Articles by The Guardian
We found 918 results.
Saudi Court Sentences Poet to Death for Renouncing Islam
David Batty – The Guardian,
30 Nov 2015
Friends of Palestinian Ashraf Fayadh believe he is being punished for posting video showing religious police lashing a man in public.
→ read full articleHow Africa’s Fastest Solar Power Project Is Lighting Up Rwanda
David Smith – The Guardian,
30 Nov 2015
East African plant is completed in less than a year – creating jobs and setting the country on the path to providing half its population with electricity by 2017.
→ read full articleTurkey Could Cut Off Islamic State’s Supply Lines. So Why Doesn’t It?
David Graeber – The Guardian,
23 Nov 2015
Not only has Erdoğan done almost everything he can to cripple the forces actually fighting Isis; there is considerable evidence that his government has been at least tacitly aiding Isis itself. It might seem outrageous to suggest that a NATO member like Turkey would in any way support an organisation that murders western civilians in cold blood.
→ read full articleAnger Rises as Brazilian Mine Disaster Threatens River and Sea with Toxic Mud
Bruce Douglas – The Guardian,
23 Nov 2015
22 Nov 2015 – Conservationists and engineers battle to reduce the ecological fallout as mud and iron-ore residue from the BHP Billiton-Vale dam collapse flows down the Rio Doce to the Atlantic.
→ read full articleWhat Is Really at Stake at the Paris Climate Conference Now That Marches Are Banned
Naomi Klein – The Guardian,
23 Nov 2015
By banning protest at COP21, Hollande is silencing those facing the worst impacts of climate change and its monstrous violence. Once again, the message is: our security is non-negotiable, yours is up for grabs.
→ read full articleWhy Aung San Suu Kyi’s ‘Mandela Moment’ Is a Victory for Myanmar’s Generals
Maung Zarni – The Guardian,
16 Nov 2015
With a constitution that safeguards its immense power and wealth, the military knows that, unlike in 1990, it doesn’t need a crackdown to keep its regime intact.
→ read full articleNow the Truth Emerges: How the US Fuelled the Rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
16 Nov 2015
The sectarian terror group won’t be defeated by the western states that incubated it in the first place. American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Decision Is Clear. But Will the Military Let Aung San Suu Kyi Govern?
Simon Tisdall – The Guardian,
16 Nov 2015
9 Nov 2015 – The last time Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide election victory, the army generals who rule Myanmar rejected the result, placed her under house arrest and jailed thousands of her supporters, many of whom were brutally tortured. That was in 1990. But 25 years later, with “Amay Suu” (Mother Suu) once again triumphant, the key question is whether the men in uniform will accept the people’s verdict and allow her to govern.
→ read full article‘Iron-Ass’ Cheney and ‘Arrogant’ Rumsfeld Damaged America, Says George Bush Sr
Claire Phipps – The Guardian,
9 Nov 2015
Former president claims hawkish reaction to 9/11 attacks and desire to ‘get our way in the Middle East’ hurt his son’s administration, says new biography.
→ read full articleUK: This Surveillance Bill Threatens Investigative Journalism
Gavin Millar – The Guardian,
9 Nov 2015
If sources understand they can be identified after communicating with a journalist via a smartphone or laptop they will be reluctant to risk dismissal or prosecution. The free speech provision of the European convention on human rights, Article 10, gives journalists a strong right to protect their confidential sources of information.
→ read full articleSouth Sudan: ‘A Level of Human Suffering I Have Never Seen Anywhere Else’
Sam Jones – The Guardian,
2 Nov 2015
Children are paying the highest price for 22-month conflict that has displaced millions of people and pushed the world’s youngest country close to famine.
→ read full articleHow the West Broke Libya and Returned It to the Hatred of the Past
Yasmina Khadra – The Guardian,
26 Oct 2015
When Muammar Gaddafi was toppled the bastion he built crumbled too. Who can restore national unity now? You cannot simply launch an attack on a country without any knowledge of the mindset or character of its inhabitants.
