Articles by M

We found 37535 results.


The Pre-charge Punishment of Julian Assange
Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan – Democracy NOW!, 1 Jun 2015

No charges, no trial, no ability to defend yourself … don’t even have the right to documents, because you’re not even a defendant.” His skin is pale from years without sunlight, matching his prematurely white hair. But his resolve is unbroken, and the leaks he originally sought to publish when he founded WikiLeaks almost 10 years ago are still reaching the light of day.

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House Arrest & Disobedience – A Review
Theresa Wolfwood – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Although Grover is rooted in his own Indian culture there is a painful universality about the revelations in his poems. In every poem Grover writes he is holding up a mirror and asking us, the readers and his community, to dig inside our souls. That is the true role of poetry; Grover’s poems are true to the art.
Book Launch: 13 June 2015, Poetry Café, Covent Garden London.

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Laissez Faire Water Laws Threaten Family Farming in Chile
Marianela Jarroud, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

May 27 2015 – Family farmers in Chile are pushing for the reinstatement of water as a public good, to at least partially solve the shortages caused by the privatisation of water rights by the military dictatorship in 1981.

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The Escalation of Global Financial Parasitism
Nick Beams, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

The rise in stock markets expresses not the health, but rather the deepening sickness, of the global economic order. The imposition of financial dictatorship is not a hypothetical issue—it has already been implemented in Greece, impoverishing millions of people.

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Our Dogs Can Read Our Minds: The New Neuroscience of Animal Brains and Understanding
Michael C. Corbalis - Salon, 1 Jun 2015

Understanding emotion in others is basic to survival, grounded in evolution. Animals have the skill just as we do.

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World’s First Ocean System Targeting Plastic Pollution to Launch in 2016
Renee Lewis – Al Jazeera America, 1 Jun 2015

29 May 2015 – The world’s first system designed to rid the oceans of plastic pollution will be deployed near Japan in 2016, with the aim of eventually capturing half of the plastic found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a large concentration of marine debris located between Hawaii and California.

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Pave Paradise, Put Up a Naval Base: South Korean Activists’ Extraordinary Struggle to Save Jeju Island
Medea Benjamin – Huffington Post, 1 Jun 2015

After a long journey to cross the DMZ from North to South Korea with a group of 30 peace women, some of us — including Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire and retired Colonel Ann Wright — stopped on Jeju Island and fell in love with this community of farmers, fisherpeople, city officials, small shop owners, florists, artists, poets, students and grandmothers.

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Yes to Development, No to Environmental Degradation
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

The emphasis of India today is on economic growth and development. Mahatma Gandhi often said, “Nature produces enough for peoples’ needs but not for their greed; characteristic aspect of modern civilization is an indefinite multiplicity of wants”, etc. Thus, let us have development and create jobs but not at the expense of our environment and biodiversity.

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The Olive Jar
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

A merchant in 8th century Baghdad went on a long trip to the orient.

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US Kneejerk Support for Israeli Nukes Torpedoes UN Disarmament Talks
Juan Cole – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

24 May 2015 – After four weeks of negotiations, a revised UN treaty on nuclear disarmament has been torpedoed by the US. In running interference for Israel’s estimated 400 warheads, the US has made the world a more dangerous place. Guess which country has requested further meetings at the UN in hopes of reviving the revised NPT? Iran.

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Leaked Internal Documents Show U.N. Ignored CAR Child Abuse
Roger Hamilton-Martin, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

May 29 2015 – Leaked United Nations documents show high-level staff knew of abuses by soldiers in the Central African Republic and failed to act, all while planning the removal of U.N. whistleblower Anders Kompass.

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The Map on the Wall
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

History shows us that there are (at least) two kinds of peace agreements. One kind, the stupid one, is based on power. The other, the intelligent, is based on common interest. The most notorious of the first kind is the Treaty of Versailles that followed World War I.

