Articles by RT

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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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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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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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(русский-Russian) Вашингтон признал, что поддерживал радикальных исламистов в Сирии
Tony Cartalucci – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 May 2015

Как отмечает в своей статье обозреватель НВО Тони Карталучи, как отмечается в одной из недавних публикаций авторитетного Брукингского института, который является одним из главных центров геополитического планирования в США, на территории Турции на протяжении долгого времени действовал (и продолжает действовать по сей день) командный центр разведки США, который осуществлял контроль за всеми операциями поддерживаемых США различных групп, включая ИГИЛ и так называемую «умеренную оппозицию».

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Emirates Becomes Latest Airline to Ban Transport of Big Game Hunting Trophies
Taylor Hill – TakePart Magazine, 18 May 2015

15 May 2015 – Watch out, big game hunters: The options for bringing back animal trophies from your African safaris are dwindling. Emirates SkyCargo, the world’s third-largest cargo carrier behind FedEx and UPS, has announced it will stop carrying trophies of elephants, rhinos, lions, and tigers aboard its planes.

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Nuclear Proliferation Is Still the Greatest Threat We Face
Valerie Plame Wilson - Reader Supported News, 18 May 2015

Twenty-six years after the end of the Cold War, the world still has more than 15,000 nuclear weapons. Whatever other issues people care about — poverty, the environment, inequality and so many others — if we don’t get this one right, and soon, nothing else will matter. We are at a crossroads on this issue and the decisions we make over the next 10 years will set us on a course either toward the elimination of all nuclear weapons or toward expanding arsenals and proliferation.

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Hillary Clinton, Phosphates, and the Western Sahara
Stephen Zunes – National Catholic Reporter, 18 May 2015

Morocco has ignored a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions and a landmark World Court decision underscoring the right of the Western Saharan people to self-determination. In 2002, then U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Hans Corell determined that the exploitation of natural resources in Western Sahara is a “violation of the international law principles applicable to mineral resource activities in Non-Self-Governing Territories.”

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The Origins of That Eisenhower ‘Every Gun That Is Made…’ Quote
Robert Schlesinger – US News & World Report, 18 May 2015

The quote currently making the rounds on Facebook is genuine Eisenhower: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone… “

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A New Dark Age of Militarism
Robert C. Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 May 2015

13 May 2015 – “What struck me,” journalist Christian Parenti said in a recent Truthout interview, referring to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, “was the fact that these local towns and states around the region were sending the only resources they had to New Orleans: weapons and militarized gear.

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US “Operation Rooms” Backing Al Qaeda in Syria
Tony Cartalucci, New Eastern Outlook – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 May 2015

US policy think-tank Brookings Institution confirms that contrary to propaganda, US-Saudi “moderates” and Turkey-Qatar “Islamists” have been coordinating all along.

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(Castellano) La ciencia sostiene que la felicidad está en viajar y no en comprar bienes materiales
Journal of Positive Psychology – Diario Norte, 18 May 2015

La investigación publicada en el “Journal of Positive Psychology” afirma que la gratificación instantánea generada al adquirir objetos como ropa, zapatillas o joyas caras es únicamente pasajera.

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Yarmouk and the Failures of Neutral Humanitarianism
Brent Eng & José Ciro Martínez – Al Jazeera America, 11 May 2015

Aid agencies should acknowledge their role in exacerbating the Syrian crisis. By bringing external resources into life-or-death situations characterized by scarcity, aid agencies have indirectly exacerbated the very situation that they are trying to ameliorate.

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Peace Lessons: How to Reduce Violence
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 May 2015

If you are interested in learning more about the meaning of, and the relationships among, direct, structural and cultural violence–particularly developed by Professor Johan Galtung–and how one peace studies scholar suggests we use the integrative power of nonviolence to address violence constructively, then I suggest you read the new book by historian, playwright and novelist Professor Timothy Braatz called ‘Peace Lessons’.

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It Is Time to Call Radio “Liberty” What It Is: Radio Gestapo Amerika
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 May 2015

6 May 2015 – Radio “Liberty” has always been a propaganda ministry. Formerly its propaganda was directed against the Soviet Union. Today it is directed against distinguished Americans who are known and respected for their allegiance to the truth. It has declared America’s most distinguished Russian scholar, Stephen Cohen, to be “a Putin apologist.” He is a professor of Russian studies at both Princeton University and New York University and was advisor to President George Herbert Walker Bush. Mikhail Gorbachev also trusted Cohen, and little doubt that Cohen helped to bring about the end of the Cold War.