→ read full articleFour More Carmakers Join Diesel Emissions Row
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi’s cars are shown to emit significantly more NOx pollution on the road than in regulatory tests.
→ read full articleWide Range of Cars Emit More Pollution in Realistic Driving Tests, Data Shows
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
Diesel cars made by Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Citroen, Fiat and Volvo among others emitted far more NOx in more rigorous tests, research shows.
→ read full articleIt Took Me Two Hours to Get My Hands on an AK-47. Welcome to America
Eric Rodriguez – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
Until we make it harder for everyone to get guns, it looks like mommies and daddies will instead consider buying their little girls and boys backpacks with bulletproof plates inside, forcing them to carry the weight on their shoulders of our collective inaction as a nation.
→ read full articleTPP or Not TPP? What’s the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Should We Support It?
Jana Kasperkevic – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
Twelve Pacific rim countries have signed a sweeping trade deal but will it cut red tape and boost commerce or is it a sellout to big business that will cost jobs? Close to a decade in the making, the most important trade pact in a generation moved closer to becoming a reality on Monday [5 Oct 2015].
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Release of TPP Deal Text Stokes ‘Freedom of Expression’ Fears
Sam Thielman – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
9 Oct 2015 – WikiLeaks has released what it claims is the full intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the controversial agreement between 12 countries that was signed off on Monday. This chapter appears to give TPP countries greater power to stop information from going public.
→ read full articleUK and Saudi Arabia ‘in Secret Deal’ over UN Human Rights Council Place
Owen Bowcott – The Guardian,
5 Oct 2015
29 Sep 2015 – Britain conducted secret vote-trading deals with Saudi Arabia to ensure both states were elected to the UN Human Rights Council, according to leaked diplomatic cables. Riyadh has sanctioned more than a hundred beheadings so far this year – more than the Islamic State.
→ read full articleIndustrial Farming Is One of the Worst Crimes in History
Yuval Noah Harari – The Guardian,
28 Sep 2015
The fate of industrially farmed animals is one of the most pressing ethical questions of our time. Tens of billions of sentient beings, each with complex sensations and emotions, live and die on a production line.
→ read full articleIt’s Not the Chinese Economy That’s on Life Support
Martin Jacques – The Guardian,
21 Sep 2015
Western markets are only panicking about China because their own economies are so fragile. The western world continues to depend on a life-support system, namely zero interest rates, combined with Chinese growth.
→ read full articleA Moment That Changed Me – Looking a Sperm Whale in the Eye
Philip Hoare – The Guardian,
14 Sep 2015
I’d always been scared of these great creatures but while filming in the Azores, I jumped into the ocean amid a pod of whales – and met another sentient being. She looked at me, with an eye the size of a grapefruit, with absolute sentience and curiosity, wondering what I was.
→ read full articleHidden Problem of ‘Ghost Gear’: The Abandoned Fishing Nets Clogging Up Oceans
Hannah Gould – The Guardian,
14 Sep 2015
A new global initiative founded by World Animal Protection hopes to tackle the problem that’s killing animals and costing business.
→ read full articleCheering German Crowds Greet Refugees after Long Trek from Budapest to Munich
Emma Graham-Harrison, Patrick Kingsley and Tracy McVeigh – The Guardian,
7 Sep 2015
As Europe’s politicians continue to bicker, desperate travellers are welcomed and fed as they arrive at German city.
→ read full articleA Tale of Two Crises in Greece – Coping with Economic Depression and Refugees
Daniel Howden – The Guardian,
7 Sep 2015
In the islands near Turkey, such as Kos, the two phenomena have collided, turning the usually lucrative tourist season into a ‘relentless August’.
