suggest that the Paris climate agreement’s target for limiting global warming can be achieved only by stopping economic expansion. But there is ample room to change the quality of growth and significantly reduce its environmental impact without condemning billions of people to lives of deprivation.
→ read full article
Why All Religions Are Not the Same
Stephen Knapp (Sri Nandanandana dasa) - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
It is often said by some Hindu gurus and leaders that all religions are the same. But is this really the case? Naturally, anyone who studies religion can see many similarities between them. And if we are talking about getting closer to God and increasing our understanding and love for God, then what religion is not trying to do that? Who cannot go to a church, mosque, or temple and worship and bow to God in prayer? So, what is the difference? Are not all religions the same?
→ read full article
Latin America: The Conservative Offensive and the Return of Class War
Antoine Pelletier interviews Franck Gaudichaud | CETRI – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
15 Dec 2019 – Several countries in Latin America are currently experiencing very powerful class conflicts and extremely violent repression on the part of reactionary forces and the state. The following is an overview of the situation in various countries and the dynamics of their struggles.
→ read full article
USA Military Veteran Plight: Macro- and Micro-Level Considerations
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
The tragic plight of USA military veterans is discussed within the context of four critical and reciprocal macro-level determinants followed by a descriptive equation of micro-level considerations in military veteran quality care.
→ read full article
Corporate Media Silent on Journalists’ Letter Demanding Freedom for Julian Assange
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
11 Dec 2019 – In a glaring act of political censorship, media corporations in the English-speaking world have maintained a complete silence on a powerful open letter by journalists and media workers issued last weekend demanding the unconditional freedom of Julian Assange. The blackout occurs under conditions where doctors have warned that Assange’s health has deteriorated to the point that he may die in Britain’s maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.
→ read full article
The Hidden Military Use of 5G Technology
Manlio Dinucci | teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
21 Dec 2019 – While the earlier technologies were perfected to create ever more advanced smartphones, 5G is designed not only to improve their performance, but mainly to link digital systems which need enormous quantities of data in order to work automatically. The most important 5G applications will not be intended for civil use, but for the military domain.
→ read full article
Militarism: The Delusion Lives
Robert C. Koehler | Common Wonders – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
18 Dec 2019 – The annual defense budget, passed recently by both the House (377-48) and Senate (82-8), came in at $738 billion for 2020, up from last year a sweet $22 billion. War hits the motherlode every year.
→ read full article
(Français) À Gaza, un artiste sculpte dans la terre la souffrance des Palestiniens
Tomas Statius | Konbini – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Des statues en terre cuite grandeur nature à Gaza incarnent la douleur et la souffrance des Palestiniens dans une zone abandonnée en raison des bombardements israéliens.
→ read full article
Aung San Suu Kyi Appears at ICJ as UN Rights Expert Urges Greater Protection for Myanmar Activists
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
10 Dec 2019 – “I call on each and every organ of the Myanmar State to ensure that absolutely no reprisals are taken against any group or individual that is advocating for justice and accountability in Myanmar,” said the independent expert in a statement issued today, adding that those targeted include members of the Free Rohingya Coalition.
→ read full articleOur Vanishing World (Part 5): Birds
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
In the nineteenth century, it is estimated that the total number of passenger pigeons in the United States was about three billion birds; it was one of the most abundant birds on Earth. In 1914 it was extinct. … This ongoing assault on birds is well documented in the scientific literature, along with descriptions of long-standing causes as well as those that are more recent.
→ read full articleTop Criminal Court to Conduct Official Probe into Alleged War Crimes in Palestine
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
20 Dec 2019 – “The preliminary examination into the Situation in Palestine has concluded with the determination that all the statutory criteria under the Rome Statute for the opening of an investigation have been met”, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said, “I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into the situation in Palestine”.
→ read full article
Chelsea Manning Must Not Be Forgotten!