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The West and Its Self-Assumed Right to Intervene
Roberto Savio, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 May 2015

The ‘West’ is a concept that flourished during the Cold War. Then it was West against East in the form of the Soviet empire. The East was evil against which all democratic countries – read West – were called on to fight. Led by the United States, in the case of the Arab world, it has created situations that justify subsequent military interventions which have had a high cost in both human and financial terms.

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A Destination, Unknown
Ashok T. Chakravarthy – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 May 2015

The clouds rain
Without selfish motives,
Be it an ocean
Or a green land

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The Choice before Europe
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 May 2015

Washington continues to drive Europe toward one or the other of the two most likely outcomes of the orchestrated conflict with Russia. Either Europe or some European Union member government will break from Washington over the issue of Russian sanctions, thereby forcing the EU off of the path of conflict with Russia, or Europe will be pushed into military conflict with Russia.

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Costa Rica’s Energy Nearly 100 Percent Clean
Diego Arguedas Ortiz, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 May 2015

May 5 2015 – Costa Rica has almost reached its goal of an energy mix based solely on renewable sources, harnessing solar, wind and geothermal power, as well as the energy of the country’s rivers. In 2015, 97 percent of the country’s energy supply will come from clean sources.

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(Castellano) Los Expertos Advierten de la Necesidad de Reconocer los Resentimientos
Carta de la Paz dirigida a la ONU– TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 May 2015

“Los resentimientos son fruto del desamor y del desprecio, muchos resentimientos nacen de la comparación y de una visión subjetiva de las cosas y por eso las personas resentidas nunca se sienten satisfechas con la justicia. Para gestionar los resentimientos, en primer lugar hay que reconocerlos; y, en segundo lugar, pasar necesariamente por la justicia. Cuando no hay justicia el mal queda dentro y el resentimiento crece”.

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(Català) Els experts adverteixen de la necessitat de reconèixer els ressentiments
Carta de la Pau dirigida a l'ONU – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 May 2015

“La gestió dels ressentiments s’ha de fer des del llenguatge i des de les institucions creant relats de reconciliació. Aquest procés demana temps, recursos, dedicació i energies i, en contra de tot això, ara volem perdons express”.

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Those Damned Migrants [Refugees]: Blame It All on Them!
Steve Weissman - Reader Supported News, 4 May 2015

“It is sickening to see thousands of refugees drowning on the doorstep of the world’s wealthiest continent,” declared actress Angelina Jolie, the UN’s Special Envoy for Refugees. “No one risks the lives of their children in this way except out of utter desperation.”

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The Day after Damascus Falls
Robert Parry – Consortium News, 4 May 2015

The Saudi-Israeli alliance has gone on the offensive, ramping up a “regime change” war in Syria and, in effect, promoting a military victory for Al-Qaeda or its spinoff, the Islamic State. But the consequences of that victory could toll the final bell for the American Republic.

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Idiots of the World, Unite!
Robert C. Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 May 2015

“Sir, you are an idiot.” Wow, an insult wrapped in such old-fashioned politeness. I let the words hover and reach, as I always do, for peace: that is to say, for clarity, connection, common humanity. Last week I raised the idea of unarmed policing [in the US], as practiced in half a dozen countries around the world.

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Doonesbury Cartoonist Attacked for Criticizing Charlie Hebdo
Patrick Martin, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Apr 2015

27 Apr 2015 – Garry Trudeau, the creator of the Doonesbury comic strip, has come under attack for publicly criticizing anti-Muslim cartoons appearing in Charlie Hebdo, calling them a form of hate speech. The central point made by Trudeau is that Charlie Hebdo was engaged, not in satirizing the powerful, but in vilifying the most oppressed section of the French population, Muslim immigrants, who face the highest levels of unemployment, poverty, police harassment and imprisonment.

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Pillar of Neoliberal Thinking Is Vacillating
Roberto Savio - Centre tricontinental-CETRI, 27 Apr 2015

From Marx to Keynes, redistribution theories were built on stable or expanding economies. Progressive parties built their success during economic expansion but the Left has not developed economic science on what to do in crisis. It mimics the Right and, when the crisis is over, it has lost its identity.

