Articles by RD
We found 3631 results.
India Remains the Biggest Arms Buyer
Business Standard – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Mar 2014
India remains the biggest buyer of arms in the world, importing nearly three times as many weapons as its nearest competitors China and Pakistan over the last five years, a Swedish think tank said on Monday [17 Mar 2014].
→ read full articleThe Truth about Venezuela: A Revolt of the Well-Off, Not a ‘Terror Campaign’
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
24 Mar 2014
John Kerry’s rhetoric is divorced from the reality on the ground, where life goes on – even at the barricades. It’s not just the poor who are abstaining – in Caracas, it’s almost everyone outside of a few rich areas like Altamira. The only place where the opposition seems to be garnering broad support is Washington.
→ read full articleThe Caribbean People Have a Legitimate Claim for Slavery Reparations
Cecily Jones – The Guardian,
24 Mar 2014
The economic and social poverty of parts of the region are a lasting legacy of slave trading.
→ read full articleWireless Electricity? It’s Here
Matthew Ponsford and Nick Glass - CNN,
17 Mar 2014
The idea of eliminating cables would allow us to re-design things in ways that we haven’t yet thought of, that’s just going to make our devices and everything that we interact with, that much more efficient, more practical and maybe even give brand new functionality.
→ read full articleGlobal Military Spending Is Now an Integral Part of Capitalism
Richard Seymour – Gulf News,
17 Mar 2014
The idea of a ‘peace dividend’ is gone, high levels of military spending are an entrenched part of the global landscape.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden Discusses NSA Leaks at SXSW: ‘I Would Do It Again’
Jon Swaine and Jemima Kiss – The Guardian,
17 Mar 2014
He encouraged ordinary internet users to protect themselves against surveillance by encrypting both their hard drives and their online activity, describing encryption as “the defence against the dark arts in the digital realm”. He also advised people to browse the web anonymously using the Tor system.
→ read full articleWhy Do I Persist?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Mar 2014
I have been asked recently why do I persist in working hard for the things that I believe in, knowing that I will die in the next several years, and am almost certain not to be around for the catastrophic future that seems to cast its dark shadow across the road ahead, and can only be removed by a major transnational movement of the peoples of the world.
→ read full articleThe Plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya
Editorial Board – Los Angeles Times,
17 Mar 2014
The U.N. says the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country, are one of the most persecuted groups in the world. Recently violence has escalated according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Two attacks in January left an estimated four dozen Rohingya dead in a village in Rakhine. Myanmar’s response has been to deny that it happened.
→ read full articleAn Online Magna Carta: Web Inventor Berners-Lee Calls for an Internet Bill of Rights
Jemima Kiss – The Guardian,
17 Mar 2014
The inventor of the world wide web believes an online “Magna Carta” is needed to protect and enshrine the independence of the medium he created and the rights of its users worldwide. Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that the web had come under increasing attack from governments and corporate influence and that new rules were needed to protect the “open, neutral” system.
→ read full articleBritain’s Five Richest Families Worth More Than Poorest 20%
Larry Elliott – The Guardian,
17 Mar 2014
Oxfam report reveals scale of inequality in UK as charity appeals to chancellor over tax. The scale of Britain’s growing inequality is revealed today [17 Mar 2014] by a report from a leading charity showing that the country’s five richest families now own more wealth than the poorest 20% of the population.
→ read full article“Snowden Told Me the NSA Set Fire to the Web. Silicon Valley Needs to Put It Out.”
Christopher Soghoian – The Guardian,
17 Mar 2014
How to move beyond our SXSW talk: revenge of the nerds, one everyday security tool at a time.
→ read full articleNASA-Funded Study: Industrial Civilisation Headed For ‘Irreversible Collapse’?
Nafeez Ahmed – The Guardian,
17 Mar 2014
A new study sponsored by Nasa has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution. Noting that warnings of ‘collapse’ are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that “the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history.”
→ read full articleBreaking Free: Choosing a Better Human Future
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Mar 2014
I have long believed that prospects for a hopeful human future depend on radical and visionary feelings, thought, and action… Citizenship, then, becomes enacted in time and is not conceived only as a dimension of space as, for instance, in opting to be ‘a world citizen.’