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Women Peace Activists Cross North-South Korea Border
Al Jazeera English – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

May 23, 2015 – Group of 30 women cross heavily militarised DMZ by bus after being denied by authorities to walk across the border.

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Non-Proliferation Treaty: Nuclear Weapons and Tension Areas
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

A major difficulty of moving to good-faith negotiations on a Middle East Nuclear-weapon Free Zone is the absence of a regional organization involving all States in the wider region. I believe that there is an urgent need to take steps toward creating a broad security and cooperation zone which has conflict resolution, arms control, human rights, and economic cooperation dimensions.

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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.

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INSURGE’s Pentagon-Gulf States-Turkey-ISIS Axis Report Makes National Headlines in Germany
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

28 May 20125 – Last week, my crowdfunded investigative journalism project, INSURGEintelligence, was able to break into the mainstream a story about startling assertions contained in a just released declassified Pentagon intelligence report, confirming that the West, the Gulf states and Turkey had, essentially, created ISIS through their support for Islamist militant rebels in Syria.

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In France, Post-Charlie Debate Hits a New Level of Vitriol
Konrad Yakabuski - The Globe and Mail, 1 Jun 2015

The marches were an act of “domination” and a warning to marginalized members of society to stay in line. They were the act of a deeply insecure elite reclaiming as “its highest priority the right to spit on the religion of the weak.” All the talk of freedom of expression, Mr. Todd concludes, was a “sham.”

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What It Was Like to Glimpse John Nash’s Beautiful Mind
Maurice Ewing – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Nash taught me that even geniuses need other people to correct their thinking and vet their ideas (as he had done in interacting with Von Neumann). Most importantly, however, Nash taught me that anyone’s mind can be beautiful if it focuses on producing beautiful ideas.

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Rotten Science: How We Got Duped by Fake Chocolate Science
Daniela Hernandez, Fusion – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

On Retraction Watch, a site dedicated to tracking scientific papers that are retracted, newly debunked studies are piling up. The reason we keep getting duped is that science isn’t just science anymore. It’s Big Business. And it’s time we start thinking about it that way because, as in any big industry, there are some disturbing things going on that most people outside of scientific circles don’t know about — but should. After all, these missteps affect our lives.

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Why Does Greece Not Simply Default?
Jérôme Roos - TeleSur, 1 Jun 2015

History has shown that countries that refuse to pay their debts fall harder but recover faster than those that do not. So why does Greece’s left-led government not simply get it over with?

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Correlating a Requisite Diversity of Metaphorical Patterns
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Entuning the Dynamic of Cognitive Eases and Diseases – This is an exploration of a methodological possibility of dynamically interweaving disparate threads which might thereby offer integrative insight.

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First Look Publishes Open Source Code to Advance Privacy, Security and Journalism
Micah Lee – The Intercept, 1 Jun 2015

27 May 2015 – The Intercept and its publisher, First Look Media, strongly believe in the benefits of free and open source software — in part because we rely on such software every day. To keep our journalists and sources safe, we use secure communication tools.

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Solutions Movement: How Worker-Owned Co-ops Can Change the Way We Work
Derek Royden, Occupy – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

21 May 2015 – As many of us watch or participate in the movement to improve the lives of service workers through raising the minimum wage, another, more radical story is being told on the margins: the story of worker-owned cooperatives, which have the potential to change the way we work.

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This College Student Chained Herself to a Shell Oil Ship for Three Days. Here’s Why.
Araz Hachadourian – Yes! Magazine, 1 Jun 2015

27 May 2015 – Unbearable’ is how Rose described the physical effects of being strapped in a harness for three days and nights. She said there were moments that helped push her through, like seeing her friends with supplies from 100 feet away or a school of fish underneath her feet.

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Unsettling Settlements: More Wrongdoing at Banks, More Swingeing Fines, No Prosecutions
The Economist – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

23 May 2015 – The scene was familiar: regulators meting out vast penalties to banks, scathing statements about gross misconduct, yet no individuals charged with any crimes and some confusion as to what exactly the banks were admitting to and what effect that would have.