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A Trade Rule That Makes It Illegal to Favor Local Business? Newest Leak Shows TPP Would Do That and More
David Korten - YES! Magazine, 27 Apr 2015

The leaked text is full of dense legal jargon. But a close reading makes its corporate agenda crystal clear.

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Legacy of War
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Apr 2015

Sometimes when we reflect on war, we talk about sacrifice for a good cause. Other times, we talk about the cost, in lives or liberties lost. Occasionally, we talk about the horror. Sometimes we talk about the gains, nationally or internationally, for freedom and democracy. And rarely, we analyse the causes of war and lament that one day we might end it.

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Nonviolence Charter: Progress Report 6 (Apr 2015)
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D., Anita McKone and Anahata Giri – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Apr 2015

20 Apr 2015 – Here is the latest six-monthly report on progress in relation to ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’ and a sample of news about, and reports of forthcoming events by, Charter signatories.

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Piano Recital: Launching of ‘Universal Abolition of Militarism’
Alberto Portugheis - TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Apr 2015

TRANSCEND Member, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and world renowned international pianist Alberto Portugheis will perform a recital to launch his International Peace Campaign. 30 May 2015, at 5pm, Wesley Centre, Harrogate, England.

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The Real Nuclear Threat
Robert C. Koehler, Common Wonders – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Apr 2015

Three privatized nuclear laboratories — Los Alamos, Sandia and Livermore — are behind the immense investment (as much as $1 trillion over 30 years) in upgraded, more destructive nuclear warheads. This aggressive pressure from the American business sector is a lot more frightening than any aggression emanating from Iran, and may indicate where the real push for war comes from.

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Saving Passengers of the Good Ship Titan… Earth
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Apr 2015

So what can we learn from the sinking of the Titanic and its huge death toll that can help us to avert sinking the Good Ship Earth and killing off most, if not all, humans and many other species besides? Let me consider each item above in turn.

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Spiritual Warmth
Dr. Ashok T Chakravarthy – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Apr 2015

Unifying the bond of human ‘love’
Pulling me from the illusion’s grove;
God! The cradle of dreams You awoke,
And on a spiritual path, I fell awake.

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Nazi Extortion: Study Sheds New Light on Forced Greek Loans
Manfred Ertel, Katrin Kuntz and Walter Mayr – Der Spiegel, 30 Mar 2015

Is Germany liable to Athens for loans the Nazis forced the Greek central bank to provide during World War II? A new study in Greece could increase the pressure on Berlin to pay up.

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

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

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Vykom: Strategic Nonviolent Action against Untouchability – A Review
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Mar 2015

King is well qualified to undertake this study of the previously neglected Vykom satyagraha. She participated in the civil rights movement in the United States in the 1960s led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr and has been a prominent scholar in the field of nonviolence ever since. Moreover, she is thorough, as the extensive footnotes in her book illustrate.

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(Português/Español) Bilderberg: O Clube Secreto dos Poderosos
Cristina Martín Jiménez – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Mar 2015

“O clube Bilderberg, que se reúne há 61 anos, congrega as individualidades mais poderosas do mundo”, afirma a jornalista sevilhana Cristina Martín Jiménez. Explica que eles “têm o poder como ideologia” e implementam “planos secretos para governar o mundo, destruindo gradualmente as soberanias nacionais e tirando aos países a capacidade de decidir.” A Grécia como teste-piloto.

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Iraq and the Media: A Critical Timeline
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting-FAIR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Mar 2015

19 Mar 2015 – On 12th Anniversary of Iraq Invasion, Recalling Corporate Media’s Deception – It’s hardly controversial to suggest that the mainstream media’s performance in the lead-up to the Iraq War was a disaster.

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The “Naturalness” of the Commons
David de Ugarte – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Mar 2015

Why so much sudden love for Elinor Ostrom? No, to understand the shared economy, to work together to manage the needs of all in a community economy, we don’t need great treaties or consultation with university technicians. We just need to go back home, back to basics.