→ read full articleHas the NSA’s Mass Spying Made Life Easier for Digital Criminals?
Tom Brewster – The Guardian,
10 Mar 2014
In flooding the internet with malware, and by increasing wariness of data sharing, the NSA’s actions have had a negative impact on the fight against cybercrime. The US has done an enormous amount of damage. There is a basic level of trust that has been lost because the US was supposed to be a trusted keeper of everything, but it turned out they were subverting it with every chance they got.
→ read full articleDecember 2013 – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Mar 2014
5 Mar 2014 – This is my last report as Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine as my term is coming to an end after six years. The mandate is important as a source of information pertaining to the realities of occupation from the perspective of international humanitarian law and international criminal law
→ read full articleEdward Snowden’s Written Testimony to the European Parliament
Edward Snowden – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Mar 2014
The NSA granted me the authority to monitor communications world-wide using its mass surveillance systems, including within the United States. I have personally targeted individuals using these systems. I know the good and the bad of these systems, and what they can and cannot do, and I am telling you that without getting out of my chair, I could have read the private communications of any member of this committee, as well as any ordinary citizen. I swear under penalty of perjury that this is true.
→ read full articleDiets High in Meat, Eggs and Dairy Could Be as Harmful to Health as Smoking
Ian Sample – The Guardian,
10 Mar 2014
A diet rich in meat, eggs, milk and cheese could be as harmful to health as smoking, according to a controversial study into the impact of protein consumption on longevity.
→ 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 articleFracking Siberia: Gazprom Teams Up With Shell
Richard Smallteacher, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Mar 2014
Gazprom of Russia has begun fracking in western Siberia with Anglo-Dutch giant Shell to tap a reserve of oil under a 2.3 million square kilometer expanse. Ironically Russia Today, a state run television station, has been actively broadcasting protests against the fracking industry in Europe, where companies like Chevron have been aggressively trying to get a toehold in countries like Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
→ read full articleNSA Robots Are ‘Collecting’ Your Data, Too, and They’re Getting Away With It
Bruce Schneier – The Guardian,
3 Mar 2014
Yahoo webcam users are the latest victims of agency eavesdropping – and whether it’s done by human or algorithm, it’s still eavesdropping.
→ read full articleSyria: What to Do Now
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Mar 2014
It is not only that the interventionists, and perhaps the anti-interventionists are motivated by a convergence of humanitarian/moral considerations with geostrategic ambitions, but that the nature of these hidden calculations are discussed in governmental circles behind locked doors and transcribed in secret policy memoranda.
→ read full articleUK – Optic Nerve: Millions of Yahoo Webcam Images Intercepted by GCHQ
Spencer Ackerman and James Ball – The Guardian,
3 Mar 2014
• 1.8m users targeted by UK agency in six-month period alone
• Optic Nerve program collected Yahoo webcam images in bulk
• Yahoo: ‘A whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy’
• Material included large quantity of sexually explicit images
Qatar’s Foreign Domestic Workers Subjected to Slave-Like Conditions
Rebecca Falconer – The Guardian,
3 Mar 2014
Foreign maids, cleaners and other domestic workers are being subjected to slave-like labour conditions in Qatar, with many complaining they have been deprived of passports, wages, days off, holidays and freedom to move jobs, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
→ read full articleOmar and the Israeli Checkpoint: The Essential Story That Is Rarely Told
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
3 Mar 2014
Omar is a 7-year-old boy from Gaza. His family managed to obtain the necessary permits that allowed him to cross the Erez checkpoint to Jerusalem, through the West Bank, in order to undergo surgery. On the way back, the boy and his father were stopped at the Qalanidya checkpoint, separating occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank.
→ read full article(Français) Halte au « BRICS bashing »!
Gérard Wolf - Le Monde,
3 Mar 2014
Certes, dans les BRICS (Brésil, Inde, Russie, Chine et Afrique du Sud), comme dans d’autres marchés émergents, la croissance est moindre que celle envisagée il y a deux ans. Mais soyons réalistes.