Eric London | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
18 Dec 2019 – Yesterday, December 17, whistleblower Chelsea Manning spent her 32nd birthday alone in a prison cell in Alexandria, Virginia, where she has been locked up for nine months for refusing to testify in a grand jury proceeding against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
→ read full article
Christianity, Imperialism, Capitalism: Christian Dogma Should Be Questioned
Andre Vltchek – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
This year as in every other year, Christianity and fundamentalist/military capitalism, two great allies, are joining their forces to extract billions of dollars, all over the world, mainly from the poor, as money flies towards the coffers of churches and into military and corporate accounts.
→ read full article
Sore Sports: Russia Barred from Olympics for Thwarting Washington’s Geopolitical Game Plan?
Robert Bridge | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
13 Dec 2019 – Clearly, the motivation here is to humiliate, provoke and punish Moscow by any means available – even on the field of dreams.
→ read full article
From a Blessing to a Curse: How UN Resolution 2334 Accelerated Israel’s Colonization in the West Bank
Ramzy Baroud | Politics for the People – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Three years ago, the UNSC passed Resolution 2334. Immediately after its adoption, Israel thumbed its nose at the whole world by announcing plans to construct thousands of new homes in illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Gone are the days of traditional American “peace-making” and its adjoining elaborate discourse centered on a two-state and other make-believe solutions. Now, Israel is single-handedly formulating its own “vision”.
→ read full article
Photo Essay: 2009 UN Climate Conference through the Lens of Mediators Beyond Borders
Diane Perlman | Medium – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
15 Dec 2019 – The 25th meeting of the Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP 25, has just ended in Madrid. Ten years ago, I had the privilege of attending COP 15 in Copenhagen with Mediators Beyond Borders. 45,000 people registered. Delegates, negotiators, NGOs, press, and over 1000 youth participated in more than 2000 events over two weeks. Images below
→ read full article
Should UN Peacekeepers Leave the Democratic Republic of Congo?
Ann Garrison | S. F. Bay Area – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
12 Dec 2019 – Since 1996 the history of DRC provinces has been of perpetual Rwandan and Ugandan invasion, occupation and resource plunder, and the UN Organization Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) has failed to protect the people or the peace. I spoke to Jean-Claude Maswana about why and whether anything can be done. Maswana is a Congolese native and economics professor at Ritsumeikan University, Japan.
→ read full article
How Whales Sequester Tonnes of CO2: Our Secret Weapon against Climate Change
Terra Mater – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
A humpback whale is worth US $2 million. But can we put a figure on these giant marine mammals? A group of economists thinks so and it’s all to do with fighting climate change. We look in detail at how whales are contributing to saving the planet, and how we in turn need to start saving them.
→ read full article
Terra Incognita
Edward Curtin – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Sitting dark and tight
In crepuscular light,
You pass the shuttered houses
That line the half-lit streets,
The Pentagon’s Disastrous Radioactive Waste Dump in the Drowning Marshall Islands is Leaking into the Pacific Ocean
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
19 Dec 2019 – Neither the Pentagon nor the US Government Will Take any Responsibility for the Crisis – An undesignated US SuperFund site in the middle of the Pacific that will be impossible to remediate even if the recalcitrant and bankrupt US government were inclined to do anything about it. These videos and images will help explain why the US corporate, political, military and religious elites must take responsibility.
→ read full article
The Real Interest of the United States and Transnational Corporations in Latin America and the Caribbean
Enrique Moreno Gimeranez | Granma – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
13 Dec 2019 – What are the real interests of the U.S. and corporations in the region? Freedom, democracy, human rights? No. Their goal is to preserve imperialist domination of our natural resources. Our America is again suffering escalating aggression by U.S. imperialism and local oligarchies.
→ read full article
Terrorism: A False Threat
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
19 Dec 2019 – Is the threat of terrorism real? Or is it like the barking of a dog driving a herd? The threat of catastrophic climate change is very real indeed. The threat to future global food security is real too. Millions starve. Millions die yearly from preventable diseases. Millions die as a consequence of wars. Compared with these numbers, the total count of terrorist victims is vanishingly small. It is even invisible compared with the number of people killed yearly in automobile accidents.