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Myanmar Officially Rejects the Oslo Conference to End Systematic Persecution of the Rohingya Since 1978
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Read press release from 31 May 2015.

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Integrated Peacebuilding: Innovative Approaches to Transforming Conflict – A Review
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Craig Zelizer of the Conflict Resolution Program of Georgetown University, Washington DC, and his colleagues have written a very useful book with extensive bibliographies and website addresses of organizations dealing with conflict resolution.

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America at Its Best Is Strange
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

America even at its best is a strange place, alive with contradictions, a Teflon political culture that has an unshakable faith in its innocent and virtuous national character and its overall impact on the world, impervious to the ghosts of slavery and of ethnic cleansing of native Americans that should be tormenting our sleep and darkening our dreams, comfortable with its robust gun culture, and with its promiscuous reliance on rogue drones engineered to kill on command and on the brutal happenings that take place in black sites immorally situated in countries whose leaders agree to avert their gaze from the dirty work taking place.

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Stop Calling the TPP a Trade Agreement – It Isn’t.
Dave Johnson – Moyers & Company, 1 Jun 2015

TPP is a corporate/investor rights agreement. TPP extends patents, copyrights and other monopolies so investors can collect “rents.” TPP elevates corporations and corporate profits to and above the level of governments.

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Peace Education for Nonviolence and Solution of Terrorism
Surya Nath Prasad, Ph. D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

We find the history of terrorism and violence since the beginning of human civilizations. In every violent act, there is terror, fear and threat as experienced by its victim, similarly in every terror attack there is violence, fear, threat and terror.

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India´s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Today “governability” is standardly defined as the overall capacity for governance of any societal entity or system. This definition has the defect of being somewhat circular since it uses the word “governance” to define the word “governability.” But before busying ourselves with improving the definition of the word, let us instead look at some of the important issues at stake in governability-talk.

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48 Countries March Against Monsanto
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Global anti-Monsanto protests have been spurred by a recent WHO warning that the company’s signature herbicide “probably” causes cancer.

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NSA Planned to Hijack Google App Store and Plant Malware on All Android Apps
TechWorm – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Spy agencies planned to target mobile phones by hacking and hijacking Google and Samsung App store to implant spyware.

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Finance like a Cancer Grows
Roberto Savio, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

To bail out the banks, the world has collectively spent around 4 trillion dollars of taxpayers’ money. It is astonishing that every week we see action being taken in various part of the world against the financial sector, without any noticeable reaction of public opinion. The “new ethic” is in reality a cancer, and it is metastasising rapidly

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Ralph Waldo Emerson on Small Mercies, the True Measure of Wisdom, and How to Live with Maximum Aliveness
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

“To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.” In contemplating the shortness of life, Seneca considered what it takes to live wide rather than long.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

June 1-7 – QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Beware the bareness of a busy life.” – Socrates

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(Italiano) Sulla violenza: suicidio, omicidio – e l’uno e l’altro
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Ciò non vale per il terrorismo di stato a terra o dall’aria: l’omicidio di decine, centinaia di migliaia senza incorrere in rischi, né suicidi incorporati nell’atto, cioè più come un lavoro d’ufficio. Seppure il suicidio può arrivare in seguito, odiandosi per gli omicidi commessi.

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US Drops Cuba from Terrorism List
Jesse Byrnes, The Hill – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

The State Department formally dropped Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism on Friday [29 May 2015] after more than three decades. Removing Cuba from the list paves the way for diplomatic recognition and the opening of embassies. Lifting the full U.S. trade embargo requires congressional action.

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Demands
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

A group of terrorists burst into the Annual Convention of the American Bar Association at the New York Hilton Hotel and took three hundred lawyers as hostages.

