Respect leader Salma Yaqoob has left the party, blaming a breakdown in ‘relations of trust and collaborative working.’ Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Salma Yaqoob has quit as leader of the Respect party following what she said had been an extremely difficult few weeks and a breakdown in “relations of trust and collaborative working”. Three weeks [...]
Binyam Mohamed, the UK resident secretly rendered to Guantánamo Bay, whose case sparked the row over intelligence disclosed in court. Photograph: Shaun Curry/AFP Secret courts could suppress evidence of UK role in torture, says UN official Prof Juan Méndez, UN special rapporteur on torture, expresses concern at government’s plan for secret courts Richard Norton-Taylor and Ian Cobain [...]
Growth Is the Problem by Chris Hedges The ceaseless expansion of economic exploitation, the engine of global capitalism, has come to an end. The futile and myopic effort to resurrect this expansion—a fallacy embraced by most economists—means that we respond to illusion rather than reality. We invest our efforts into bringing back what is gone forever. [...]
Shell London HQ blocked by ice pyramid (The Guardian)Fifteen members of the activist group, Climate Justice Collective, delivered large cubes of ice to the front door of the Shell offices Tuesday morning and proceeded to build a large pyramid of ice, blocking the main entrance to the building. No arrests were made during the action. [...]
‘Shocking’: 9/11 Warnings More Numerous Than Previously Thought Unreleased briefings would show Bush warned repeatedly, says journalist – Common Dreams staff In an op-ed appearing in Tuesday’s New York Times, Kurt Eichenwald, a former staff reporter for the paper and now contributing editor at Vanity Fair, previews revelations from his soon-to-be published book that claims President George W. Bush [...]
Included on the list is the wooly spider monkey, whose habitat in southeastern Brazil is under threat from deforestation. (photo: Paulo B. Chaves / Flickr) Conservationists Issue Plea to Save 100 Most Endangered Species ‘What can nature do for me?’ mindset wrong path to conservation, say experts – Common Dreams staff Over 8,000 conservation experts [...]
Poll Shows Overwhelming US Opposition to Attacking Iran Don’t Want to Get Involved if Israel Attacks Either by Jason Ditz, September 11, 2012 Print This | Share This A new poll conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs shows an overwhelming opposition to the idea of [...]
War by Miscalculation, Mistake or Accident By Andrew Schoerke, member Veterans For Peace http://warisacrime.org/content/war-miscalculation-mistake-or-accident The U. S. Navy is currently assembling four Carrier Strike Groups in the Arabian Sea and when in place it will be the most powerful carrier task force assembled since WW II. Although not yet announced, [...]
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy answers journalists questions during a rare TV interview. Photograph: Diego Crespo/EPA Eurozone crisis: Spain refuses bailout terms Mariano Rajoy puts Spain on collision course with ECB after ruling out any bailout terms despite bank president’s insistence Stephen Burgen in Barcelona guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 September 2012 15.42 BST Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime [...]
Global Carbon Trading System Has ‘Essentially Collapsed’ by Fiona Harvey The world‘s only global system of carbon trading, designed to give poor countries access to new green technologies, has “essentially collapsed”, jeopardising future flows of finance to the developing world. Financiers and project developers have abandoned the carbon market in droves, and now the UN [...]
“A simple emissions test report for my car is far more rigorous than what BSEE has produced for Shell‘s Arctic capping stack,” said Rick Steiner, oil spill response expert. (photo: © Jörn Burger, Greenpeace Frankfurt a.M. via Flickr) Shell Bores Into Arctic Sea Despite Flimsy Safety Tests – Common Dreams staff Shell began drilling into the [...]
The Method to the Post 9/11 Madness By David Swanson http://warisacrime.org/content/method-post-911-madness To your average educated careful consumer of U.S. news media, our militarism looks like ad hoc reactionary responses. A crisis flairs up here. We “intervene” there. An irrational foreign dictator threatens [...]