→ read full article
Three Cheers for the Cheerfully Deluded!
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Let’s hear three cheers for the cheerfully deluded! Instead of telling them that their dreams are very likely to be disappointed, let’s change the world to make it possible for more of their dreams to come true. Soul medicine. What is not possible in pure neoliberal markets is possible in impure African and Latin American markets. Public policies and human sympathy can rescue not only the bodies of the poor, but also the dignity of the poor.
→ read full article
We’ve Been Epsteined! The Death of the “Conspiracy Theorist” Label
James Grundvig | Vaxxter – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
The hairy canard of the CIA’s 1967 “conspiracy theorist” label died a thousand deaths when Epstein had his neck broken. With the murder of Jeffrey Epstein – only press lapdogs believe this narcissist committed suicide – the spin cycle has come to a full stop. The centrifuge is over. No more wet lies to be squeezed out of the bedsheets of pedophile rings or false flag events. I’m sure Epstein helped the hit squad turn off the hallway video cameras, too.
→ read full article
13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
More Fluid Reflections on Keeping a Solid Center – On October 23, 2006, Brain Pickings was born as a plain-text email to seven friends. It was then, and continues to be, a labor of love and ledger of curiosity, although the mind and heart from which it sprang have changed — have grown, I hope — tremendously.
→ read full articleInteresting Aspects of Onions
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Onions bring tears to the eyes of most people because of their pungent taste. But today they are bringing tears as a result of their escalating price. This simple item is part of the ingredients of the meals — both vegetarian and non vegetarian that are cooked in India and in many South Asian countries. The only people who do not use it in their meals belong to the faith of Jainism.
→ read full article
Hope Lies in the Streets
Chris Hedges | Truthdig – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
15 Dec 2019 – Global finance capital has seized control of the economies of most nation-states. The citizens watch, helplessly, as money and goods are transferred with little regulation across borders, as jobs in manufacturing and the professions are shipped to regions of the global south where most workers are paid a dollar or less an hour and receive no benefits, … Civil disobedience is the last tool we have to prevent corporate tyranny and save the planet.
→ read full article
Oh Holy Night
HomeTown – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Our Rendition for the Christmas Season
→ read full articleWhat Drives Anti-Semitism? Fake and Real Forms
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Only the most extreme tribalism can explain labeling those who oppose Israel’s abusive treatment of the Palestinian people as ‘anti-Semites.’ We look upon Aung San Suu Kyi’s failure to condemn the Myanmar abuse of the Rohingya as casting the darkest of clouds over her Nobel Peace Prize. It is an insult to Jews and other Semites to allow Zionists to brand solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for their most basic rights as anti-Semitism.
→ read full article
India’s Government Is Going to War against Its Own People
Vijay Prashad | Independent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
18 Dec 2019 – On December 13, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights released a powerful statement that criticized India’s new citizenship law. The UN said that not only does this law violate India’s obligations to conventions, treaties, and compacts that it has signed at the global level, but also that it is in violation of its own Constitution.
→ read full article
Sackler-Owned Opioid Maker Pushes Overdose Treatment Abroad
Claire Galofaro and Kristen Gelineau | AP – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
15 Dec 2019 – Big Pharma Empire behind OxyContin Now Selling Overdose Cure – “You’re in the business of selling medicine that causes addiction and overdoses, and now you’re in the business of selling medicine that treats addiction and overdoses?” asked Dr. Andrew Kolodny, an outspoken critic of Purdue who has testified against the company in court. “That’s pretty clever, isn’t it?”
→ read full article
One Third of Poorer Countries Face both Undernutrition and Obesity: WHO Report
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
16 Dec 2019 – With one in three low and middle-income countries facing the two extremes of malnutrition – undernutrition and obesity – the World Health Organization is calling for a new approach to deal with rapidly changing food systems.
