First-person testimony published Tuesday tallies the human cost of Ethiopia’s “villagization” program, in which tens of thousands of people have been forced from their ancestral homes to make way for large-scale commercial agriculture.
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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Documents seen by The Guardian show that the World Bank has repeatedly violated its own policies aimed at protecting the rights of indigenous people over the past decade by funding projects that pushed nearly 3.4 million slum dwellers, farmers and villagers from their land or dispossessed them of their livelihoods.
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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In his annual “direct line” press conference Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin spent four hours taking questions from the public on subjects ranging from the Ukraine conflict and relations with the West to rural transport and the sale of milk to primary schools.
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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In more than 200 cities, some 60,000 low-wage workers involved in the “Fight for $15” campaign—among them child care providers, Wal-Mart clerks and adjunct professors—staged an action Wednesday that highlighted the vast amount of public money spent to support underpaid workers.
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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By Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch —
Four key trends could speed the transition to renewables: the world’s growing determination to put a brake on climate change; a sea change in China’s stance on growth and the environment; the increasing embrace of green energy in the developing world; and the growing affordability of renewable energy.
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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By Tim Radford, Climate News Network —
The biggest extinction ever known on Earth resulted from the oceans turning acidic because of an increase in CO2, the main gas driving human-caused climate change today.
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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What do you do when your government won’t let you express yourself freely? Well, you turn yourself into a hologram, of course.
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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In a comical YouTube clip, writer and comedian Akilah Hughes enlists the help of a beloved Italian dish to get viewers to understand the sometimes maligned and often overlooked concept of intersectionality.
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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The news media trend of displaying teaser videos with clips of the deaths of Walter Scott and Eric Garner on loops is despicable at best. And, as “The Daily Show” host points out, it’s a trend we have to “nip in the bud, because it’s not going anywhere. ... The ubiquity of cellphones is far outpacing police awareness of the ubiquity of cellphones.”
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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By William Pfaff — The current transatlantic view of Europe is one of continental political decline, elegant at best but ominous at worst.
Posted on Apr 16, 2015
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The European Union’s top antitrust watchdog is setting her sights on Google, taking the tech giant to task for allegedly elbowing out competitors’ listings in online shopping searches.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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By Halyna Mokrushyna, CounterPunch —
In his Sunday sermon, the Patriarch Philaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv explained to his parishioners that Ukrainian soldiers who kill civilians and rebels in Donbas do not transgress God’s commandment “thou shalt not kill”.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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As the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon approaches, Paul Lobo Portugés’ moving poem serves as a reminder of the pernicious and long-lasting effects American interventionism has had in Vietnam.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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By Nick Turse, TomDispatch —
Despite grim outcomes since the American military began “pivoting” to Africa after 9/11, the U.S. recently signed an agreement designed to keep its troops on the continent until almost midcentury.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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Sabrina Johnson and Edith Figueroa are among tens of thousands of fast-food workers who have mobilized under the banner of the “Fight for $15” to demand better wages and the right to form a union.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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By Tim Radford, Climate News Network —
The frozen soil of the northern polar regions holds billions of tonnes of organic carbon—and global warming could speed its escape into the atmosphere.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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In a conversation with theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss, Noam Chomsky explains why American exceptionalism is neither unique nor founded on truth and how U.S. foreign policy only benefits the most powerful Americans.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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By Juan Cole — Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday with regard to the Russian Federation’s decision to go ahead with the sale to Iran of S-300 anti-aircraft batteries.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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By Eugene Robinson — Barring the political equivalent of an asteroid strike, it’s over. The slick video Hillary Clinton released Sunday was both campaign announcement and acceptance speech.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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By Juan Cole — CleanTechnica reports that Spain got nearly 70 percent of its electricity from plants that did not generate carbon dioxide in March. The two biggest non-carbon energy sources were nuclear and wind.
Posted on Apr 15, 2015
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