The World Health Organization has declared a rare “public health emergency of international concern” because of the apparent link between the Zika virus and a huge increase in serious birth defects in Central and South America.
|
By Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams —
While some small European countries are donating more than their fair share to aid Syrians, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Russia are still far behind.
|
Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, says gangs throughout Europe are targeting young migrants for sex work and slavery.
|
Plumbers from across Michigan and other states are visiting 800 homes in the city of Flint to make sure residents’ faucets can accommodate water filters being installed to mitigate the city’s ongoing lead crisis.
|
|
A 13-year-old Russian-German girl has admitted to making up a story about being kidnapped and raped by Middle Eastern or North African migrants in a case that outraged Germans and caused far-right protests in Russia.
|
It’s possible all the commotion over the Iowa caucus has more to do with media than with politics. In another report, a writer says the platform of the Green Party’s Jill Stein has a better chance than Bernie Sanders’ does. Meanwhile, a former trader reveals just how much the Clintons are indebted to Wall Street and vice versa. These discoveries and more after the jump.
|
By Nomi Prins / TomDispatch —
Given that our brand of democracy is cold hard cash, let’s examine the relationships between our 21st-century plutocrats and the contenders for the White House.
|
By E.J. Dionne Jr. — As voting in the 2016 presidential campaign begins, it’s apparent that this strange and melodramatic contest was created by the political upheaval that didn’t immediately happen after 9/11, the failure of the Iraq War and the Great Recession.
|
By Tim Radford / Climate News Network —
Scientists say interstate energy “highways” would allow current wind and solar technologies to deliver electricity where and when it’s needed throughout the United States.
|
By Juan Cole — Islamic State has claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in Syria’s capital Damascus that were probably aimed at derailing peace talks in Geneva.
|
By Juan Cole — Russia has rejected as “propaganda” renewed charges that its fighter jets had crossed Turkish territory. But it’s likely that Turkey’s complaint is actually about something else.
|
By Jim Hightower / OtherWords —
War is hell. Unless, of course, you happen to be a global corporate peddler of rockets, drones, bombs and all the other hellish weaponry of military conflict.
|
This reform-minded lawyer and law professor with a history of progressive advocacy is answering Bernie Sanders’ call for a political revolution by challenging Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida for her congressional seat. Here, Truthdig interviews him, and we like what he has to say.
|
By Thor Benson — This law enforcement technology can use facts such as ZIP codes and frequency of address changes to assign a danger level to people an officer might engage. A high threat score could increase the officer’s anxiety ... and you know where that could lead.
|
The newspaper hangs an article about Sanders’ campaign finances on a legal technicality, and the next day it backs his main rival’s presidential bid.
|
By Adam Harris / ProPublica —
A reading guide to the Planned Parenthood videos and what has happened since their release last summer.
|
By Juan Cole — Even the staunchly pro-Israel French Socialist Party has had it with Israeli expansionism and aggression.
|
By Robert Reich — The editorial board of The Washington Post has charged that Bernie Sanders’ plan rests on “unbelievable assumptions” about how much it would slash costs without affecting the care ordinary Americans receive.
|
By Juan Cole — At the Trumpless GOP debate last week, the candidates once again promised to bankrupt us with military and intelligence spending and to commit vast war crimes—with reckless disregard for the lives of women, children and noncombatant men—of the sort not openly plotted since the demise of the Axis powers in 1943-45.
|
By Tim Radford / Climate News Network —
A new study shows that up to 30 percent of the melting of the Greenland ice cap results from cloud cover that is helping to raise temperatures—and accelerate sea level rise.
|
Some previously released emails have since been redacted, but the 22 now declared top-secret are the first to be withheld outright.
|
By Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams —
Past injustices and crimes against African-Americans in the United States need to be addressed with reparatory justice.
|