→ read full article
Keynes Was Wrong – Gen Z Will Have It Worse
Malcolm Harris | MIT Technology Review – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
16 Dec 2019 – The founder of macroeconomics predicted that capitalism would last for approximately 450 years. That’s the length of time between 1580, when Queen Elizabeth invested Spanish gold stolen by Francis Drake, and 2030, the year by which John Maynard Keynes assumed humanity would have solved the problem of our needs and moved on to higher concerns. Instead of never-ending progress, today’s kids face a world on the edge of collapse. What next?
→ read full article
The Freedom of Lula
Fernando Ayala | Human Wrongs Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
21 Dec 2019 – Political earthquake and great boost for the progressive space of the continent. Lula is a national and continental leader in Latin America. His release has made President Bolsonaro and his justice minister very nervous, who declared: “The majority of the congress can change the law or the Constitution”, referring to the fact that they could re-imprison the former president.
→ read full article
Peace Linguistics: Contributions of Peacelinguactivist Francisco Gomes de Matos
Jocelyn Wright | Humanising Language Teaching – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
Even before the term peace linguistics was first formally defined in Crystal’s (1999) A Dictionary of Language, this distinguished applied linguist began giving workshops and presentations and publishing academic and creative works educating about and promoting peace. His contributions to this emerging field are noteworthy.
→ read full article
The “Afghanistan Papers”: The Criminality and Disaster of a War Based upon Lies
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
10 Dec 2019 – The documents published by the Washington Post constitute a damning indictment of both major parties as well as the media for lying to the world for two decades. The Post obtained the raw interviews after a three-year Freedom of Information Act court battle. The Obama administration moved to classify the documents after the newspaper sought to obtain them.
→ read full article
The Stubborn Persistence of the Military-Industrial State: The Pentagon Budget Still Rising, 40 Years Later
William D. Hartung | TomDispatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
15 Dec 2019 – It is staggering the number of tax dollars that persistently go into what passes for national security in this country, i.e., subsidizing the U.S. military-industrial complex, year in, year out, at levels that should be (but aren’t) beyond belief. In 2019, Pentagon spending is actually higher than it was at the peak of either the Korean or Vietnam wars and may soon be twice the Cold War average.
→ read full article
UK to Leave European Union at End of January after Johnson Passes Withdrawal Agreement
Robert Stevens | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
21 Dec 2019 – MPs have backed Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson Withdrawal Agreement Bill. MPs voted yesterday 358 to 234—a majority of 124. The massive majority vote was the first since Johnson defeated Labour by a landslide in last week’s general election.
→ read full article
Congress Adopts Defense Bill That Creates Space Force
Joe Gould | Defense News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
18 Dec 2019 ― Congress has approved a compromise defense policy bill that creates a new Space Force in exchange for establishing paid parental leave for federal workers, as part of $738 billion for the Pentagon for 2020. The Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill Tuesday, 82-8, just days after the House passed it, 377-48. The bill now goes to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature, and he has signaled he will sign the defense policy measure.
→ read full article
In Final Hours, COP 25 Denounced as ‘Utter Failure’ as Deal Is Stripped of Ambition and US Refuses to Accept Liability for Climate Crisis
Julia Conley | Common Dreams – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
14 Dec 2019 – After the talks on the Paris climate agreement went into overtime amid a stalled agreement on wealthy countries reducing their carbon emissions, civil society groups and scientists were shocked by the weak language that emerged from the late-night talks today. “The only thing more disastrous than the state of UN climate negotiations at COP 25 is the state of the global climate.”
→ read full article
(Português) O Complô dos USA para Derrubar o Papa Francisco
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
7 dez 2019 – É importante que os católicos, os cristãos e pessoas interessadas em assuntos religiosos saibam da enorme e até perversa campanha articulada por multibilionários estadounidenses, ultraconsrevadores, junto com pessoas de dentro do Vaticano, ocupando altos cargos, interessados em distorcer suas doutrinas, criticar suas práticas pastorais e diretamente difamar a pessoa do Papa Francisco.
→ read full article
US House Approves Bill for Record Military Spending
Patrick Martin | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
12 Dec 2019 – The House of Representatives voted by a huge bipartisan majority, 377–48, to approve the largest US military spending bill in history, providing a record $738 billion for the US war machine. The National Defense Authorization Act passed with 188 Democrats and 189 Republicans supporting it.