→ read full articleAmnesty International Accuses Israeli Armed Forces of Possible War Crimes
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Mar 2014
Human rights group says soldiers have killed dozens of Palestinians with virtual impunity in West Bank.
→ read full article
God Loves Uganda – Trailer
Ford Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Mar 2014
The feature length documentary God Loves Uganda is a powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to change African culture with sexuality values imported from America’s fundamentalist Christian Right.
→ read full articleSochi 2014: Does Sochi Success Signal a New Russia?
Richard Conway – BBC,
24 Feb 2014
23 Feb 2014 – Russia Top Medal Table as Olympics Come To an End. The tagline of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games was “Hot, Cool, Yours”, but another slogan on display here, the phrase “Russia – Great, New, Open” provides a better insight.
→ read full articleTaking Your Brain for a Walk: The Secret to Delaying Dementia
Ian Sample – The Guardian,
24 Feb 2014
Regular brisk walking three times a week increases the size of brain regions linked to planning and memory, a study has shown.
→ read full articleUS Support for Regime Change in Venezuela Is a Mistake
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
24 Feb 2014
The US push to topple the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro once again pits Washington against South America. On Sunday [16 Feb 2014], the Mercosur governments (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Venezuela) released a statement and described “the recent violent acts” in Venezuela as “attempts to destabilize the democratic order”. They made it abundantly clear where they stood.
→ read full article(Português) Zizek: Há mais do que fúria na Bósnia
Slavoj Žižek – The Guardian,
24 Feb 2014
O que as explosões na Bósnia confirmam é que ninguém jamais conseguirá superar paixões étnicas impondo a elas uma agenda liberal: o que uniu os manifestantes foi uma mesma radical exigência de justiça. O passo seguinte e mais difícil será organizar os protestos num novo movimento social que ignore as divisões étnicas; e organizar novos protestos.
→ read full articleG8 New Alliance Condemned as New Wave of Colonialism in Africa
Claire Provost, Liz Ford and Mark Tran – The Guardian,
24 Feb 2014
A landmark G8 initiative to boost agriculture and relieve poverty has been damned as a new form of colonialism after African governments agreed to change seed, land and tax laws to favour private investors over small farmers. Ten countries made more than 200 policy commitments, including changes to laws and regulations after giant agribusinesses were granted unprecedented access to decision-makers over the past two years.
→ read full article9 Shocking Dangers of Fluoride Exposure
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Feb 2014
Ingested in high doses, fluoride is indisputably toxic; it was once commonly used in rat poison. So why is it in our drinking water? Using non-fluoride toothpaste can immediately reduce your fluoride exposure. Maintaining healthy iodine levels can help protect the thyroid from fluoride.
→ read full articleWriting the Snowden Files: ‘The Paragraph Began to Self-Delete’
Luke Harding – The Guardian,
24 Feb 2014
Was it the NSA? GCHQ? A Russian hacker? Who was secretly reading his book on Snowden while he wrote it, wonders Luke Harding. Something odd happened. The paragraph I had just written began to self-delete. The cursor moved rapidly from the left, gobbling text. I watched my words vanish. When I tried to close my OpenOffice file the keyboard began flashing and bleeping.
→ read full articleAre the Robots about to Rise? Google’s New Director of Engineering Thinks So…
Carole Cadwalladr – The Guardian,
24 Feb 2014
Ray Kurzweil popularised the Teminator-like moment he called the ‘singularity’, when artificial intelligence overtakes human thinking. But now the man who hopes to be immortal is involved in the very same quest – on behalf of the tech behemoth.
→ read full articleUgandan Anti-Gay Law Is Huge Step Backwards, Says Barack Obama
Associated Press – The Guardian,
17 Feb 2014
President Barack Obama on Sunday [16 Feb 2014] warned Uganda over its plans to further criminalise homosexuality, saying it would “complicate our valued relationship”.
→ read full articleClimate Change Is Here Now and It Could Lead to Global Conflict
Nicholas Stern – The Guardian,
17 Feb 2014
Extreme weather events in the UK and overseas are part of a growing pattern that it would be very unwise for us, or our leaders, to ignore, writes the author of the influential 2006 report on the economics of climate change.