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Planet Earth
Dr. Ashok T Chakravarthy – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Mar 2015

In the deep woods, stunning and beautiful
The black cuckoo sings a song, remorseful;

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Spirituality in the New World Order: Is a One World Religious Authority in Formation?
Matthew Butler – The Conscious Reporter, 23 Mar 2015

Various theorists have suggested a “One World Religion” will emerge as part of a “New World Order”. Is it possible that powerful people in the global elite desire – if not an actual monolithic world faith – then a global hegemony over the world’s spirituality, so that religions, and their followers, can be influenced through a central authority?

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Lo! What Can I Do
Dr. Ashok T Chakravarthy – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Mar 2015

The night spreads a carpet of darkness
Over the far off hillock, the moon rises,
The eerie silence is intermittently broken
By the barking dogs from a far-off den.

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CNN Is Beating the Drums of War
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Mar 2015

Wolf Blitzer (CNN, March 13) used the cover of a news program to broadcast a propaganda performance straight out of the Third Reich or perhaps from George Orwell’s 1984. The orchestration presented Russia as a massive, aggressive military threat. The screen was filled with missiles firing and an assortment of American General Strangeloves urging provocative measures to be deployed against the Russian Threat.

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(Português) Medo: matéria-prima da indústria farmacêutica
Martha Rosenberg – Outras Palavras, 16 Mar 2015

Como os laboratórios globais manipulam insegurança e desemparo quotidianos para multiplicar vendas — desrespeitando, se necessário, a saúde dos pacientes.

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The Untold Story of How the Sugar Industry Shaped Key Government Research about Your Teeth
Roberto A. Ferdman – The Washington Post, 16 Mar 2015

11 Mar 2015 – Decades-old documents have surfaced showing that the powerful U.S. sugar industry skewed the government’s medical research on dental care. More recently, the industry attempted to influence changes to the nutrition facts label, for the inclusion of “added sugar,” to communicate how much sugar was added during processing. The industry is vehemently opposed.

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Violence against Women: Why We Keep Getting it Wrong
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Mar 2015

So let me briefly explain the fundamental cause of violence in our world, including the cause of violence against women, and invite you to do something very personal and effective about it.

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Wikimedia vs. NSA: Challenge to Mass Surveillance under the FISA Amendments Act
ACLU-American Civil Liberties Union – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Mar 2015

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are: Wikimedia Foundation, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, PEN American Center, Global Fund for Women, The Nation Magazine, The Rutherford Institute, and The Washington Office on Latin America.

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The Real Syrian Moderates: Voices of Reason
Eva Bartlett – Russia Today, 16 Mar 2015

While the Western-led, anti-Assad bloc mind-blowingly speaks of arming non-existent “moderates” to fight in Syria, they also continue to demonize and silence the very voices that offer a true means of bringing peace and stability back to the region.

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Why We Occupy: Dutch Universities at the Crossroads
Nicholas Vrousalis, Robin Celikates, Johan Hartle, and Enzo Rossi – Open Democracy, 9 Mar 2015

The upshot is the bureaucratic equivalent of a sausage-factory: the production of the knowledge-sausage at minimum cost for the maximum number of consumers. The process by which one arrives at knowing thus becomes insignificant and secondary: means (degrees) and ends (the free pursuit of knowledge) are completely inverted.

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Under The Sun: Australia’s Largest Solar Farm Set to Sprout in a Queensland Field
Joshua Robertson – The Guardian, 9 Mar 2015

A sea of glass panels may soon be sprawling across Queensland cranking out 100 times more energy than the largest solar farm in Australia today. “Obviously there’s a great amount of opportunity out there but it does take a fair bit of boldness as well to be able to participate in this paradigm shift.” — Angus Gemmell

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At Least One Country Agrees with Netanyahu: Saudi Arabia
Robert Fisk – The Independent, 9 Mar 2015

Who can the Saudis trust when they find themselves on Netanyahu’s side? In their golden palaces, the Saudis fear. They fear the Iranians. They fear the Shia. They fear Isis and al-Qaeda. They fear the Muslim Brotherhood. They fear American betrayal and Israeli plots. They even fear the “power” of tiny Qatar.

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The Tax Deductible Occupation
Alex Doherty - TeleSur, 9 Mar 2015

The Friends of the Israel Defence Forces (FIDF) runs a fundraising program that allows for donors to “Adopt a Brigade” of Israeli forces.