→ read full article
Arctic Report Card 2019: Extreme Ice Loss, Dying Species as Global Warming Worsens
Sabrina Shankman | Inside Climate News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
10 Dec 2019 – For indigenous communities on the Bering Sea, a way of life is at risk as climate change hits fish populations and ricochets through ecosystems. When dead salmon wash ashore along the coast, the problem is much bigger than dead fish. It’s a sign of deeper trouble cascading through the Arctic’s ecosystems.
→ read full articleHearing the Variety of Voices in Climate Change Discourse
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
16 Dec 2019 – Recognizing the Challenge of Soundscape Comprehension in Controversy and Emergency – Current discourse on any theme is readily recognized as characterized by distinctive “voices” and their associated “tones”. This could be recognized as the primary characteristic of discourse between political parties — between the right and the left — now variously held to be “poisonous” and “toxic”.
→ read full articleAung San Suu Kyi Defends Myanmar from Accusations of Genocide, at Top UN Court
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
11 Dec 2019 – Myanmar will have “no tolerance” for human rights abuses committed in Rakhine state and will prosecute the military, if war crimes have been committed there, Aung San Suu Kyi told the International Court of Justice, the UN’s main judicial body, today.
→ read full article
Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize 2020 Deadline: 31 Jan
Fredrik S. Heffermehl | Nobel Peace Prize Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
Please Nominate for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize – The Nobel Peace Prize Watch – wishing the prize to confer the greatest benefit on mankind (Nobel´s own words) – offers advice and help to get the best candidates nominated and each year submits a screening of all known and qualified candidates to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
→ read full article
(Italiano) In ricordo di un’amica: Anna Bravo
Angela Dogliotti Marasso | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
9 Dicembre 2019 – Ieri è improvvisamente mancata Anna Bravo. E’ una tristissima notizia, che ci sorprende e ci addolora. Solo la scorsa settimana, aveva invece risposto positivamente all’invito di dialogare con Giuliano Pontara nel convegno Gandhi after Gandhi organizzato dall’Università di Torino, in occasione del centocinquantesimo anniversario della nascita del Mahatma. Anche per questo la notizia della sua morte improvvisa ci ha colpiti in modo particolare.
→ read full articleWhy Is the UK Registering Companies for Criminals?
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
4 Dec 2019 – Money laundering, sanctions-busting and fraud: This video is part of an OCCRP investigation into leaked data from Formations House, a London-based formation agent that has registered companies for international fraudsters, the former leader of the Swedish Hells Angels, and individuals with ties to the Italian mafia.
→ read full article
Kashmir Is Heading to a Point of No Return
Naveed Mehmood Ahmad | Countercurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
12 Dec 2019 – The crackdown on the mainstream leadership in Jammu and Kashmir and the inability of the present dispensation, to take into confidence the Abdullah’s and the Mufti’s, is deeply problematic. The political doctrine that has been operating in Kashmir since 1947 has now been challenged. A rudderless policy may lead Kashmiri politics to a point of no return, with Khalida Shah recently calling for unity amongst leaders, including the separatists.
→ read full articleA Riddle
Reader’s Digest – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
Say what?
→ read full article
Hebron Plan Is Israel’s Reminder to Palestinians That Settler-Power Knows No Limits
Jonathan Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
10 Dec 2019 – With its plan for a new Hebron settlement, Israel has reminded Palestinians that there are no limits – military, legal, moral or diplomatic – to the settlers’ power. Israel will annex land where it chooses and deceptively refashion the resulting apartheid system as the rule of law.
→ read full articleNew Citizenship Law in India ‘Fundamentally Discriminatory’: UN Human Rights Office
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
13 Dec 2019 – A new law in India which expedites citizenship for certain religious minorities has been criticized by the UN human rights office for being “fundamentally discriminatory in nature.” It gives priority to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians resident in India before 2014, but excludes Muslims.
