Human Rights Watch – (New York) – The targeting of a Human Rights Watch staff member with Pegasus spyware underscores the urgent need to regulate the global trade in surveillance technology, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments should ban the sale, export, transfer, and use of surveillance technology until human rights safeguards are in place. […]
Archives for January 2022
Joe Biden: a report card on the US president’s first year in office
By Clodagh Harrington and Alex Waddan | – When Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th US president in January 2021, 51.3% of American voters heaved a sigh of relief – along with much of the world. After four tumultuous and unscripted years of Donald Trump, restoration of calm via his experienced successor seemed […]
How Trump appeased Putin and Endangered Peace in Ukraine
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I don’t approve of all the loud saber-rattling in Washington on Russia. For reasons I’ll explain below, I nevertheless don’t think Russia has a right to nibble at Ukrainian territory. Although I think Washington over-uses sanctions and in a broad-stroke way that inflicts a lot of harm on innocents, carefully […]
Have Sinema and Manchin Tolled the death Knell of Free and Fair Elections for a Decade?
Oakland, CA (Special to Informed Comment) – In this Brave New World of evolving lexicons, “gerrymandering,” a dirty word to begin with; has become a euphemism for “vote-rigging.” Lessons learned in high school Civics classes about the electoral and re-districting processes are now quaintly outdated, as Republican-dominated state houses do all they can to ensure […]
With fewer animals to spread their seeds, plants could have trouble adapting to climate change
By Evan Fricke, Alejandro Ordonez, Haldre Rogers, and Jens-Christian Svenning | – Picture a mature, broad-branched tree like an oak, maple or fig. How does it reproduce so that its offspring don’t grow up in its shadow, fighting for light? The answer is seed dispersal. Plants have evolved many strategies for spreading their seeds away […]
The Pentagon We Don’t Think About: A New Perspective on the Department of Homeland Security
By Andrea Mazzarino | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – A relative of mine, who works for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) compiling data on foreigners entering the United States, recently posted a curious logo on his Facebook profile: a white Roman numeral three on a black background surrounded by 13 white stars. For those […]
Climate Emergency Parable: Mammoth Iceberg that broke free from Antarctica Dumps 168 billion tons of Water in South Atlantic
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Anne Braakmann-Folgmann et al. in an article for Remote Sensing of the Environment observed by satellite the now-disintegrated Iceberg A68A over its 3.5-year life since it hived off the Larsen-C Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 2017, and found that it dumped 168 billion tons of fresh water into the ocean […]
Uproar In Turkey over Gov’t Prioritizing a Name change for the Country over Sinking Economy #helloTürkiye
( Globalvoices.org ) – Turkey’s Communications Directorate launched a new campaign #helloTürkiye on January 14, in an attempt to “raise global awareness about using the country’s original name.” In a statement issued by the Presidency’s Director of Communications, Fahrettin Altun said, “We believe that it is significant to use the phrase ‘Türkiye’ in the international […]
Afghan Women’s Rights Activists Forcibly Disappeared (HRW)
By Patricia Gossman | Associate Asia Director | ( Human Rights Watch ) – The Taliban’s response to the apparent enforced disappearance of Tamana Paryani, Parwana Ibrahimkhel, and other women activists in Afghanistan has laid bare their intent to eradicate critical women’s voices through unlawful use of force. Taliban leaders have denied arresting the women, […]
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