→ read full articleWhen Surveillance Is a Feature, Not a Bug
Joshua Kopstein – The Guardian,
31 Aug 2015
Windows 10 heralds a future in which the cloud rules and computers snitch on us by default. New technology shouldn’t offer a choice between giving up our privacy to live like the Jetsons and defending it to live like the Flintstones.
→ read full article‘I Have Become a Body without a Soul’: 13 Years Detained in Guantánamo
Pardiss Kebriaei – The Guardian,
31 Aug 2015
It’s been four years since the Obama administration promised to review indefinite detentions. For my client there, it’s been one long nightmare.
→ read full articleYanis Varoufakis: Bailout Deal Allows Greek Oligarchs to Maintain Grip
Phillip Inman – The Guardian,
24 Aug 2015
17 Aug 2015 – Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has accused European leaders of allowing oligarchs to maintain their stranglehold on Greek society while punishing ordinary people in a line-by-line critique of the country’s €86bn (£61bn) bailout deal.
→ read full articleNutrition Experts Alarmed By Nonprofit Downplaying Role of Junk Food in Obesity
Joanna Walters – The Guardian,
17 Aug 2015
‘You cannot exercise your way out of overeating’ say scientists, who compare Coca-Cola’s funding of the Global Energy Balance Network to that of big tobacco and its ‘merchants of doubt’.
→ read full articleNine Banks Including RBS Settle $2bn Forex Rigging Claim in US Court
Jill Treanor – The Guardian,
17 Aug 2015
15 Aug 2015 – Nine major banks including Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays have settled a US$ 2bn claim brought by investors in a US court for losses caused by the rigging of foreign exchange markets but are warned cases could be brought elsewhere.
→ read full articleUN Paid Millions to Russian Aviation Firm Even after Learning of Sex Attack on Girl
Paul Lewis, Oliver Laughland and Roger Hamilton-Martin – The Guardian,
3 Aug 2015
30 Jul 2015 – Documents reveal United Nations unit uncovered possible ‘culture of sexual exploitation and abuse’ after 2010 attack by UTair crew member, but permitted company to continue receiving contracts worth millions.
→ read full articleHedge Funds Tell Puerto Rico: Lay Off Teachers and Close Schools to Pay Us Back
Rupert Neate – The Guardian,
3 Aug 2015
Report commissioned by 34 hedge funds says government had been ‘massively overspending on education’ despite spending only 79% of US average per pupil.
→ read full articleMusk, Wozniak and Hawking Urge Ban on Warfare AI and Autonomous Weapons
Samuel Gibbs – The Guardian,
3 Aug 2015
27 Jul 2015 – An open letter warning of a “military artificial intelligence arms race” and calling for a ban on “offensive autonomous weapons” was signed by Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis and professor Stephen Hawking along with over 1,000 AI and robotics researchers.
→ read full articleAnti-Torture Reforms Opposed within Psychology Group after Damning Report
Spencer Ackerman – The Guardian,
3 Aug 2015
Before the American Psychological Association meets in Toronto next Thursday [6 Aug], former military voices within the profession are urging the organization not to participate in what they describe as a witch hunt. Tempers rise as association found complicit in brutal military and CIA interrogation.
→ read full articleA Moment That Changed Me – Ditching the Diets and Embracing My Plus-Size Body
Callie Thorpe – The Guardian,
27 Jul 2015
I was disgusted by my own body, and dieting only made things worse. But then a chance Google search changed everything. I was a serial dieter. You name the diet and I’ve done it
→ read full articleMystery of Kazakhstan Sleeping Sickness Solved, Says Government
Alec Luhn in Moscow – The Guardian,
27 Jul 2015
17 Jul 2015 – More than 140 people in two tiny villages were hit by the illness, with sufferers drifting off for up to six days – now scientists appear to have discovered the cause.