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A Bit Here a Bit There
Udaya R. Tennakoon – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

Get up and stand up
A bit here and a bit there
The body walks
The mind flies
Separate but together

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Post Disaster Rebuilding of Nepal: Forward Thinking
Kedar Neupane – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

The suggested approach is timely for Nepal would not want to stagger like other countries which faced large disasters. Lessons from unsatisfactory response and weak coordination during the hurricane Katarina, earthquake in Haiti and typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines should guide response to the crisis.

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Failure of the US Coup d’État in Macedonia
Thierry Meyssan – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

23 May 2015 – Macedonia has just neutralised an armed group whose sponsors had been under surveillance for at least eight months and has prevented a new attempt at a coup d’État planned by Washington for the 17th of May. The aim was to spread the chaos already infecting Ukraine into Macedonia in order to stall the passage of a Russian gas pipeline to the European Union.

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Palestinian Soccer Head under Fire after Withdrawing Motion to Suspend Israel from FIFA
Khaled Abu Toameh – The Jerusalem Post, 1 Jun 2015

Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association Jibril Rajoub’s critics take to social media to strongly condemn his decision and call for his dismissal from his job. Rajoub’s last-minute announcement came as a surprise to many Palestinians, especially after his repeated statements that nothing would stop him from pursuing his anti-Israel bid.

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Latest Guilty Pleas Prove Big Bank Criminality ‘Rampant,’ But Jail Time Non-Existent
Deirdre Fulton – Common Dreams, 1 Jun 2015

In announcing settlement, Attorney General Loretta Lynch calls the crimes ‘a brazen display of collusion’ that caused ‘pervasive harm’. First, criminality is rampant on Wall Street. Second, the era of too-big-to-jail is alive and well. Even as they beat their chests announcing how tough they are, government regulators refuse to apply to the giant banks the same rules that apply to everyone else.

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The Years Since I Was Jailed For Releasing the ‘War Diaries’ Have Been a Rollercoaster
Chelsea E Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) – The Guardian, 1 Jun 2015

It can be difficult, sometimes, to make sense of all the things that have happened to me in the last five years… It didn’t help that a few of the Navy guards delivering meals would tell me that I was waiting for interrogation on a brig on a US cruiser off the coast of the horn of Africa, or being sent to the prison camps of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. At the very lowest point, I contemplated castrating myself.

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The Long Shadow of War: The Struggle for Justice in Postwar Sri Lanka – Report
Oakland Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

This report, authored by Anuradha Mittal, is based on research and fieldwork conducted between January 2014 and April 2015. We are grateful to individuals who assisted with research and fieldwork in Sri Lanka, who remain unnamed to ensure their safety.

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Consider the Octopus: A Little Boy’s Moving Case against Eating Animals
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Jun 2015

A ‘food’ — this exquisite masterwork of evolution, this intelligent alien with an order of consciousness so beyond ours that we can barely begin to grasp its extent with the clumsy and insensitive tentacles of our moral imagination. Disarming wisdom from a tiny-bodied, huge-hearted human animal.

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(Deutsch) Auf dem Weg zur EU-Armee (Teil I): Vereint marschieren
Sabine Lösing und Jürgen Wagner - Informationsstelle Militarisierung, 25 May 2015

Die Bündelung militärischer Fähigkeiten der Mitgliedsländer der Europäischen Union soll Kosten reduzieren und langfristig weltweiten Einfluss sichern.

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(Deutsch) Auf dem Weg zur EU-Armee (Teil II und Schluss): »Germanische Macht«
Sabine Lösing und Jürgen Wagner - Informationsstelle Militarisierung, 25 May 2015

Eine gemeinsame europäische Streitkraft wäre vor allem im Interesse der Bundesrepublik. Andere Mitgliedsstaaten stellen sich deshalb quer.