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Silicon Valley Pioneers and Michael Jordan Join Forbes Billionaires List
Rupert Neate – The Guardian, 9 Mar 2015

3 Mar 2015 – As list swells to 1,826 global billionaires, poverty charity Oxfam calls extreme inequality a ‘moral outrage’ as billions ‘go to bed hungry every night’. Silicon Valley created 23 new billionaires last year as the global elite increased its total wealth to an obscene $7tn.

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How Gazan Natural Gas Became the Epicenter of an International Power Struggle
Michael Schwartz – CounterPunch, 2 Mar 2015

The Great Game in the Holy Land – After 25 years and five failed Israeli military efforts, Gaza’s natural gas is still underwater and, after four years, the same can be said for almost all of the Levantine gas.

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The Neoconservative Threat to World Order
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Mar 2015

26 Feb 2015 – This week I was invited to address an important conference of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Scholars from Russia and from around the world, Russian government officials, and the Russian people seek an answer as to why Washington destroyed during the past year the friendly relations between America and Russia that President Reagan and President Gorbachev succeeded in establishing.

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(Català-Catalán) Víctimes i Victimaris
David Álvarez – Carta de la Pau dirigida a l’ONU, 2 Mar 2015

Dialogar no és una cosa genètica, és una competència que s’ensenya i es socialitza en el procés vital de tota persona. Des de la llar fins a l’Estat, els processos de diàleg han de ser els mecanismes que hi hagi les relacions entre tots els éssers humans. Un diàleg en què ens reconeixem iguals i amb dret a expressar les nostres idees i propostes, alhora que som capaços d’escoltar i entendre les idees i propostes dels altres.

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Community Response: A Danish Answer to Radical Jihad
Manfred Ertel and Ralf Hoppe – Der Spiegel, 2 Mar 2015

The murders in Copenhagen have refocused attention on a thorny question for Europe: How can radical jihadists returning from Syria be reintegrated? The Danish city of Aarhus may have found an answer.

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Gaza in Ruins after Receiving Only 5% of Pledged Reconstruction Funds
Ken Klippenstein - Reader Supported News, 2 Mar 2015

23 Feb 15 – Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), discusses the causes and consequences of the fact that only about 5% of pledged donations have reached Gaza.

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(Italiano) Perché è inevitabile l’estinzione del genere umano a breve termine
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Mar 2015

L’espressione “estinzione umana a breve termine” è relativamente recente nella letteratura scientifica, ma a differenza di altre realtà che le ‘élite’ nazionali e i canali d’informazione dominanti sono riusciti a soffocare, questa continuerà a filtrare finché non inizierete a sentirla regolarmente. Perché?

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Push Back the Doomsday Clock!
James Albertini – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Mar 2015

We Are All Down Winders! March 1st is known as “Nuclear-Free & Independent Pacific Day.” It commemorates the tragic 15 megaton U.S. nuclear bomb test, code named Bravo, at Bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands of Micronesia, on March 1, 1954. Many people died in the Marshall Islands from radiation contamination and fallout downwind of the Bravo blast and the 66 additional U.S. nuclear weapon tests there.

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German Newspaper BILD Gets inside US-NATO-Nuland Planning Session
Fort Russ – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Mar 2015

Feb 19, 2015 – The Bild headline: “Cold Feet” “Bullshit,” “Angst” – What US Politicians REALLY think about the Germans in the Ukraine Crisis. Nuland set the tone at the prelude to the evening: “We can fight against the Europeans, we can fight with rhetoric against them.”

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Why Do We Fear Challenging Authority?
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph. D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Mar 2015

I want to ask you three questions: Are you scared to make your own judgment (irrespective of the number of others, including experts, who make a similar judgment)? Are you scared to be labelled a ‘conspiracy theorist’ if you believe something contrary to the official (that is, the elite) narrative? And why?

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Establish a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy
Article 19 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Mar 2015

5 Feb 2015 – The undersigned organisations, a coalition of international non-governmental organisations working to protect human rights, write to encourage your government to support the creation of a new Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy at the Human Rights Council (HRC) 28th ordinary session in March [2015].

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Alive and Bleeding
Robert C. Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Feb 2015

“We’re killing a lot of them, and we’re going to keep killing more of them. So are the Egyptians, so are the Jordanians — they’re in this fight with us. But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war. We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups, whether it’s a lack of opportunity for jobs, whether…”

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The Atlantic Ignores Muslim Intellectuals, Defines “True Islam” As ISIS
Murtaza Hussain – The Intercept, 23 Feb 2015

In the piece, author Graeme Wood makes the case that the militant group represents a highly authentic version of Islam. Far from being an aberrant or deviant offshoot of traditional Islamic beliefs, it is described as being a faithful expression of them — representing “a coherent and even learned expression of Islam.”