→ read full articleDavid Graeber Interview: ‘So Many People Spend Their Working Lives Doing Jobs They Think Are Unnecessary’
Stuart Jeffries – The Guardian,
20 Jul 2015
The anarchist author, coiner of the phrase ‘We are the 99%’, talks about ‘bullshit jobs’, our rule-bound lives and the importance of play.
→ read full articleThe End of Capitalism Has Begun
Paul Mason – The Guardian,
20 Jul 2015
Without us noticing, we are entering the postcapitalist era. At the heart of further change to come is information technology, new ways of working and the sharing economy. It’s time to be utopian. Marx imagined something close to our information economy. He wrote its existence would blow capitalism sky high.
→ read full article‘Anarchism Could Help to Save the World’
David Priestland – The Guardian,
20 Jul 2015
State socialism has failed, so has the market. We need to rediscover the anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin.
→ read full articleWind Power Generates 140% of Denmark’s Electricity Demand
Arthur Neslen – The Guardian,
13 Jul 2015
Unusually high winds allowed Denmark to meet all of its electricity needs – with plenty to spare for Germany, Norway and Sweden too.
→ read full articleYanis Varoufakis: Germany Won’t Spare Greek Pain – It Has an Interest in Breaking Us
Yanis Varoufakis – The Guardian,
13 Jul 2015
Debt restructuring has always been our aim in negotiations – but for some eurozone leaders Grexit is the goal. The answer cannot be found in economics because it resides deep in Europe’s labyrinthine politics.
→ read full articleJoseph Stiglitz: How I Would Vote in the Greek Referendum
Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Economics Laureate – The Guardian,
6 Jul 2015
A no vote would at least open the possibility that Greece, with its strong democratic tradition, might grasp its destiny in its own hands. Greeks might gain the opportunity to shape a future that, though perhaps not as prosperous as the past, is far more hopeful than the unconscionable torture of the present. I know how I would vote.
→ read full articleThis Dome in the Pacific Houses Tons of Radioactive Waste – And It’s Leaking
Coleen Jose, Kim Wall and Jan Hendrik Hinzel – The Guardian,
6 Jul 2015
3 Jul 2015 – The Runit Dome in the Marshall Islands is a hulking legacy of years of US nuclear testing. Now locals and scientists are warning that rising sea levels caused by climate change could cause 111,000 cubic yards of debris to spill into the ocean.
→ read full articleConfederate Flag Down, Rainbow Flag Up: This Is the American Pride We’ve Been Waiting For
Steven W Thrasher – The Guardian,
29 Jun 2015
It may not be hope and change, but isn’t it amazing how much grace there is in Barack Obama’s United States right now?
→ read full articleHalf of Europe’s Electricity Set to Be from Renewables by 2030
Arthur Neslen – The Guardian,
29 Jun 2015
Leaked EU paper predicts fast renewables growth to around double current levels if countries meet climate objectives.
→ read full articleSaudi Arabia Tells Citizens to Ignore Latest WikiLeaks Release
Ian Black – The Guardian,
29 Jun 2015
21 Jun 2015 – Saudi Arabia has warned its citizens to ignore the 61,000 diplomatic documents leaked by the transparency site WikiLeaks, which give a rare insight into the kingdom’s habit of buying influence and monitoring dissidents.
→ read full articleCIA Torture Appears to Have Broken Spy Agency Rule on Human Experimentation
Spencer Ackerman – The Guardian,
22 Jun 2015
A previously classified CIA document, made public by the Guardian on Monday [15 Jun], empower the agency’s director to “approve, modify, or disapprove all proposals pertaining to human subject research”. The director has never in the agency’s history been a medical doctor.
→ read full articleRecord Boost in New Solar Power Continues Massive Industry Growth
Arthur Neslen – The Guardian,
15 Jun 2015
UK leads European solar energy expansion to help renewables overtake output of nuclear power as industry leaders hail ‘tipping point’ for the technology.