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Why Elites Love Drones
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Serviver, 25 May 2015

The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. once said: ‘The enemy is violence.’ But I believe the true enemy is our fear: the fear of nonviolently resisting violence, in all of its manifestations. Are you afraid?

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(Português) Ou o homem é mais velho do que pensávamos ou a Terra esconde mistérios
Manuela Goucha Soares – Expresso, 25 May 2015

Uma equipa de 22 arqueólogos encontrou cerca de 150 ferramentas de pedra mais velhas do que a espécie humana. Quem as fez?

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Researchers Discover a 40.000-Year-Old Bracelet Made by an Extinct Human Species
EWAO – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

May 19, 2015 – It is one of the most incredible discoveries in recent years, confirming that we have actually very little knowledge of our distant past. Researchers have discovered the bracelet at Denisova Cave in Siberia, near Russia’s border with China and Mongolia.

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A Color Revolution for Macedonia
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

22 May 2015 – During the Cold War Washington was concerned about communists fomenting street protests that they could turn into revolutions, with groomed politicians waiting in the wings to take over the new government, thus expanding the Soviet empire. Today this is precisely what Washington does. Why is Washington interested in controlling Macedonia?

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“Rebuilding America’s Defenses” PNAC – A Summary
Compiled by Bette Stockbauer – PNAC Library & Resources, 25 May 2015

Blueprint of the Project for the New American Century Plan for U.S. Global Hegemony – Not since “Mein Kampf” has a geopolitical punch been so blatantly telegraphed, years ahead of the blow. A summary of the document presented.

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

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

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(Italiano) Israele, Germania, e tre vicini parenti
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

Nel bel mezzo del Medio Oriente c’è Israele, che culla sogni di un Israele ancor più grande che quello di re Davide. Gli stati seguiranno l’autorità morale del mondo d’oggi, papa Francesco, temendo di riconoscere la Palestina troppo tardi, tanto quanto temevano di farlo troppo presto. Il sionismo di Netanyahu è sconfitto, non militarmente ma moralmente.

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Scientific Responsibility in Counting the War Dead – A Response to Washington Post and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

The more I looked into the matter, the more perturbed I became by Iraq Body Count’s odd relationships to US and European government agencies, questionable public statements, and pathological obsession with defending IBC methodologies. My investigation showed, for the first time, that Spagat’s work itself is false, fraudulent, and unreliable.

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Anthem to Human Love
Guy Crequie – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

For The Harmony of Our Lives

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Eight Years in the Making: Power without Borders in Europe
Rachel Morison and Weixin Zha – Bloomberg, 25 May 2015

Germany, France and central-western Europe connected their electricity markets on Wednesday [20 May 2015] under a system that lets prices dictate where power flows between countries. Flow-based market coupling matches supply and demand across borders, sending electricity to where prices are highest.

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The Oak Tree and the Reed Grass
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

A mighty oak tree ridiculed the soft thin reed grass bending back and forth in the lake.

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[Banksters Mafia Orgy] Major World Banks Hit by Record Fine for Rigging Forex Markets
Jill Treanor in London and Dominic Rushe in New York – The Guardian, 25 May 2015

The reputation of the banking industry took another hammering on Wednesday [20 May 2015] as record fines imposed on Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Citi, JP Morgan and UBS, which pleaded guilty for rigging foreign exchange markets and over collusion by traders in several countries, topped [£6.3bn.] [€ 8.8bn.] [US$ 9.86bn.].

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(Italiano) L’anno 2015: rapporto sul primo quadrimestre
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

La Cina è proattiva nei “cortili” UE e USA; realizzando guadagni in modo nonviolento quando altri ci perdono violentemente per inazione e sfruttamento. Perché? Forse la Cina considera Africa e America Latina in ascesa come più competitive che UE e USA in declino; pensando in grande, a lungo termine, come fanno loro.