Dear friends, Exciting news! Moments ago, the Environment and Fisheries Ministers held a press conference in Canberra to announce that the huge fishing super trawler, the Abel Tasman (a.k.a the FV Margiris), will be banned from Australian waters for two years. The super trawler was readying to leave port, set to trawl our oceans with a net longer than [...]
Israel claims Iran is developing nuclear weapons, but Tehran denies it has nuclear arms ambitions [Reuters] “The Cold War.” “Freezing tensions.” Terms that are familiar to us. The thinking is simple; nuclear armed states do not fight wars with each other. In many foreign policy circles it is that concept some are turning to [...]
The economic crisis in America has been hamstrung due to asking the wrong questions, says Rosenberg [REUTERS] Economist Dean Baker was one of the pioneers of blogging in the late 1990s, when his “Beat the Press” blog began as a weekly online column consisting of concise critiques of economic stories in the New York Times andWashington Post. [...]
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is likely to be the new head of the Chinese leadership [GALLO/GETTY] Chinese micro-bloggers and overseas websites are agog with all kinds of speculation as to why Xi Jinping, the current vice president and president-in-waiting, has gone unseen for more than a week. During that span, Xi cancelled meetings with [...]
Gina Rinehart’s moral universe is twisted Saturday, September 8, 2012 By Peter Boyle In richest-woman-in-the-world Gina Rinehart’s twisted moral universe, workers in Australia need to work harder for less to compete with African mine workers (including an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 child miners in West Africa) who slave for $2 a day. She says that’s what competition in the [...]
Assimilation lies at the heart of NT intervention Saturday, September 8, 2012 By Emma Murphy Much of my understanding of the issues facing Aboriginal Australians comes from my experience of living and working with Aboriginal people who still speak their own languages at home and live largely on their own land or on communities close to [...]
Milk Crate Theatre director Mirra Todd. Homeless actors aim to get people talking Saturday, September 8, 2012 By Mat Ward Fearless Milk Crate Theatre Carriageworks, Sydney September 13-22 $35, $25 www.milkcratetheatre.com Milk Crate Theatre director Mirra Todd says his main goal is to get people thinking and talking about homelessness. “All theatre is about starting a [...]
The UNODC report says cocktails of synthetic drugs are replacing heroin use among many addicts in India. Photograph: Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images India finds synthetic drug is the love for a new breed of user UN says fall in heroin and cocaine use cloaks rising addiction to man-made opiates and prescription drugs by middle classes Jason [...]
Scottish salmon ready to be transferred to a new cage at a fish farm on Orkney in Scotland. Photograph: Doug Houghton/Alamy Scottish fish farmers use record amounts of parasite pesticides Farmers have been forced to increase amount of chemicals as the sea lice parasite becomes resistant to treatment Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday 10 September 2012 14.29 [...]
We Are at War By Johnny Barber http://warisacrime.org/content/we-are-war “We are at War. Somebody is Going to Pay.” George W. Bush, Sept 11th, 2001. Eleven years later, we are still at war. Bullets, mortars and drones are still extracting payment. Thousands, tens of thousands, millions have paid in full. Children [...]
LIKE THIS ARTICLE? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Whoa, Is Organic Food No Healthier Than Non-Organic? Controversy Erupts Over Study Here’s an important thing to remember: Our food choices don’t just affect us, but entire communities. September 7, 2012 | I had barely drank my first [...]
A pair of French angelfish enjoy the coral reef in the Caribbean Sea. Photograph: Marcus Mays for the Guardian Caribbean coral reefs face collapse Caribbean coral reefs are in danger of disappearing, depriving the world of one of its most beautiful and productive ecosystems Fiona Harvey in Jeju, South Korea guardian.co.uk, Monday 10 September 2012 03.00 BST [...]
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan wave to supporters at the Republican national convention in Tampa. Photograph: Orjan F Ellingvag/Corbis This Is Shaping Up To Be the Most Racially Polarised US Election Ever As their once core demographic diminishes, Republicans are going to any lengths to capture and keep the white vote by Gary Younge As Republicans [...]