→ read full articleHSBC Pays Out £28m over Money-Laundering Claims
Juliette Garside – The Guardian,
8 Jun 2015
4 Jun 2015 – HSBC has been ordered to pay a record 40m Swiss francs (£28m) (US$43m) (€38m) for money laundering in the bank’s Swiss subsidiary. The settlement means the Swiss will not prosecute HSBC or publish the findings of their investigation into alleged aggravated money laundering.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Releases Documents Related to Controversial US Trade Pact
Sam Thielman in New York and Phillip Inman in London – The Guardian,
8 Jun 2015
WikiLeaks on Wednesday [3 Jun 2015] released 17 different documents related to the Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa), a controversial pact currently being hashed out between the US and 23 other countries — most of them in Europe and South America — day after organization put $100,000 bounty on documents from series of US trade treaties.
→ read full articleDaniel Ellsberg Credits Edward Snowden with Catalysing US Surveillance Reform
Ewen MacAskill in London, and Dan Roberts and Ben Jacobs in Washington – The Guardian,
8 Jun 2015
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden should be thanked for sparking the debate that forced Congress to change US surveillance law, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, said Monday [1 Jun 2015].
→ read full articleThe 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.
→ read full articleWith Schizophrenia, My Thoughts Can Be like Pieces of a Mismatched Jigsaw Puzzle
Joshua Gliddon – The Guardian,
25 May 2015
I have schizophrenia but I’m determined not to be a victim of my illness. It’s part of me, and I have come to accept that fact and the limitations it entails, but it doesn’t define me. Schizophrenia, I’ve learned, might be misunderstood, but with the right treatment and support, it’s nothing to be feared.
→ read full articleSaudi Arabia Advertises For Eight New Executioners as Beheading Rate Soars
Reuters in Riyadh – The Guardian,
25 May 2015
• Jobs classified as ‘religious functionaries’ at lower end of civil service scale
• 85 reported executed so far this year, rivalling total for whole of 2014
[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.].
→ read full articleIsrael’s New Deputy Foreign Minister: ‘This Land Is Ours. All of It Is Ours’
Associated Press – The Guardian,
25 May 2015
Tzipi Hotovely gives speech to Israeli diplomats in which she says she will try to achieve global recognition for West Bank settlements. On Thursday [21 May 2015] she delivered a defiant message to the international community saying that Israel owes no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land and citing religious texts to back her belief that it belongs to the Jewish people.
→ read full article‘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.
→ read full articleEdward 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.
→ read full articleA Picture of Loneliness: You Are Looking At the Last Male Northern White Rhino
Jonathan Jones – The Guardian,
18 May 2015
The image of Sudan the rhino, surrounded by the armed guards who protect him from poachers, shows how little humans have learned since the ice age. Today, immense love is invested in rhinos, yet they are being slaughtered in ever greater numbers.
→ read full articleIsraeli Soldiers Cast Doubt on Legality of Gaza Military Tactics
Peter Beaumont – The Guardian,
18 May 2015
Testimonies of Israeli combatants about last year’s war show apparent disregard for safety of civilians.
→ read full articleArgentina Sues Citigroup over Debt Repayments
Agence France-Presse – The Guardian,
18 May 2015
Bank says some employees of Citi Argentina could face criminal charges due to court battle between South American nation and US hedge funds.
→ read full articleWe’re Citizens, Not Subjects. We Have the Right to Criticize Government without Fear
Chelsea E. Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) – The Guardian,
11 May 2015
The American public needs more access to what the government is doing in its name. That requires increasing freedom of information and transparency.
→ read full articleCIA’s Torture Experts Now Use Their Skills in Secret Drones Program
Trevor Timm – The Guardian,
4 May 2015
There are many similarities between CIA’s use of drones and torture: Secrecy, lack of oversight and yes, even some of the people overseeing the programs.