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Texans Propose to Adopt Threatened African Rhinos
Lisa Vives, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

May 13 2015 -Thefts, murders and mutilation of Africa’s wildlife, from white rhinos to elephants with their prized horns and tusks, are at an all-time high, say conservationists who are keeping track of the poaching of species by fortune-seeking hunters.

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Whistleblower Warns on Safety of UK Nukes, Goes on the Run
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

17 May 2015 – A UK Navy Seaman has warned that the UK’s nuclear submarine system, Trident, are a “disaster waiting to happen” and is now in hiding. In coming months, the UK government will decide whether to spend £100bn (US$150bn) on upgrading its nuclear weapons system.

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New Lives in Uruguay – Freedom Elusive after 12 Years at Guantanamo
Marian Blasberg – Der Spiegel, 25 May 2015

Six former Guantanamo prisoners have been sharing a house in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo for the last six months. The planned closure of the US detention facility could hinge on the outcome of this experiment.

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Women and Biodiversity Feed the World, Not Corporations and GMOs
Prof. Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

The two great ecological challenges of our times are biodiversity erosion and climate change. And both are interconnected, in their causes and their solutions. Industrial agiculture is the biggest contributor to biodiversity erosion as well as to climate change. According to the United Nations, 93% of all plant variety has disappeared over the last 80 years.

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How to Make Use of Our Suffering: Simone Weil on Ameliorating Our Experience of Pain, Hunger, Fatigue, and All That Makes the Soul Cry
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

There is almost a Buddhist undertone to Weil’s insistence on accepting everything that is, as it is, without compounding pain with “the second arrow” of our tendency to resist any unpleasantness and judge it as a kind of personal failure, which in turn precipitates an even graver sense of dissatisfaction.

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Why Aren’t the Banksters in Prison?
Andre Damon, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

The financial impact on JPMorgan and the other banks for pleading guilty to a felony will be effectively zero. As part of the deal, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued waivers exempting the banks from the legal repercussions arising from their status as criminal organizations, giving them continued preferential treatment in issuing debt, as well as the continued right to operate mutual funds.

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Dear Future Generations: Sorry (Legendado em Português)
Prince Ea – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

An Apology Letter to Future Generations (Um Pedido de Desculpas às Gerações Futuras)

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Non-Proliferation Talks Fail over Mideast Nuclear-Weapons Free Zone Plan
Carole Landry – Middle East Eye, 25 May 2015

23 May 2015 – United States, Canada and Britain opposed a plan to set up a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East.

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Destroying What Remains: How the U.S. Navy Plans to War Game the Arctic
Dahr Jamail - TomDispatch, 25 May 2015

The bottom line on all this is simple, if brutal. The Navy is increasingly focused on possible future climate-change conflicts in the melting waters of the north and, in that context, has little or no intention of caretaking the environment when it comes to military exercises.

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(Français) Haïti-Népal : regards croisés sur la mondialisation
Frédéric Thomas – Centre Tricontinental, 25 May 2015

On aura à nouveau parlé d’Haïti, suite au récent séisme du Népal. Il est vrai que des correspondances existent entre les deux situations. À cela s’ajoute le voisinage encombrant de grandes puissances, qui pèsent lourd sur la souveraineté de ces deux pays…

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‘They Hit Us, with Hammers, by Knife’: Rohingya Migrants Tell of Horror at Sea
Kate Lamb – The Guardian, 25 May 2015

Up to 8,000 are believed to be stuck off Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian coasts, and those who made it to shore describe violence and starvation.

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Checking for Accuracy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.

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An Impact Assessment of a Great Earthquake in Nepal
Prof. Bishnu Pathak – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 25, 2015 disrupted the lives of nine million people – almost a third of the population. A second one of magnitude 7.3 on May 12 further complicated getting aid to survivors mainly in the central Nepal. Thus, the challenge of quake is being turned to opportunity to make a new Nepal forming a national Government headed by a clean, dynamic and honest leadership.