→ read full articleUganda to Authorise Life Sentence for Homosexuals
Mail & Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Feb 2014
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni plans to sign a bill into law that prescribes life imprisonment for some homosexual acts, officials said Friday [14 Feb 2014], alarming rights activists who have condemned the bill as draconian in a country where homosexuality already has been criminalized.
→ read full article(Português) Portugal Ajuda a Viabilizar Entrada de Milho Transgénico na Europa
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Feb 2014
A abstenção de Portugal e de outros três países significou dar luz verde ao cultivo do milho Pioneer TC1507, contra a vontade de 19 países e do Parlamento Europeu.
→ read full articleMale Sexual Orientation Influenced by Genes, Study Shows
Ian Sample, science correspondent – The Guardian,
17 Feb 2014
A study of gay men in the US has found fresh evidence that male sexual orientation is influenced by genes. Scientists tested the DNA of 400 gay men and found that genes on at least two chromosomes affected whether a man was gay or straight.
→ read full articleInternet Governance Too US-Centric, Says European Commission
Ian Traynor – The Guardian,
17 Feb 2014
The mass surveillance carried out by the NSA means that governance of the internet has to be made more international, the EU’s executive has declared. Setting out proposals, the EC called for a shift away from the California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).
→ read full articleThird World America’s Trade Agreements
Charles Sullivan – The Picket, Shepherd University,
10 Feb 2014
If enacted, TPP will permit privately-owned corporations to have hegemony over the governments of sovereign nations.
→ read full articleUN Denounces Vatican over Child Abuse and Demands Immediate Action
Lizzy Davies and Henry McDonald – The Guardian,
10 Feb 2014
The Vatican has failed to acknowledge the huge scale of clerical sex abuse and has implemented policies that have led to “the continuation of the abuse and the impunity of the perpetrators”, a UN panel said on Wednesday [5 Feb 2014] in a scathing rebuke of the Holy See’s handling of the global scandal.
→ read full articleMicrosoft, Facebook, Google and Yahoo Release US Surveillance Requests
Spencer Ackerman and Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
10 Feb 2014
Tens of thousands of accounts associated with customers of Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo have their data turned over to US government authorities every six months as the result of secret court orders, the tech giants disclosed for the first time on Monday [3 Feb 2014].
→ read full articleOMAR: Uncovering Occupied Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Feb 2014
OMAR is the second film directed by Hany Alu-Assad to be a finalist among foreign language films nominated to receive an Oscar at the 2014 Academy Awards ceremony on March 2nd.
→ read full articleIndustrial Band Skinny Puppy Demand $666,000 after Music Is Used in Guantánamo Torture
Sean Michaels – The Guardian,
10 Feb 2014
“We sent them an invoice for our musical services considering they had gone ahead and used our music without our knowledge and used it as an actual weapon against somebody,” keyboardist Cevin Key recently told CTV News.
→ read full articleTen Principles to Guide the Young Activist
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
10 Feb 2014
They say people who live for a higher cause are happier than those who don’t. May you always find your happiness in alleviating the pain of others by standing up for what is right and honorable.
→ read full articlePakistan’s Future Is Tied to the Taliban
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
10 Feb 2014
With the impending withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the time has come to talk – despite the horrific wave of bombings.
→ read full articleA Meeting with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini 35 Years Ago
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Feb 2014
Khomeini by insisting on all or nothing against the Shah did create an Iranian transition to a new political order. In contrast the 2011 militants in Tahrir Square were content with the removal of Mubarak and promises of reforms, and ended up succumbing to a counter-revolutionary tsunami that has reconstituted the repressive Mubarak past in a more extreme form.
→ read full articleFake-Food Scandal Revealed as Tests Show Third of Products Mislabelled
Felicity Lawrence – The Guardian,
10 Feb 2014
Consumers are being sold drinks with banned flame-retardant additives, pork in beef, fake cheese, mozzarella that is less than half real cheese, ham on pizzas that is either poultry or “meat emulsion”, and frozen prawns that are 50% water laboratory tests show.
