In case you hadn’t heard, last month, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO and former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli got hold of the rights to parasite-zapping drug Daraprim, and then he had the bright idea to raise the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Now he has a big public relations problem and a self-created health care crisis on his hands.
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By Natalie Shure, AlterNet —
Americans are no strangers to embarrassing exports. But when it comes to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, we may have outdone ourselves.
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Outrage has ensued over revelations that U.S. military personnel ignored the rape of boys occurring among Afghanistan’s elite while American troops were stationed there.
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Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has shocked many with his recent success in Iowa, but maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised; media coverage of the U.K.’s Jeremy Corbyn has revealed The Guardian’s true colors; meanwhile, the IMF is telling Israel to stop spending so much money on defense. These discoveries and more after the jump.
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By Juan Cole — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his circle appear to have three major concerns about Russia’s military build-up in Syria.
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By Jeff Gerth and T. Christian Miller, ProPublica —
Filings from a lawsuit, scheduled to go to trial Monday in Atlantic City, N.J., describe a previously unreported lobbying campaign by McNeil Consumer Healthcare to protect its iconic painkiller.
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By Juan Cole — In three years, all Dutch electric trains will be powered by wind turbines, either turbines in the Netherlands itself or in nearby Belgium or Scandinavia.
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By Eugene Robinson — The founders of this nation recognized Islam as one of the world’s great faiths. Incredibly and disgracefully, much of today’s Republican Party disagrees.
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The triumph of Steve Jobs, Apple and tech in general was ushering in a new language of business. The iPhone is not a hand-held computer; it is an “extension of oneself.” And Jobs and his disciples are not merely businessmen and technicians but also “poets and artists.”
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A U.N.-backed report offers a shocking depiction of the state of our global environment, revealing that about half of the planet’s agricultural land is now moderately or severely degraded.
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Bernie Sanders’ most high-profile black supporter describes the socialist senator’s presidential campaign as “even more progressive” than those of Democratic insurgent Jesse Jackson in the 1980s. In an interview, West also touches on the issue of Israel.
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By E.J. Dionne Jr. — While he has been quite specific on some political questions (the climate and immigration especially), what characterizes his mission is an effort to turn our notions of who counts and who has the strongest claim on our attention upside down.
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The charity Alzheimer’s Research UK is warning of a national health crisis, predicting that one in three people born in the country this year will develop dementia.
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By Rebecca Gordon, TomDispatch —
When so many of us become frightened enough of our own government to do its censoring for it, we’ve all lost the battle for dignity and civil rights.
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By Tim Radford, Climate News Network —
In just two centuries, many plant species have scrambled 500 meters up the Andes in search of cooler temperatures.
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By Robert Reich — It is rife with with lies and distortions, and may even lead to a government shutdown.
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The British prime minister has been caught in a media storm after a former billionaire Tory donor released pages from his tell-all book. While some of the allegations may point toward corruption, the one that has the Twitterverse laughing nonstop involves a dead pig and Cameron’s private parts.
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By Juan Cole — Ben Carson’s and Donald Trump’s comments about Muslims over the weekend again showed the GOP as the party of exclusion, not inclusion.
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At Sunday night’s Emmy Awards, Jon Stewart got one last chance to bask in the glow of industry goodwill directed at “The Daily Show.” At the ceremony he picked up a trophy for Outstanding Variety Talk Series to cap off his 16-year stint as “Daily Show” host.
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By Roisin Davis — Although his feet have barely touched the ground, the Labour Party’s new leader, a man of principle, is already reinvigorating British politics.
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Most of Sunday’s snap general election results are in—and it seems Syriza has claimed another important victory in Greece and Alexis Tspiras will continue to lead the country.
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Although news of the nuclear deal has been welcome in Iran, the country is facing an impending domestic crisis that hasn’t made Western headlines; there are lessons the American left can and should learn from the U.K.’s Jeremy Corbyn; meanwhile, the U.S. obsession with bottled water must come to an end. These discoveries and more after the jump.
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