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Minorities Threatened More by Governments than Terrorist Groups, Says Study
Thalif Deen, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

A new study released Wednesday [20 May 2015] by the London-based Minority Rights Group International says populations in the region were more at risk from their own governments.

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Megadeath [Rhino-Elephant-Hippo Extinction]
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

The destruction of some of the last of the huge animals that shaped us inflicts a great wound in our lives.

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Implications for Australia of Aljazeera Program Condoning Genocide in Syria
Susan Dirgham – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

The program targeted an Arabic speaking audience, and it would have a significant number of viewers in Australia. The host of the Al-Jazeera program and one guest express support for the killing of Alawis in Syria. They do not exclude women and children.

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Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro Overture (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Boston Symphony Orchestra – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Conductor: Keith Lockhart.

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U.S. Wakes Up to New (Silk) World Order
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times, 25 May 2015

15 May 2015 – The real Masters of the Universe in the U.S. are no weathermen, but arguably they’re starting to feel which way the wind is blowing. History may signal it all started with this week’s trip to Sochi, led by their paperboy, Secretary of State John Kerry, who met with Foreign Minister Lavrov and then with President Putin.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

May 25-31 – QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t.” – Richard Bach

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Palmyra, Syria: Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Humanity in Periods of Armed Conflict
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

It seems that the ISIS forces have taken control of the city and some of the area around it. Thus, the Appeal of the Association of World Citizens must be addressed to its leadership, although the AWC has no direct communication avenues to the ISIS. The protection of the cultural heritage of humanity is an important element of world law binding on States, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals.

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U.S. Honeybee Population Plummets by More Than 40%, USDA Finds
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

According to the latest annual government study, U.S. beekeepers reported losing 42.1 percent of the total number of colonies managed from April 2014 through April 2015, much higher than the 34.2 percent from the year prior.

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Edward Snowden: NSA Reform in the US Is Only the Beginning
Alan Rusbridger, Janine Gibson and Ewen MacAskill – The Guardian, 25 May 2015

In an exclusive interview from Moscow, Snowden cautions that more needs to be done to curb NSA surveillance two years after his disclosures.

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Governor of Japan’s Okinawa to Press U.S. for Removal of Base
Elaine Lies, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

The governor of the Japanese island of Okinawa said on Wednesday [20 May 2015] he will travel to the United States next week to press his demand that a U.S. military base be removed from his island to lighten the burden of a people weary of hosting U.S. troops.

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Monsanto’s Worst Fear May Be Coming True
Jonathan Latham – Independent Science News, 25 May 2015

For Monsanto and GMOs the situation suddenly looks ominous. Chipotle may well represent the beginnings of a market swing of historic proportions. GMOs may be relegated to cattle-feed status, or even oblivion, in the USA. And if GMOs fail in the US, they are likely to fail elsewhere.

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Peace Education: Source of National Unity and Global Harmony
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

Peace education consists in enabling people to lead a happy life through the development of their human resources for constructive purposes.

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More Than a Newsman – Behind the Media’s Assault on Seymour Hersh
Shamus Cooke - CounterPunch, 25 May 2015

19 May 2015 – He’s the most respected journalist in U.S. history, and for decades Seymour Hersh has consistently broken major international stories, winning him the Pulitzer Prize among other prestigious awards of journalism. Hersh’s recent report on the killing of Osama Bin Laden and his prior investigation of Obama’s aborted 2013 bombing of Syria have attracted a synchronized media smear campaign.

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(Português) A controvérsia do zoológico humano
Daniel kirjner - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais, 25 May 2015

18 maio 2015 – Nos últimos dias os ânimos se exaltaram em uma discussão acerca das intersecções entre racismo e especismo. Um vegano postou uma imagem que mostrava uma criança negra exibida em um zoológico há cerca sessenta anos atrás.

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(Castellano) Itaca
C. P. Cavafis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

Ten siempre a Itaca en tu mente.
Llegar allí es tu destino.
Mas no apresures nunca el viaje.