→ read full articleWar on the Poor in Honduras: Social Control, Gangs and the US’s Role in Remilitarizing Central America
Dawn Paley – Toward Freedom,
10 Feb 2014
Election day in Tegucigalpa kicked off on November 24th last year with the feel of a carnival, a rare sensation in a city where the vast majority of residents are faced with grinding poverty, regular gang extortion and a murder rate that is among the world’s highest.
→ read full articleSkipping: Is There Anything Wrong with Taking the Food That Supermarkets Throw Away?
Emine Saner – The Guardian,
3 Feb 2014
Three men will appear in court for allegedly ‘dumpster diving’ – taking food from a supermarket dustbin. But isn’t the crime the vast amount of food being put into skips in the first place?
→ read full articleDark Lands: The Grim Truth behind the ‘Scandinavian Miracle’
Michael Booth – The Guardian,
3 Feb 2014
Television in Denmark is rubbish, Finnish men like a drink – and Sweden is not exactly a model of democracy. Why, asks one expert, does everybody think the Nordic region is a utopia?
→ read full articleScarlett Johansson Is Right – The Face of SodaStream Doesn’t Fit with Oxfam
Vijay Prashad – The Guardian,
3 Feb 2014
Thanks to the star’s involvement with the Israeli company, illegal settlement activity is under increased scrutiny. This debate is better than silence, or than celebrity airbrushing of deep-seated problems. I welcome it.
→ read full articleHow and When to Book a Cheap Flight
Isabel Choat – The Guardian,
3 Feb 2014
New research shows that the best time to book a summer flight is as late as five weeks before your holiday, contrary to travel industry experts who advise travellers book as early as possible.
→ read full articleUS Government Privacy Board Says NSA Bulk Collection of Phone Data Is Illegal
Spencer Ackerman and Dan Roberts – The Guardian,
27 Jan 2014
23 Jan 2014 – The US government’s privacy board has sharply rebuked President Barack Obama over the NSA’s mass collection of phone data, saying the program defended by Obama last week was illegal and ought to be shut down.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden Tells German TV That NSA Is Involved in Industrial Espionage
Reuters in Berlin – The Guardian,
27 Jan 2014
In a lengthy interview broadcast on the public broadcaster ARD TV on Sunday [26 Jan 2014], Snowden said the NSA did not limit its espionage to issues of national security and cited the German engineering firm Siemens as one target.
→ read full articleLiterary Project Honours Baghdad’s Devastated Bookselling District
Ellie Violet Bramley – The Guardian,
27 Jan 2014
Hundreds of writers and artists prepare tributes to Iraq’s historic books hub, Al-Mutanabbi Street, hit by car bomb in 2007. It’s said that when Baghdad was sacked by the Mongols in 1258, the river Tigris ran red one day with the blood of those killed, and black the next with the ink of their books.
→ read full articleLatin America Is Being Transformed by a Vision of Post-Human Rights
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera – The Guardian,
27 Jan 2014
From Colombia to Argentina, an ethical politics driven by protest movements is shaking up the old economic order.
→ read full articleAn American Idol: The United States Should ‘Govern’ the World?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jan 2014
This post consists of a much expanded text of an opinion piece that was published by AJE on January 18, 2014; it seeks to discredit imperial and neoliberal claims that the United States is a benevolent hegemon, providing global public goods to the world as a whole, including supposed geopolitical and ideological rivals.
→ read full article(Français) 20e Anniversaire de la Rebellion du Chiapas
Bernard Duterme , Jérôme Baschet – Centre Tricontinental-CETRI,
27 Jan 2014
« Le goût de la liberté des zapatistes » – Historien médiéviste reconnu internationalement, Jérôme Baschet est sans doute aujourd’hui l’observateur francophone le plus proche de la rébellion des indigènes zapatistes du Sud-Est mexicain.
→ read full articleAre You Opposed to Fracking? Then You Might Just Be a Terrorist
Nafeez Ahmed – The Guardian,
27 Jan 2014
Over the last year, a mass of shocking evidence has emerged on the close ties between Western government spy agencies and giant energy companies, and their mutual interests in criminalising anti-fracking activists.
