Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Articles”
EDINBURGH — Private, for-profit schools in Africa funded by the World Bank and U.S. venture capitalists have been criticized by more than 100 organizations who’ve signed a petition opposing the controversial educational venture. A May statement addressed to Jim Kim, president of the World Bank, expressed deep concern over the global financial institution’s investment in a chain of private primary …
That 1776 Declaration of Independence from Britain’s King George by the United States of America has been echoed by many US Presidents, and Mr Obama reiterated the sentiments by saying that “We believe in human dignity — that every person is created equal.” He also said in Europe last year that “we believe in democracy — with elections that are …
Let’s mix some metaphors in the Middle East, all of them involving elephants. In the crisis zone that encompasses Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, the Kurds are the elephant in the room. They are the “problem” that no one really wants to talk about. Because it would be stitched together from bits and pieces of their territory, the countries of …
Imagine that you’re in the FBI and you receive a tip — or more likely, pick up information through the kind of mass surveillance in which the national security state now specializes. In a series of tweets, a young man has expressed sympathy for the Islamic State (ISIS), al-Qaeda, or another terrorist group or cause. He’s 16, has no criminal …
*This is an edited version of my latest Counterpunch Magazine column.* We are living in a world gone through the looking glass when the most strident, unequivocal — even scatological! — denunciations of capitalism and its discontents are coming from … the Bishop of Rome. While Bernie Sanders pushes centrist notions as “radical” reforms and Britain’s so-called Labour Party tries …
Saudi Arabia asked on Thursday to be removed as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by victims of the attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001. Lawyer Michael Kellogg, acting on behalf of the Gulf state, told a judge in New York that Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with the attacks. The judge did not immediately rule …
Gaddafi overthrew a British installed King, brought Libya from Africa’s poorest nation to be its wealthiest with a UN Quality of Life Index higher than 9 European countries. A million Libyans out of a total population 6, desperately demonstrated for their Green Book Democracy and beloved Gaddafi outside Tripoli as Britain & France bombed. Left Progressives either collaborated with or …
The siege of Knightsbridge is both an emblem of gross injustice and a gruelling farce. For three years, a police cordon around the Ecuadorean embassy in London has served no purpose other than to flaunt the power of the state. It has cost £12 million. The quarry is an Australian charged with no crime, a refugee whose only security is …
New research confirms that the land under the Chesapeake Bay is sinking rapidly and projects that Washington, D.C., could drop by six or more inches in the next century–adding to the problems of sea-level rise. This falling land will exacerbate the flooding that the nation’s capital faces from rising ocean waters due to a warming climate and melting ice sheets–accelerating …
Forests play an important role as “carbon sinks” by absorbing and storing CO2 emissions, but a new study finds that that droughts—expected to become more frequent with climate change—deal that climate-buffering power a blow. The findings, published this week in the journal Science, show that forests don’t recover as quickly after a drought as had been previously thought, indicating a …