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Shah Suleyman: The Truly Byzantine Origins of Turkey’s Operation to Rescue a Long-Dead Body from the ‘Islamic Caliphate’
Robert Fisk – The Independent, 23 Feb 2015

To begin this wondrous tale at the start. Shah Suleyman was the king who drowned in the Euphrates River in 1236. He was the father of Ertugrul, who lived by the Sea of Marmara and whose own son, Osman, founded the Ottoman empire, which lasted for 700 years and ended after Ottoman Turkey made the fatal mistake of supporting Germany in the First World War.

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Crimea: Was It Seized by Russia, or Did Russia Block Its Seizure by the U.S.?
Eric Zuesse, Fort Russ – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Feb 2015

Both before and after Crimea left Ukraine and joined Russia in a public referendum on 16 March 2014, the Gallup Organization polled Crimeans on behalf of the U.S. Government, and found them to be extremely pro-Russian and anti-American, and also anti-Ukrainian. (Neither poll was subsequently publicized, because the results of each were the opposite of what the sponsor had wished.)

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World Press Freedom Index 2015: Decline on All Fronts
Reporters Without Borders – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Feb 2015

The Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index ranks the performance of 180 countries according to a range of criteria that include media pluralism and independence, respect for the safety and freedom of journalists, and the legislative, institutional and infrastructural environment in which the media operate.

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700th Consecutive Weekly Hilo [Hawai’i] Peace Vigil
James Albertini – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Feb 2015

Friday, Feb. 20, 2015 marks the 700th consecutive weekly Hilo, Hawaii Peace Vigil held from 3:30-5PM at the downtown Post office/federal building sponsored by Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action based in Kurtistown, Big Island, Hawai’i.

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Guantanamo Whistleblower: Guards Rehearsed for Reporter Visits Weeks in Advance
Ken Klippenstein - Reader Supported News, 23 Feb 2015

RSN interviewed Joseph Hickman, a former Guantanamo staff sergeant and author of the recently published book, “Murder at Camp Delta: A Staff Sergeant’s Pursuit of the Truth About Guantanamo Bay.” In the book, Hickman alleges that three Guantanamo detainees were murdered at a CIA black site, and that this was later covered up, the deaths portrayed as suicides.

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(Português) O Bem Comum Foi Enviado ao Limbo
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior, 23 Feb 2015

O neoliberalismo demoliu a noção de bem comum. Em seu lugar, entraram as noções de rentabilidade, de flexibilização, de adaptação e de competitividade.

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

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

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Marx, Syriza and the Future of Greece – The Not So Erratic Philosophy of Yanis Varoufakis
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer - CounterPunch, 23 Feb 2015

He has just written a smashing op-ed for The New York Times that forcefully outlines his government’s approach to the negotiations. It deserves a standing ovation. Varoufakis has described himself as an “erratic Marxist.” He is far more of a Marxist than a Kantian. It’s the only moral thing to be.

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US “Easing Into” War with Syria Using ISIS Boogeyman
Tony Cartalucci, New Eastern Outlook – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Feb 2015

As early as June of last year, it was reported that ISIS would be used as a means to incrementally draw in US forces in preparation for a direct military intervention aimed at Damascus itself.

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The Putin-Did-It Conspiracy Theory
Robert Parry – Consortium News, 23 Feb 2015

The New York Times – much as it did when it was falsely reporting breathlessly about ‘aluminum tubes’ for Iraq’s non-existent nuclear weapons program – continues to promote U.S. government propaganda about Ukraine as fact and dismisses any rational assessment of the situation as crazy.

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The Beautiful Truth about Minsk II
Joaquin Flores - Fort Russ, 23 Feb 2015

“These are the relevant factors which produce the strong sense that these Normandy 4 meetings involve some very serious things and some complex levels that are beyond the scope of what is reported. Russia conducts itself in these meetings from a position of strength.”