→ read full articleUS Psychology Body Declines to Rebuke Member in Guantánamo Torture Case
Spencer Ackerman – The Guardian,
27 Jan 2014
America’s professional association of psychologists has quietly declined to rebuke one of its members, a retired US army reserve officer, for his role in one of the most brutal interrogations known to have to taken place at Guantánamo Bay, the Guardian has learned.
→ read full articleImperiled Polities: Egypt and Turkey—Two Visions of Democracy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jan 2014
The recent disturbing political turmoil in Turkey and Egypt, each in its own way, is illustrative. In both countries there are strong, although quite divergent, traditions of charismatic authoritarian leadership, reinforced by quasi-religious sanctification. Very recently, however, this authoritarian past is being challenged by counter-traditions of populist legitimacy.
→ read full articleThe Truth about Israel’s Secret Nuclear Arsenal
Julian Borger – The Guardian,
20 Jan 2014
Israel has been stealing nuclear secrets and covertly making bombs since the 1950s. And western governments, including Britain and the US, turn a blind eye. But how can we expect Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions if the Israelis won’t come clean?
→ read full articleTPP: Poison for Local Community Resilience
Richard Heinberg – Common Dreams,
20 Jan 2014
If a city, county, or state were to ban fracking within its jurisdiction, oil companies could overturn the ban and sue for millions of dollars in lost profits. Want to label GM foods? Sorry, that’s a barrier to trade. Want local schools to buy healthy food from local farmers? Nope, that might violate the rights of Big Ag. Want to protect a forest? Stand aside, you’re in the way of profits.
→ read full articleBeyond Reform: It’s Time to Shut Down the World Bank
Cyril Mychalejko – Toward Freedom,
20 Jan 2014
16 Jan 2014 – The World Bank came under fire again last week when its ombudsman revealed that the bank’s investment in a palm oil project in Honduras worsened human rights abuses and violent conflicts.
→ read full articleClimate Activists Slapped With Terrorism Charges for Devon Energy Protest
Richard Smallteacher, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jan 2014
10 Jan 2014 – Two climate activists who staged a protest at the headquarters of Devon Energy, a Fortune 500 company based in Oklahoma city, have been charged with a “terrorism hoax” after black powder drifted down from a banner that they unfurled.
→ read full articleWhy Our Debate about Surveillance Doesn’t Go Far Enough
Tom Engelhardt – Mother Jones,
20 Jan 2014
In the wake of Snowden’s revelations, we’ve been narrowly focused on whether or not we should have more security or more privacy. We need to start thinking about the problem differently.
→ read full articleObama’s NSA ‘Reforms’ Are Little More Than a PR Attempt to Mollify the Public
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
20 Jan 2014
Predictably, it is the same well-worn tactic in response to political scandal that shaped President Obama’s much-heralded Friday [17 Jan 2014] speech for “reforming” the National Security Agency in the wake of intense worldwide controversy. Bulk surveillance that caused such outrage will remain in place.
→ read full articleNSA Collects Millions of Text Messages Daily in ‘Untargeted’ Global Sweep
James Ball – The Guardian,
20 Jan 2014
The untargeted collection and storage of SMS messages – including their contacts – is revealed in a joint investigation between the Guardian and the UK’s Channel 4 News based on material provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
→ read full articleSewage Sludge as Fertilizer: Safe?
Jill Richardson – Food Safety News,
20 Jan 2014
Despite sludge’s relative obscurity, the newly formed Food Rights Network is taking on sewage sludge as its flagship issue. Simply put, the group says that it is not safe to grow food in sewage sludge [industrial, hospital, human excrements/waste].
→ read full articleGout’s on the Rise – So How Can You Avoid It?
Sarah Boseley – The Guardian,
20 Jan 2014
This excruciatingly painful condition now affects 1.6 million people in the UK. Beer can bring it on, but so can wine and even some ‘healthy’ foods.
→ read full articleMajor Parts of World Ignored by U.S. TV News in 2013
Jim Lobe – Toward Freedom,
20 Jan 2014
If people outside the United States are looking for answers why Americans often seem so clueless about the world outside their borders, they could start with what the three major U.S. television networks offered their viewers in the way of news during 2013.