→ read full articleUN Aid Worker Suspended for Leaking Report on Child Abuse by French Troops
Sandra Laville – The Guardian,
4 May 2015
29 Apr 2015 – A senior United Nations aid worker has been suspended for disclosing to prosecutors an internal report on the sexual abuse of children by French peacekeeping troops in the Central African Republic. Anders Kompass said to have passed confidential document to French authorities because of UN’s failure to stop abuse of children in CAR.
→ read full articleClimate Change: At Last a Breakthrough to Our Catastrophic Political Impasse?
Julia Powles and Tessa Khan – The Guardian,
13 Apr 2015
30 Mar 2015 – Today a group of eminent jurists accuse governments and enterprises of being in clear and flagrant breach of their legal obligations on climate change – under human rights law, international law, environmental law, and tort law.
→ read full articleTwitter Puts Trillions of Tweets up for Sale to Data Miners
Juliette Garside – The Guardian,
23 Mar 2015
Company plans to make content generated by users available to commerce, academia and even police involved in crowd control.
→ read full articleThe NSA’s Plan: Improve Cybersecurity by Hacking Everyone Else
Trevor Timm – The Guardian,
23 Mar 2015
The NSA’s plan to protect America by starting cyberwars is absurd. Their argument that they need more power to do it is more so.
→ read full articleOligarchy and Climate Change: A Catastrophic Coincidence
Naomi Klein - The Guardian,
16 Mar 2015
It is our great collective misfortune that the scientific community made its decisive diagnosis of the climate threat at the precise moment when an elite minority was enjoying more unfettered political, cultural, and intellectual power than at any point since the 1920s.
→ read full articleWhy Are White People Expats when the Rest of Us Are Immigrants?
Mawuna Remarque Koutonin – The Guardian,
16 Mar 2015
Surely any person going to work outside their country is an expatriate? But no, the word exclusively applies to white people. Africans are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. However, Europeans are expats because they can’t be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are superior. Immigrants is a term set aside for ‘inferior races’.
→ read full articleTechnology Should Be Used to Create Social Mobility – Not to Spy on Citizens
Cory Doctorow – The Guardian,
16 Mar 2015
NSA and GCHQ mass surveillance is more about disrupting political opposition than catching terrorists.
→ read full articleThe CIA’s Torturers and the Leaders Who Approved Their Actions Must Face the Law
Chelsea E Manning – The Guardian,
16 Mar 2015
According to the Senate Torture Report these programs were authorized at the highest levels of government and carried out in foreign places to avoid domestic detection and the issues of custody and jurisdiction: a premeditated and intentional conspiracy to violate US law and to avoid oversight and criminal liability.
→ read full articleThe Sinister Treatment of Dissent at the BBC
Nick Cohen – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2015
9 Mar 2015 – The BBC is forcing out or demoting the journalists who exposed Jimmy Savile as a voracious abuser of girls. As Meirion Jones put it to me: “There is a small group of powerful people at the BBC who think it would have been better if the truth about Savile had never come out. And they aim to punish the reporters who revealed it.”
→ read full articleJehovah’s Witnesses’ Silencing Techniques: As Terrifying As Child Abuse Itself
Candace Conti – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2015
Elders in my congregation knew that there was a predator in our midst. But they threatened to punish those who spoke out. Candace Conti was the first child sexual abuse victim to win a jury trial against Watchtower.
→ read full articleUnder 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
→ read full articleNew Zealand Spying on Pacific Allies for ‘Five Eyes’ and NSA, Snowden Files Show
Toby Manhire – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2015
5 Mar 2015 – New Zealand is spying indiscriminately on its allies in the Pacific region and sharing the information with the US and the other “Five Eyes” alliance states, according to documents from the whistleblower Edward Snowden.
→ read full articleSilicon 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.
→ read full articleMorgan Stanley Strikes $2.6bn Deal to Settle Mortgage Bubble Case
Associated Press – The Guardian,
2 Mar 2015
The investment bank said late on Wednesday [25 Feb 2015] the $2.6bn will go to “resolve certain claims” the Justice Department intended to bring against Morgan Stanley over its role in the mortgage bubble and subsequent financial crisis.