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US Press Blacks Out Israeli Defense Minister’s Citation of ‘Nagasaki and Hiroshima’ as Model for Dealing with Iran
Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

“I do remember the story of President Truman was asked, How do you feel after deciding to launch the nuclear bombs, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, causing at the end the fatalities of 200,000, casualties? And he said, When I heard from my officers the alternative is a long war with Japan, with potential fatalities of a couple of millions, I thought it is a moral decision. We are not there yet. But that what I’m talking about.”

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The Silencing of Prof. Hector Valenzuela: University of Hawaii, GMO, Monsanto
Paul Koberstein and Eliza Murphy - Cascadia Times, 25 May 2015

Valenzuela, who in 1990 received his Ph.D. in vegetable crops from the University of Florida, established the first long-term organic farming research project in Hawai‘i and the Pacific region to determine whether it’s possible to grow crops in the state without synthetic pesticides. But it all came to an end inexplicably in 1998 when the university shut down the organic farming research project.

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Two Hundred Verses about Compassionate Living in the Quran
Zia H. Shah, MD – The Muslim Times, 25 May 2015

Here I want to stress the Quranic message of compassion, love and kindness by cataloging as many verses as I can, realizing that it can never be an exhaustive list as other readers will continue to find new ideas of mercy and grace in other verses of the Holy Quran.

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On Being Sane in Insane Places: “If Sanity and Insanity Exist, How Shall We Know Them?”
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

The now famous (some offended or embarrassed psychiatrists preferred to call it “infamous”) experiment that was carried out involved 12 different psychiatric hospitals and 8 different people, mostly professionals (including the author). Each of the eight were totally and certifiably sane “pseudo-patients”.

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Australia’s Closing of Aboriginal Communities Sparks Protests
Lauren Williams – USA Today, 25 May 2015

24 May 2015 – Government moves to close remote indigenous communities because of alleged social problems and the cost of maintaining them is triggering a new wave of protests planned for next week across Australia. Prime Minster Tony Abbott backed the move, telling national radio it was not the taxpayers’ job to “subsidize lifestyle choices.”

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The Path to Zero: Dialogues on Nuclear Dangers – A Review
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

The Path to Zero: Dialogues on Nuclear Dangers, by Richard Falk and David Krieger – This book ought to be required reading for college students everywhere in the world, and also for decision-makers. It shakes us out of our complacency and makes us realize that widespread, immediate and dedicated public action is urgently needed if we are to save human civilization and the biosphere from a thermonuclear catastrophe.

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Compassion Fatigue?
Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

So did humans develop compassion fatigue and does this bode ill for our future as a species? I do not know and cannot predict the future. I can only act against the negative trends and draw closer to other activists. When we do find people who still cares, we latch onto them and try to do something together to keep our sanity. We must never give up. We must “stay human” as Vittorio used to write to us.

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Macedonia, the New U.S.-Russia Battlefield
Leonid Bershidsky - Bloomberg, 25 May 2015

19 May 2015 – Macedonia is a poor, landlocked Balkan country of about 2 million. To the Kremlin, it’s also the newest front in an ideological battle, with the U.S. fomenting regime change to counter Russia’s influence.

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Science, Time and Hawaii’s Mauna a Wākea: The Thirty-Meter Telescope’s Capitalist-Colonialist Violence
David Maile – The Hawaii Independent, 25 May 2015

The ‪TMT is, in fact, a part of a legacy of colonial-capitalist violence committed against Hawaii and Hawaiians, regardless of its scientific merit.

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Fugitive Facts Escape from American Psychological Association Headquarters – Colluding with Torturers
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

Although preliminary reports have now identified many of the fugitive facts, the APA continues to warn that extreme caution should be exercised until the Association has provided specific safety guidelines. Without adequate precautions, close contact has been linked to a variety of psychological symptoms, including denial, defensiveness, and despair.

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