→ read full articleToday [11 Jan 2014] Marks the 12th Anniversary of America’s Guantánamo Prison Disgrace
Molly Crabapple – The Guardian,
13 Jan 2014
We must reject indefinite detention and offshore prisons. We must no longer use our fear of terror to inflict terror on the world. In case anyone needs a refresher, $4.7bn has been spent running Guantánamo. Nearly 800 men have been imprisoned, many losing over a decade of their lives. Nine have died.
→ read full articleA Global Contract: The Case for World Citizenship
Garry Davis and Greg Guma – Toward Freedom,
13 Jan 2014
The World Government of World Citizens, which was established in 1953, is both an extension of the individual and an expression of humanity as a whole. It grows from your sovereignty and mine as world citizens, and from our commitment to each other’s protection and survival.
→ read full articleLife in the Electronic Concentration Camp: The Many Ways That You’re Being Tracked, Catalogued and Controlled
John W. Whitehead – The Rutherford Institute,
13 Jan 2014
What has been most disconcerting about the emergence of the American police state is the extent to which the citizenry appears content to passively wait for someone else to solve our nation’s many problems. Unless Americans are prepared to engage in militant nonviolent resistance in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, true reform, if any, will be a long time coming.
→ read full articleJapan’s Response to Fukushima Should Worry Us All
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
13 Jan 2014
Japan has created a funhouse of distorting mirrors from which emerging information about the ongoing disaster cannot be considered credible without reliable, independent verification.
→ read full article[Crise? Austerities?] Jaguar Land Rover Reports Record Sales for 2013
Press Association, The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jan 2014
Britain’s largest car manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India’s biggest carmaker, Tata Motors, has reported record-breaking global sales for 2013. Together the British brands sold 425,006 vehicles in 2013 – up 19% on 2012 – setting new sales records in 38 international markets.
→ read full articleHarassment of Climate Scientists Needs to Stop
Richard Schiffman – The Guardian,
13 Jan 2014
When Michael Mann chose a career in science, he didn’t think that he would be denounced on billboards, grilled by hostile legislators on Capitol Hill and in the British House of Commons, have his emails hacked and stolen, receive letters laced with an anthrax-like white powder, and become the target of anonymous death threats.
→ read full articleThe Emergent Palestinian Imaginary
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jan 2014
It is often overlooked that as early as 1988, and possibly earlier, the unified Palestinian leadership has decisively opted for what I would call a ‘sacrificial’ peace. By sacrificial I mean an acceptance of peace and normalization with Israel that is premised upon the relinquishment of significant Palestinian rights under international law.
→ read full articleJP Morgan Chase to Pay More Than $2bn in Penalties for Madoff Ties
Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
13 Jan 2014
The settlements, announced Tuesday [7 Jan 2014], included a so-called deferred prosecution agreement that allows it to avoid criminal charges. No individual executives were accused of wrongdoing. Total fines in the past three years = $28.7bn
→ read full articleObsession
Richard Wiseman – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jan 2014
A psychoanalyst shows a patient an inkblot, and asks him what he sees. The patient says: “A man and woman making love.”
→ read full article(Português) Chiapas: Injustiça, Pobreza, Luta e Dignidade
Eduardo Febbro – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jan 2014
O ano velho se vai em meio a névoa. A garoa e o frio cobrem o local onde o Exército Zapatista de Libertação Nacional celebrou os 20 anos do levante.
→ read full articleAmerican Jihad 2014: The New Fundamentalists
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
6 Jan 2014
Imagine what we call “national security” as, at heart, a proselytizing warrior religion. It has its holy orders. It has its sacred texts (classified). It has its dogma and its warrior priests. It has its sanctified promised land, known as “the homeland.” It has its seminaries, which we call think tanks. It is a monotheistic faith in that it broaches no alternatives to itself. It is Manichaean in its view of the world. As with so many religions, its god is an eye in the sky, an all-seeing Being who knows your secrets.
→ read full articleFukushima, a Global Conspiracy of Denial
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
6 Jan 2014
Does anyone in authority anywhere tell the truth about Fukushima? If there is any government or non-government authority in the world that is addressing the disaster at Fukushima openly, directly, honestly, and effectively, it’s not apparent to the outside observer what entity that might be.