→ read full articleWorld’s Biggest Offshore Windfarm Approved for UK Yorkshire Coast
Fiona Harvey – The Guardian,
23 Feb 2015
17 Feb 2015 – Plans for the world’s biggest offshore windfarm have been given the green light by the energy secretary, with planning permission for an array of up to 400 turbines 80 miles off the Yorkshire coast on the Dogger Bank.
→ read full articleThe CIA Asked Me about Controlling the Climate – This Is Why We Should Worry
Alan Robock – The Guardian,
23 Feb 2015
Geoengineering has many risks, and we don’t yet know the CIA’s intentions. But given the lack of political will on climate change, we have to look at it.
→ read full articleYanis Varoufakis: How I Became an Erratic Marxist
Yanis Varoufakis – The Guardian,
23 Feb 2015
Before he entered politics, Yanis Varoufakis, the iconoclastic Greek finance minister at the centre of the latest eurozone standoff, wrote this searing account of European capitalism and how the left can learn from Marx’s mistakes.
→ read full articleNew Jersey Judge Rules ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’ Is Consumer Fraud
Associated Press – The Guardian,
16 Feb 2015
11 Feb 2015 – A judge in New Jersey has ruled that claims of gay conversion therapy that describe homosexuality as a curable mental disorder and made male clients stand naked with other men to quell attraction are fraud.
→ read full articleGreece’s New Finance Minister Looks like a Normal Person – How Refreshing
Simon Jenkins – The Guardian,
9 Feb 2015
With his casual shirt and jeans, Yanis Varoufakis is throwing down the gauntlet to the established European banking order. Greece, and now all of Europe, are suffering because Europe is still being run by and for bankers who simply want their money back. This cannot continue.
→ read full articleWhat They Don’t Tell You about Dementia
Dawn Vance – The Guardian,
2 Feb 2015
My mum was diagnosed when she was 64 and I was 30: now, instead of going out for coffee together, I’m desperately feeding her hospital jelly.
→ read full articleIs 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.
→ read full articleThe Davos Oligarchs Are Right to Fear the World They’ve Made
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
2 Feb 2015
The billionaires and corporate oligarchs who met in Davos last week are getting worried about inequality. It might be hard to stomach that the overlords of a system that has delivered the widest global economic gulf in human history should be handwringing about the consequences of their own actions. Escalating inequality is the work of a global elite that will resist every challenge to its vested interests.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Demands Answers after Google Hands Staff Emails to US Government
Ed Pilkington and Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
2 Feb 2015
• Search giant gave FBI emails and digital data belonging to three staffers
• WikiLeaks told last month of warrants which were served in March 2012
GCHQ Captured Emails of Journalists from Top International Media
James Ball – The Guardian,
26 Jan 2015
Emails from the BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, the Sun, NBC and the Washington Post were saved by GCHQ and shared on the agency’s intranet as part of a test exercise by the signals intelligence agency, analysis of documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.
→ read full articleWhy Can’t the World’s Greatest Minds Solve the Mystery of Consciousness?
Oliver Burkeman – The Guardian,
26 Jan 2015
Philosophers, spirituality practitioners, and scientists have been at war for decades over the question of what makes human beings more than complex robots.
→ read full articleDieudonné Arrested over Facebook Post on Paris Gunman [French shooting themselves on the foot]
Agence France-Presse – The Guardian,
19 Jan 2015
French comedian accused of justifying terrorism after linking attacker to tribute slogan by writing ‘I feel like Charlie Coulibaly’. The French government has in the past banned Dieudonné’s shows because it considers them “antisemitic”.
→ read full articleMonsanto Earnings Fall 34% after a Year of Global Protests
Associated Press – The Guardian,
12 Jan 2015
Monsanto said Wednesday [7 Jan 2015] its earnings fell 34% in its first fiscal quarter, as South American farmers cut back on planting corn, reducing demand for the company’s biotech-enhanced seeds.
