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Coronavirus: a disaster of capitalism’s making
What to do if confronted with an extremely contagious virus that medical experts say they have not seen before and don’t understand, and which is fast spreading and killing hundreds of people? a) Take precautionary measures to stop the virus spreading and prepare the health system for a potential shock? Or b) Ignore it, blithely assert – without any evidence – that it is little different from the common flu, accuse your adversaries.
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The prospect of peace in Afghanistan is real—and Pakistan is the key player
The U.S.-Taliban peace agreement signed in Doha on February 29 must be put in proper perspective. Indeed, there can’t be two opinions that the curtain is coming down on what U.S. President Donald Trump called the “endless war” in which America squandered away over a trillion dollars and lost thousands of lives with no victory in sight. Equally, without a doubt, this is the finest hour of Pakistan’s statecraft since the country’s creation in 1947.
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Labor and the social crisis at France Telecom
The French courts recently found the telecommunications firm Orange/France Telecom and its top managers guilty of “moral harassment” connected to a wave of worker suicides a decade ago. The former management team, including the former CEO, face jail time and fines, while the company was ordered to pay 3 million euros in damages to the victims.
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A little help from their friends: How Vietnam withstood largest bombing campaign in human history
Between 1965 the 1975, the United States Air Force dropped over three times more bombs on the Southeast Asian nations of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia than the total tonnage dropped by the Allies during World War II.
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Remembering the heroism of activist Berta Cáceres four years after her assassination: An interview with her daughter
On July 15, 2013, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), led by Berta Cáceres Flores, went to protest the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River. This river, in western Honduras, is considered to be sacred by the indigenous Lenca community. No one from the company that wanted to build the dam had talked to the Lenca.
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Climate change and the class divide
No, we’re not all in it together. Our rulers are responsible for the system that’s creating an ecological catastrophe. As that crisis intensifies, it’s exposing and intensifying the divide between us and them.
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Supreme Court ruling hands U.S. Border Patrol a license to kill with impunity
The Supreme Court set a dangerous precedent yesterday when it ruled in favor of the U.S. Border Patrol in the cross-border murder of a young teenage boy who was shot in the face by an overzealous agent.
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A World no longer shaped by Atlantic powers
The annual Munich Security Conference that took place February 14-16 this year turned out to be an iconic event, drawing comparison with the one held in the same Bavarian city on February 10, 2007, where in a prophetic speech Russian President Vladimir Putin had criticized the world order characterized by the United States’ global hegemony and its “almost uncontained hyper use of force—military force—in international relations.”
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Witnessing the hell that a migrant can face
The Saudi-UAE war on Yemen has been going on for five years. Despite recent peace talks leading to an improvement in aid distribution, the violence has escalated in certain key districts of Yemen over the past two weeks. Since January, 35,000 Yemenis have been displaced from their homes, an indicator of the dangerous situation in the country.
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Show me the words that will reorder the World, or else keep silent
On the night before Red Books Day, on 21 February 2020, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, N. Sankaraiah–one of the thirty-two founders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)–read from M. Sivalingam’s new translation into Tamil of the Communist Manifesto. Comrade Sankaraiah, age 98, said that he had first read the Manifesto at age 18. Over the years, he returns to the book because each time he reads it the brazing prose teaches him something new. And something that–sadly–seems ageless.
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Trump touts biodefense strategy but slashes funding to detect and combat outbreaks like coronavirus
t the end of January, at a time when the coronavirus outbreak that began in China was dominating international headlines, The White House announced it was forming a new task force to address the growing crisis, one headed by the secretary of health and human services, Alex Azar.
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Personal Data: Political persuasion
In the format of a guide and a visual gallery, Tactical Tech identify over 300 of the companies who offer their services to political parties, and give an in depth guide to thirteen of the key methods that are used to target and influence voters.
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Is the World about to witness the end of the war in Afghanistan?
Neither the Indian political leadership nor the “deep state” seems to grasp that the geopolitics of the South Asian region is transforming with far-reaching consequences.
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Chile’s U.S.-backed gov’t is shooting anti-austerity protesters, blinding and maiming by the thousands
Chile has responded to anti-neoliberal protests with brutally violent repression. 10,365 people have been detained; 3765 treated for wounds in hospitals; and 2122 shot, 445 in the eye according to a conservative estimate by the state-backed National Institute of Human Rights.
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Sure, but Venezuela is the Narco State…
Venezuelan analyst Oscar Forero contextualises the accusation that Venezuela is immersed in illegal drug activity.
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As media amplifies unrest in Venezuela and beyond, millions are quietly revolting in Colombia
Despite protests of historic proportions fueled by anger over corruption and a brutal right-wing crackdown, the unrest in Colombia has garnered remarkably little international media attention compared to Venezuela.
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JP Morgan economists warn of ‘catastrophic outcomes’ of human-caused climate crisis
“Don’t want to hear Greta Thunberg or Extinction Rebellion? Try J.P. Morgan instead.”
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Politicizing water in Chile
Chile is today in the midst of an unprecedented constituent process 30 years after the return of democracy, where the possibility of a new constitution has opened a discussion about what sort of country we want, and which rights should be enshrined in the drafting of this fundamental document.
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How India’s Modi is playing on Trump’s ego to his advantage
One thing about U.S. President Donald Trump is that he can be brutally frank. Trump recently picked up the phone and called British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to convey his displeasure over the latter’s decision to allow Huawei to operate in the UK despite Washington’s repeated urgings.
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You write injustice on the Earth; we will write revolution in the skies
‘Scientists are wrong’, the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano said with a warm smile on his face. ‘Human beings are not made of atoms; they are made of stories’. It is why we want to sing and draw, tell each other about our lives and our hopes, talk about the wonders in our lives and the wonders that we dream about. These dreams–this art–are what make us get up each day, smile, and go forward into the world.