TeleSur | – – According to one witness, the suspect was heard saying “get off the bus, and get out of the country because you don’t pay taxes here.” Amidst rising rates of violence directed toward Muslims and those percieved to be Muslim in the United States, two men on a commuter train in Portland, […]
Iraq Parliament Mulls ending Freedom of Assembly
By Afef Abrougui | ( Globalvoices.org) | – – When armed men in civilian clothes kidnapped journalist Afrah Shawqi from her home on 26 December 2016, journalists and activists quickly took to the street to demand that the government take action to ensure her safety and her immediate release. Iraq's parliament is currently reviewing a […]
Who are Egypt’s Coptic Christians, ISIL’s latest Victims?
By Paul Rowe | (The Conversation) | – – Coptic Christians in Egypt have been attacked while traveling on pilgrimages and bombed while praying on Palm Sunday, amid an accelerating series of attacks over the last decade. The interrelated challenges of violence, economics and discrimination have led to the increasing departure of Christians from the […]
Retraining Workers for Climate Action: How the Light Gets In
H. Patricia Hynes | (Informed Comment) | – – Every now and then I re-visit these lines of the Canadian poet and songwriter, Leonard Cohen: Ring the bells that cannot ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in. In these times of climate change denial, macho […]
Roger Ailes: The Man Who Destroyed the News
By Neal Gabler | ( Billmoyers.com) | – – The founder of the right-wing network inflicted harm on the body politic that may be impossible to heal. Fox News creator and former chief Roger Ailes, who died at 77 last week from complications after a fall in his Florida home, may have been the most […]
Comeygate: How Orwell can Explain why Trump keeps Changing his Story
By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – The Trump administration seems intent on tossing recent history down the memory hole. Admittedly, Americans have never been known for their strong grasp of facts about their past. Still, as we struggle to keep up with the constantly shifting explanations and pronouncements of the new administration, […]
Thousands protest against Trump in ‘hellhole’ Brussels
EurActiv.com | – – Thousands of protesters carrying effigies of Donald Trump marched through Brussels on Wednesday (24 May) after the US president arrived for talks with the EU and NATO. “Trump not welcome,” said banners waved by the crowd, which police said numbered around 9,000. Organisers put the size of the demonstration at 12,000. […]
Iran: Does the Rouhani Win Matter for Human Rights?
By Tara Sepehri Far. | ( Human Rights Watch ) | – – In Second Term, Should Move on Rights Reforms When the 2017 election season kicked off April 21, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani did not go into the race possessing an enviable track record of defending human rights. While he achieved his 2013 election […]
What Iranian women want: rights, jobs and a seat at the table
By Azadeh Davachi | (The Conversation) | – – Issues affecting women were conspicuously absent from Iran’s 2017 presidential election. That’s unless one finds useful the leading conservative candidate Hojjat al-Islam Ebrahim Raisi’s comment that his government would enhance women’s dignity within the family, because women should be “good mothers and wives”. The absence was […]