→ read full articleBeholding 2014
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jan 2014
2013 was not a happy year in the chronicles of human history, yet there were a few moves in the directions of peace and justice. What follows are some notes that respond to the mingling of light and shadows that are flickering on the global stage, with a spotlight placed on the main war zone of the 21st century—the Middle East, recalling that Europe had this negative honor for most of the modern era.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden, Whistle-Blower
Editorial Board - The New York Times,
6 Jan 2014
When someone reveals that government officials have routinely and deliberately broken the law, that person should not face life in prison at the hands of the same government.
→ read full articleNAFTA: 20 Years of Regret for Mexico
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
6 Jan 2014
Mexico’s growth has been weak since the ‘free trade’ deal was signed, and it missed out on the region’s poverty reduction. It was 20 years ago that the North American Free Trade Agreement between the US, Canada, and Mexico was implemented.
→ read full articleSnowden Affair: The Case for a Pardon
Editorial Board – The Guardian,
6 Jan 2014
We hope that calm heads within the present administration are working on a strategy to allow Mr Snowden to return to the US with dignity, and the president to use his executive powers to treat him humanely and in a manner that would be a shining example about the value of whistleblowers and of free speech itself.
→ read full article2014: International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jan 2014
In a little noted initiative the General Assembly on November 26, 2013 voted to proclaim 2014 the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
→ read full article“Surveillance Breeds Conformity”: Salon’s Glenn Greenwald Interview
Natasha Lennard - Salon,
6 Jan 2014
3 Jan 2014 – “A human being who lives in a world where he thinks he is always being watched is a human being who makes choices not as a free individual but as someone who is trying to conform to what is expected and demanded of them.”
→ read full articleNSA ‘Hacking Unit’ Infiltrates Computers around the World – Report
Joanna Walters – The Guardian,
30 Dec 2013
Details of how the division, known as Tailored Access Operations (TAO), steals data and inserts invisible “back door” spying devices into computer systems were published by the German magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday [29 Dec 2013]. • NSA: TAO a ‘unique national asset.’
→ read full articleI Worked on the US Drone Program. The Public Should Know What Really Goes On
Heather Linebaugh – The Guardian,
30 Dec 2013
Few of the politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue how it actually works (and doesn’t).
→ read full articleThe Deal of the Year: Why the Iran Nuclear Deal Is Good News for All
Riccardo Alcaro – Al Jazeera,
30 Dec 2013
Opponents of the US-Iran nuclear deal have much to gain from it.
→ read full articleThe People Who Challenged My Atheism Most Weren’t Priests, but Homeless Addicts and Prostitutes
Chris Arnade – The Guardian,
30 Dec 2013
I’ve been reminded that life is not as rational as Richard Dawkins sees it. Perhaps atheism is an intellectual luxury for the wealthy.
→ read full articleSamer Issawi, Hunger Strikes, and the Palestinian Struggle
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2013
For the last three years Palestinian prisoners unlawfully detained in Israeli jails have been engaged in hunger strikes to protest administrative detention, imprisonment without indictment, charges, and access to allegedly incriminating evidence, abusive arrest procedures…
→ read full articleEnigma Codebreaker Alan Turing Receives Royal Pardon
Caroline Davies – The Guardian,
30 Dec 2013
Alan Turing, the second world war codebreaker who took his own life after undergoing chemical castration following a conviction for homosexual activity, has been granted a posthumous royal pardon 59 years after his death.
→ read full article(Português) O Funesto Império Mundial das Corporações
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
30 Dec 2013
Muitos como J. Stiglitz e P. Krugman esperavam que o legado da crise de 2008 seria um grande debate sobre que tipo de sociedade queremos. Erraram feio. A discussão não se deu. Ao contrário, a lógica que provocou a crise foi retomada com mais furor.
→ read full articleInternet Privacy As Important As Human Rights, Says UN’s Navi Pillay
Haroon Siddique – The Guardian,
30 Dec 2013
The UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has compared the uproar in the international community caused by revelations of mass surveillance with the collective response that helped bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa.
→ read full article