→ read full article
(Português) Joaquin Phoenix participa de mais uma campanha pró-vegana
David Arioch | Vegazeta – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
5 dez 2019 – Joaquin Phoenix está participando de mais uma campanha pró-vegana – desta vez da organização Veganuary, que convida a população a experimentar uma dieta à base de vegetais em janeiro. Ator vegano diz que podemos lutar contra a violência do sistema alimentar optando pelo veganismo.
→ read full article
The End of Neoliberalism and the Rebirth of History
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Literature Laureate | Project Syndicate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
4 Nov 2019 – For 40 years, elites in rich and poor countries alike promised that neoliberal policies would lead to faster economic growth, and that the benefits would trickle down so that everyone, including the poorest, would be better off. Now that the evidence is in, is it any wonder that trust in elites and confidence in democracy have plummeted?
→ read full article
Reservation, Debate and Reality in Nepal
Shree Prasad Devkota and Mahadev Devkota – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
10 Dec 2019 – After the declaration of federal democratic republican state, the power structure has been shifted from central to local units. People were really excited. They believe they will get service delivery from their own places. However, because of their inexperience, they cannot materialize people expectation into action and service delivery has been affected.
→ read full article
Stunning Images Show How Severe Drought Has Changed One of the World’s Largest Waterfalls
Adriana Navarro | MSN – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
6 Dec 2019 – Situated across the Zimbabwe and Zambia border, Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. However, after several months of severe drought, the natural wonder has lost some of its signature majesty, transforming from a thundering cascade plummeting more than 300 feet to a mere whimper of its former grandeur. Photos taken in January and December 2019 show the stark contrast in the condition of the falls before and after the drought.
→ read full article
Paul Volcker’s Long Shadow
Ellen Brown | Web of Debt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
13 Dec 2019 – Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called Paul Volcker “the most effective chairman in the history of the Federal Reserve.” But while Volcker, who passed away Dec. 8 at age 92, probably did have the greatest historical impact of any Fed chairman, his legacy is, at best, controversial.
→ read full article
Reconciling Ecological Imperatives and the Right to Food at a Time of Bio-Ethical Crisis
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
15 Dec 2019 – Humanity faces an unprecedented challenge in the coming decades that threatens the foundations of life itself, and yet to date societal reactions have been disappointingly weak and evasive, aside from voices in the wilderness. Despite expertly documented studies from the most qualified climate scientists, the overall response of supposedly responsible political and economic elites has been tepid, escapist, and even denialist.
→ read full articleLet’s Talk about Sex
Marilyn Langlois – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
If you’re looking for a treatise on the joys of love-making between consenting, autonomous adults, read no further. In fact, what follows quite the inverse, revealing an ongoing nightmare of child sexual violence that lurks just beneath the surface of our collective consciousness and has infected the highest circles of power. After all, who wants to think about such things? But ignoring them will not make them go away. Pedophilia, human trafficking, kiddie porn are terms that pop up here and there in news reports and local crime blotters.
→ read full article
Ludwig van Beethoven (17 Dec 1770 – 26 Mar 1827)
Biography – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. He was an innovator, widening the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto and quartet, and combining vocals and instruments in a new way. His personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life, when he was quite unable to hear.
→ read full articleThe Art of Doublespeak: Bellingcat and Mind Control
Edward Curtin | Behind the Curtain – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
The U.S./U.K./NATO propaganda outfit Bellingcat, like all effective war-promoting intelligence agency propaganda, needs the support of left-wing intellectuals to give it credence. The CIA recognized this in the 1950s and created multiple methods to get that support, which it has done effectively up to the present day. This left-wing support is necessary to control the thinking of the portion of the population that considers itself “educated” and in the know, who in turn pass on their compromised “knowledge” to others in a sophisticated game of mind control.”