→ read full articleGlobal Outrage at Saudi Arabia as Jailed Blogger Receives Public Flogging
Ian Black – The Guardian,
12 Jan 2015
Kingdom stays silent as protesters contrast its opposition to Paris attacks on free speech with its own attacks on free speech.
→ read full articleWho’s The True Enemy of Internet Freedom – China, Russia, or the US?
Evgeny Morozov – The Guardian,
5 Jan 2015
Beijing and Moscow are rightly chastised for restricting their citizens’ online access – but it’s the US that is now even more aggressive in asserting its digital sovereignty. One’s man internet freedom is another man’s internet imperialism.
→ read full articleHow Movies Embraced Hinduism (Without You Even Noticing)
Nirpal Dhaliwal – The Guardian,
29 Dec 2014
From Interstellar to Matrix, Batman and Star Wars the venerable religion has been the driving philosophy behind many hit movies. Why? A philosophy to which many are keen to subscribe is what makes religions successful. Movies, too.
→ read full articleDeath Toll among Qatar’s 2022 World Cup Workers Revealed
Owen Gibson, and Pete Pattisson – The Guardian,
29 Dec 2014
Nepalese migrants building the infrastructure to the 2022 World Cup have died at a rate of one every two days in 2014 – despite Qatar’s promises to improve their working conditions. The figure excludes deaths of Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi workers, raising fears that fatalities would be more than one a day.
→ read full articleThere Is Life after a Dementia Diagnosis
Rebecca Ley – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
Our ageing society urgently needs to replace stigma with understanding, and ostracism with acceptance. They live among us – drinking tea, watching television, smiling more on sunny days. Many of them still drive, push supermarket trolleys, and prop up their local bars with a pint.
→ read full articleObama and Raúl Castro Thank Pope for Breakthrough in US-Cuba Relations
Dan Roberts and Rory Carroll – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
Barack Obama and Raúl Castro thanked Pope Francis for helping broker a deal to normalising relations between US and Cuba after 18 months of secret talks over prisoner releases brought a sudden end to decades of cold war hostility.
→ read full articleI’m an ‘Anonymous’ Hacker in Prison, And I Am Not a Crook. I’m an Activist
Jeremy Hammond – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
We are condemned as criminals without consciences, dismissed as anti-social teens without a cause, or hyped as cyber-terrorists to justify the expanding surveillance state. But hacktivism exists within the history of social justice movements. Hacktivism is still the future, and it’s good to see people still doing something about it.
→ read full articleIt’s Not Cuba That Has Just Decided to Rejoin the Modern World – It’s the US
Martin Kettle – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
From its very earliest days, the US has seen Cuba as an American offshore interest. It is more than 200 years since the US, under Thomas Jefferson, first tried to buy Cuba from Spain. At the end of the 19th century America instead seized Cuba from Spain at gunpoint. Later on it leased Cuba back to US-approved Cubans on US terms, which included the retention of the Guantánamo Bay base.
→ read full articleThe Joke Is on Them: Gay Conversion Group’s Billboard Star IS GAY
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
The poster claimed that of identical twins, one was gay and one straight. In fact the ‘twins’ were a single model and he is openly gay.
→ read full articleFull Scale of Plastic in the World’s Oceans Revealed for First Time
Oliver Milman – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
Over five trillion pieces of plastic weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes are floating in our oceans says most comprehensive study to date on plastic pollution around the world.
→ read full articleSending Troops to Protect Dictators Threatens All of Us
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
CIA torture, crushing democracy and Britain’s new military base in Bahrain all deliver a toxic message. The heavily censored summary of the US senate torture report turns the stomach in its litany of criminal barbarity unleashed by the CIA on real and imagined US enemies.
→ read full article