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Terrorism: Ultimate Weapon of the Global Elite
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Feb 2015

The usual definition of a ‘terrorist’ is simple: a person who uses violence in the pursuit of a political objective. By this definition, the two major categories of terrorist are those political leaders who perpetrate state terror by attacking other countries (ranging from launching a war, perhaps following a false flag operation, to conducting a drone strike).

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Radio Morobo: “A Welcome [South Sudan] Community Asset”
Dominik Lehnert, Xchange Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Feb 2015

Feb 12, 2015 – As community based radio station, it is run by volunteer community reporters from all parts of the county and all walks of life.

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Is Your Child a Terrorist? U.S. Government Questionnaire Rates Families at Risk for Extremism
Murtaza Hussain, Cora Currier, and Jana Winter – The Intercept, 16 Feb 2015

Are you, your family or your community at risk of turning to violent extremism? That’s the premise behind a rating system devised by the National Counterterrorism Center, according to a document marked For Official Use Only and obtained by The Intercept.

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Wretched US Journalism on Ukraine
Robert Parry – Consortium News, 16 Feb 2015

The U.S. news media has failed the American people often in recent years by not challenging U.S. government falsehoods, as with Iraq’s WMD. But the most dangerous violation of journalistic principles has occurred in the Ukraine crisis, which has the potential of a nuclear war.

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Earth Charter+15 Kickoff Webinar with Federico Mayor and Alexander Likhotal
Earth Charter International – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Feb 2015

Please, join us on the 25th of February to hear these great speakers and participate in a question and answer with them afterwards. We look forward to seeing you there!

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Banking Giant HSBC Sheltered Murky Cash Linked to Dictators, Traffickers, Criminals, Arms Dealers
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Feb 2015

Swiss Leaks is a collaborative investigation that exposes how the Swiss branch of one of the world’s biggest banks, HSBC, profited from doing business with tax dodgers and criminals around the world. Team of journalists from 45 countries unearths secret bank accounts maintained for criminals, traffickers, tax dodgers, politicians and celebrities.

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Whatever Happened to Social Defence?
Brian Martin, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Feb 2015

Abstract: A potential alternative to military defence is nonviolent action by civilians, using methods such as protests, strikes, boycotts and winning over opponent troops. In the 1980s there were groups in several countries advocating and promoting this option, but subsequently it faded from view even within the peace movement.

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War and Perpetual Adolescence
Robert C. Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Feb 2015

The urgency I feel isn’t any longer to stop a particular war but to interrupt endless war: to interrupt the narrowly focused geopolitical conversation, conveyed to us over and over by media stenographers.

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(Português) Syriza: A Segunda Libertação
Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Carta Maior, 9 Feb 2015

A ortodoxia sabe que o problema da Grécia é o problema da Europa e que a sua solução só poderá ser europeia. A recente vitória do Partido Syriza na Grécia teve o sabor de uma segunda libertação da Europa. A primeira ocorreu há setenta anos, quando os aliados libertaram a Europa do jugo alemão nazi e puseram fim ao horror do holocausto.

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Sami Al-Arian, Professor Who Defeated Controversial Terrorism Charges, Is Deported from U.S.
Murtaza Hussain and Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept, 9 Feb 2015

5 Feb 2015 – In 2003, Sami Al-Arian was a professor at the University of South Florida, a legal resident of the U.S. since 1975, and one of the most prominent Palestinian civil rights activists in the U.S. The government ultimately failed to produce any evidence of Al-Arian’s involvement in terrorist activities and his ordeal finally ended last night, 12 years after it began, as Al-Arian was deported to Turkey. “I came to the United States for freedom, but four decades later, I am leaving to gain my freedom.”

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Al-Qaeda, Saudi Arabia and Israel
Robert Parry – Consortium News, 9 Feb 2015

4 Feb 2015 – Saudi Arabia is under a new cloud after a jailed al-Qaeda operative implicated senior Saudi officials as collaborators with the terror group – and the shadow could even darken the political future of Israeli Prime Netanyahu because of his odd-couple alliance with Riyadh.

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Is It Time to Make Iran Our Friend and Saudi Arabia Our Enemy?
Michael Axworthy – The Guardian, 2 Feb 2015

Far from being a guarantee of stability in the Middle East, the western alliance with the kingdom is an impediment to peace.