→ read full article
US Weaponizing Space in Bid to Launch Arms Race
Finian Cunningham | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
12 Dec 2019 – The US has utilized the 29-nation NATO alliance to rubber-stamp its criminal weaponization of space.
→ read full article
The Book of Delights: Poet and Gardener Ross Gay’s Yearlong Experiment in Willful Gladness
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
“The more you study delight, the more delight there is to study… I felt my life to be more full of delight. Not without sorrow or fear or pain or loss. But more full of delight.”
→ read full article
67 Pictures of Protest That Defined the Decade
Gabriel H. Sanchez | BuzzFeed News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
7 Dec 2019 – From #MeToo and Black Lives Matter to the Arab Spring and Hong Kong protests, here are the tremendous moments in activism that have defined this past decade.
→ read full article
Journalists Speak Up for Julian Assange
Posted by Antonio C. S. Rosa | Editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
8 Dec 2019 – Julian Assange, founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, is currently detained in the UK and faces extradition to the USA and criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act. WikiLeaks’ War Diaries provided evidence that the US government committed war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. We, journalists and journalistic organizations around the globe, express our grave concern for Mr Assange’s wellbeing, for his continued detention and for the draconian espionage charges. This case stands at the heart of the principle of free speech and free press.
→ read full article
The Rape of India’s Soul
Jayati Ghosh | Project Syndicate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
10 Dec 2019 – India’s rapid descent into xenophobia, violence, and irrationality. The government is keen to pass a new Citizenship Amendment Bill, which makes Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsi, or Christian refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship. Muslims are excluded.
→ read full article
(Français) Journalisme d’information et journalisme d’émotion
Philippe Stroot | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
9 Déc 2019 – Les 48e Assises de l’Union internationale de la presse francophone se sont réunies au Cameroun du 19 au 22 novembre. Plus de 300 journalistes et communicants d’une quarantaine de pays ont abordé le thème du journalisme d’information opposé au journalisme d’émotion, dans la foulée de la publication du livre d’Anne-Cécile Robert, Directrice des relations internationales du Monde diplomatique, intitulé « Stratégie de l’émotion ».
→ read full article
Russia Banned from Next Olympics and World Cup Soccer
Brian Homewood and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber | Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
9 Dec 2019 – Russia was banned today from the next summer and winter Olympics and the 2022 soccer World Cup. The World Anti-Doping Agency concluded that Moscow had planted fake evidence and deleted files linked to positive doping tests in laboratory data that could have helped identify drug cheats. If RUSADA appeals WADA’s punishment, the case will be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
→ read full article
“Rebuilding America’s Defenses” – A Summary of the PNAC
Bette Stockbauer | PNAC Library & Resources – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
Blueprint of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) Plan for U.S. Global Hegemony – Comparable to Hitler’s publication of Mein Kampf, ignored until the war was over.
→ read full article
Massive Leak of Data Reveals Money-Hiding Secrets of Superrich—and This Is ‘Only the Beginning’
Eoin Higgins | Common Dreams – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
4 Dec 2019 – A massive trove of documents, data, and recorded phone calls show how British company Formations House works to hide money for the superrich, international fraudsters, the former leader of the Swedish Hells Angels, and the Italian mafia, with the first stories dropping today at midnight.
→ read full article
(Castellano) Evo Morales: El Indio Fuera de Lugar
Boaventura de Sousa Santos | CETRI – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
4 diciembre 2019 – Los dramáticos acontecimientos en Bolivia han seguido un guion imperial que los latinoamericanos empiezan a conocer bien: preparar el cambio de régimen de un gobierno considerado hostil a los intereses de los Estados Unidos (o mejor de las multinacionales norteamericanas). Lo hacen montando un plan doble: anular una victoria electoral “enemiga” y consolidar rápidamente el nuevo régimen que toma medidas que no son propias de un gobierno de transición.
→ read full article
Europe’s Green Deal
Jeffrey D. Sachs | Project Syndicate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
13 Dec 2019 – The Green Deal announced by the European Commission is a demonstration of European social democracy at work. A mixed economy, combining markets, government regulation, the public sector, and civil society, will pursue a mixed strategy, combining public goals, public and private investments, and public support.
→ read full article