The Vanishing Appeal of Capitalism By James Rothenberg September 08, 2012 “Information Clearing House” - It should be clear by now that our economic system is at a critical impasse, and therefore becoming less and less useful. America is not as prosperous as it once was, although some Americans enjoy the wealth of sovereigns. Americans work [...]
The Message From Both Parties Is That Americans Are Disposable By Paul Craig Roberts September 08, 2012 “Information Clearing House” - If political conventions are ranked on a one to ten scale for intelligence, I give the Republican Convention zero and the Democrats one. How can the United States be a superpower [...]
At the same time, the U.S. has to keep Iran from blocking the ultra-important Strait of Hormuz, the 21-mile-wide waterway through which flows around 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquid natural gas supplies. And America has to protect its energy-producing allies in the Persian Gulf, or else there will be no oil or [...]
Each year upmarket English men’s magazine GQ bestows the honour of “Man of the Year” on one of its esteemed countrymen (generally an actor with a movie to promote). The anointed gent will then appear on the cover and in an inside spread where he will no doubt be wearing a “suit and watch combo” with [...]
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, talk to demonstrators while leaving a court appearance for a verdict on an extradition request in London, February 24, 2011. (Photo: Andrew Testa / The New York Times) A Tale of Two Asylums: Assange, Palacio, and Media Hypocrisy Sunday, 09 September 2012 07:28By Keane Bhatt, NACLA | Op-Ed Every so often, world affairs [...]
Russia To Produce Electricity with Former Nukes By Kerstin Brandt Russia is planning to destroy plutonium used in thousands of soon to be decommissioned nuclear warheads by using it as fuel in a special new atomic power plant. The reactor is set to begin operating in one year, but time pressures and a vulnerable cooling [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 7, 2012 5:56 PM CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity Miyoko Sakashita, (415) 632-5308 Report: Ocean Acidification Making Puget Sound Waters Corrosive to Many Shellfish SEATTLE – September 7 – A new report has found that ocean acidification continues to threaten water quality and wildlife in the Puget Sound. According to the report, surveys revealed [...]
Dutch Labour party leader Diederik Samsom campaigns in Utrecht. The new leader has given the party a remarkable recovery in the polls to push a close contest with PM Mark Rutte‘s VVD party. Photograph: Robin Utrecht/EPA Dutch elections seen as a measure of volatile eurozone Vote regarded as Europe’s bellwether ballot with Socialist party [...]
Offshore oil and gas production in the Cook Inlet oilfield of Alaska. Shell have been criticised by Greenpeace and US group Peer for limited testing of equipment to stop a Gulf of Mexico-style disaster. Photograph: PA Lawrence, LLC/Alamy Shell criticised for limited testing of Alaska drilling containment equipment Greenpeace says oil company used ‘stock-car race‘ [...]
‘Industrially produced food is nutritionally empty mass, loaded with chemicals and toxins,’ writes author [REUTERS] Hunger and malnutrition is manmade. It is in the design of the industrial chemical model of agriculture. And just as hunger has been created by design, producing healthy and nutritious food for all can be designed through food democracy. That [...]
Economic Policy Beyond Gimmicks by Jeffrey D. Sachs It’s hard to imagine a less satisfactory jobs report at this stage of President Obama’s term. The economy is dead in the water. Obama has no plan but to wait for the upturn. Mitt Romney‘s plan to cut taxes would be disastrously worse, [...]
PHOTO: Fracking uses high pressure gas to fracture rock seams underground to release natural gas.(7pm TV News NSW) MAP: VIC Government imposes fracking moratorium Updated Fri Aug 24, 2012 2:33pm AEST The State Government has announced a ban on any further approvals on fracking in new coal seam gas exploration wells. Fracking uses high pressure gas to fracture [...]
Two Calla Lilies on Pink, 1928 (oil on canvas), by Georgia O’Keeffe. Photograph: www.bridgemanart.com Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf – review Does this book reveal an existential crisis among women or merely tell us more than we wanted to know about its author, asks Jenny Turner Jenny Turner guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 September 2012 22.55 [...]