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The High Cost of Capitalism: The Destructive Component in Capitalism’s ‘Creative Destruction’ Is Very High
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Feb 2015

External or social costs are associated with production that are not incurred by the producer but are inflicted on outside third parties, most often the environment, such as land, air, and water resources on which humanity is dependent.

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The American Sniper You Didn’t Hear About
Carl Gibson - Reader Supported News, 2 Feb 2015

Another American sniper became so disgusted by what he had done that he started the first-ever antiwar blog, and is actively encouraging his fellow soldiers to use their First Amendment rights to speak out against what he calls an ‘illegal occupation’ in Iraq.

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Greece to the Troika: ‘You Don’t Own Us!’
Lynn Stuart Parramore – Al Jazeera America, 2 Feb 2015

Alarmists have warned that Syriza’s victory will ignite instability and economic disaster, but that threat sounds hollow to a country already laid to waste by flawed policies. While it is true that Greece is a small country of 10 million people that represents a mere 2.5 percent of Europe’s economy, the elections could have big consequences well beyond the country’s borders.

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Why Do We Fear Love?
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Feb 2015

Why do human beings fear love? That is, why do we fear loving ourselves and others, and why do we fear being fully loved ourselves? Where does obedience fit into all of this? It doesn’t. Those who require obedience are frightened. And fear is the opposite of love. If you want someone to do what you want, you are frightened, not loving.

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Good News! US Corporations Won’t Have to Pay for Nuclear Disasters in India
Jim Naureckas – Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting-FAIR, 2 Feb 2015

The “breakthrough” between Obama and Modi seems to be an agreement that the law will be “tweaked” to let US corporations off the hook in case of a devastating accident. For example, suppliers of nuclear equipment could be redefined as “contractors” and therefore not be liable under Indian law.

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Saudi Arabia’s Tyrant King Misremembered as Man of Peace
Murtaza Hussain – The Intercept, 26 Jan 2015

It’s not often that the unelected leader of a country which publicly flogs dissidents and beheads people for sorcery wins such glowing praise from American officials and the Western press.

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An Old Hand Is at Work in Yemen’s Bloody Civil War
Robert Fisk – The Independent, 26 Jan 2015

Yemen is not Syria. But America’s skewed comprehension of the Middle East has now produced a remarkably similar scenario.

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European Powers Implement Police State Measures in Wake of Charlie Hebdo Attack
Ulrich Rippert, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Jan 2015

Governments throughout Europe have responded to the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in France by moving quickly to push through a raft of anti-democratic measures that have long been prepared, but that have so far encountered resistance.

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The Importance of Being Angry
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph. D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Jan 2015

If we want obedient and hardworking students, reliable and pliant employees/soldiers and submissive law-abiding citizens, then we must terrorize people out of being angry. Social control is not easy with people who are powerful and you need your anger to be powerful.

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(Português) Charlie Hebdo: Uma reflexão difícil
Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Carta Maior, 19 Jan 2015

Esta análise é urgente, sob pena de continuarmos a atear um fogo que amanhã pode atingir as escolas dos nossos filhos, as nossas casas e as nossas instituições.

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Saudi Arabia’s History of Hypocrisy We Choose to Ignore
Robert Fisk – The Independent, 19 Jan 2015

The Saudis are special, aren’t they? Fifteen of the 19 hijackers of 9/11 were Saudis. Osama bin Laden was himself a Saudi. The Taliban were financed and armed by the Saudis; the Taliban’s Organisation for the “Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice” was identical to the Saudi-Wahabi religious police in Riyadh and Jeddah.

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Riyadh’s Oil Play: Why the Kingdom is Keeping Prices Low
Bilal Y. Saab and Robert A. Manning – Foreign Affairs, 12 Jan 2015

Although some analysts are puzzled by the Saudi strategy shift, pure economic logic may well be driving Saudi behavior. Yet in the end, the motivations behind the Kingdom’s new oil strategy matter less than its likely outcomes, some of which could be quite negative.

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Remembering Victims of Terror–And Forgetting Some Others
Jim Naureckas - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, 12 Jan 2015

Describing the attack on the French satirical paper, CBS News’ Morell said: “The motive here is absolutely clear. Trying to shut down a media organization that lampooned the prophet Mohammed. So no doubt in my mind this is terrorism.” Breivik’s motive was certainly not shutting anyone down for lampooning Mohammed. So perhaps, in Morrell’s mind, it doesn’t count as terrorism?

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