Embassy staff back a van into the underground garage at the Iranian embassy in Ottawa on 7 Sept. Photograph: Fred Chartrand/AP Iran blasts ‘hostile behaviour’ after Canada severs diplomatic ties Reuters guardian.co.uk, Saturday 8 September 2012 15.16 BST Jump to comments (210) Tehran accuses Canada of acting as a puppet of Israel and the west after embassy [...]
CIA Waterboarding, Qaddafi Collaboration Revealed By Scott Horton Just days after Attorney General Holder announced a formal decision of impunityresulting from a probe into 101 documented cases in which CIA agents engaged in acts of torture and abuse in apparent violation of CIA guidelines—including those approving torture—further explosive allegations have emerged that lay [...]
16th NAM Summit- 1009 Noam Chomsky: Participation of NAM Members; Confirmed Peacefulness of Iran‘s Nuclear Activities Noam Chomsky, the famous American theorist argues that presence of 120 member states in Tehran summit is a proof to peacefulness of Iran’s nuclear activities. (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – Noam Chomsky, the famous American theorist argues that presence of 120 member [...]
Israeli DM: Military Ready to ‘Conquer and Rule’ Gaza Strip Might Just Reoccupy ‘Parts’ of the Strip by Jason Ditz, September 07, 2012 Print This | Share This Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is said to be backing down from his [...]
In the 1970s, the Hite Report stated that only 1% of women had ever used one. Today, the figure is over 50%. Photograph: Courtesy Good Vibrations. The buzz: how the vibrator came to be In 19th-century Britain, women suffering from chronic anxiety prescribed pelvic finger massage. Doctors found this tedious and time-consuming, so they invented [...]
Leslie Thatcher at the Capitol. (Photo: Dave Johnson)Beverly Bell interviews Leslie Thatcher, content relations editor at Truthout, one of a number of independent, non-commercial news sites that offer an alternative to corporate-controlled media. In a world where corporations are considered persons and a few individuals are funding the lion’s share of the presidential elections, independent [...]
JAMES PETRAS: IRAN’S STRATEGIC DIPLOMATIC VICTORY OVER THE WASHINGTON-ISRAELI AXIS: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2012 AT 12:25PM GILAD ATZMON Introduction Iran chaired, hosted and led the recently rejuvenated Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in Teheran, attended by delegates from 120 countries, including 31 heads of state and 29 foreign secretaries of state. Even the United Nations General Secretary Ban [...]
STEPHEN YATES JOINS ‘REAL NEWS’ TO DISCUSS CHINA AND U.S. POLICY IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC Posted on September 7, 2012 at 7:53pm by Christopher Santarelli As the dust will now settle from the national party conventions over the last two weeks in Tampa and Charlotte, attention turns to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to [...]
Aleida Guevara with her father and Fidel Castro in 1963. Photograph: Getty Images Why Che’s daughter fights to preserve his image as idealistic revolutionary Forty-five years after Che Guevara’s death, his daughter, Aleida, talks about growing up in the shadow of a world-famed leader Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk, Saturday 8 September 2012 17.37 BST Jump to comments (78) [...]
Protesters carrying an Anonymous UK banner outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London, in October 2011. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Anonymous: behind the masks of the cyber insurgents Since 2008, the internet collective have hacked the CIA, the Sun newspaper, the Church of Scientology and a host of other large corporations, sparking a global police crackdown last [...]
Ahmed Fouad Negm: Writing a Revolution He has been dubbed the voice of Egypt’s revolution, but can the 83-year-old find his place in a revolution of the young? 01 Sep 2012 06:29 GMT Hala Mohammad: Waiting for Spring Exiled in Paris, the Syrian poet despairs for her country as the crisis there deepens. Last Modified: [...]
The native Achuar have struggled against corporate control of their traditional lands [REUTERS] I had not forgotten the rain forests or the incredible plants and animals that live here. Or the people – the Achuar and Shuar. They are with me every day – as I jog, walk and meditate in the forests of the [...]
