(photo courtesy of Kaveh Sardari) Dr. James Hansen is both an icon and a working scientist at the forefront of global warming research. He's a world-renowned physicist and an impassioned activist. He's soft spoken and hard hitting. Hansen is the director of an important US government lab, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and has […]
The New York Times reported in an interesting article from Paris June 17 that Barack Obama's political success in the United States is helping to give hope, and a new sense of identity, to blacks in France. The report erred, however, by referring twice to incidents of vandalism and rioting in France with the clear, […]
Presidential Candidate Barack Obama still has the support of a majority of American Muslims, but a New York Times article from June 24, 2008 questions whether there is a "disconnect between Mr. Obama's message of unity and his campaign strategy." One reason for questioning his sincerity is Obama's failure to visit a single mosque during […]
Jonathan Adler notes the DC Circuit's Tuesday release of Simon v. Iraq, a case where US servicemen alleged that Saddam Hussein's Iraqi intelligence services had taken them hostage and tortured them during Gulf War I. The court concluded (in contrast to earlier, similar lawsuits) that the suit could go forwards. The plaintiffs rely on an […]
On July 6 at 8 and 11 PM ET on CNN, the US Fund for UNICEF will air, "The Survival Project: One Child at a Time". UNICEF is encouraging supporters to not only to watch the broadcast, but to host a viewing party to discuss these important issues of child survival. UNICEF has developed a […]
Some supporters of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty are making wild, and so far unsubstantiated, allegations that American “neocons” were responsible for the treaty's defeat in the Irish referendum June 12. France's Europe Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet went farthest, stating that “Europe has powerful enemies on the other side of the Atlantic, gifted with considerable financial […]
(Secretary Rice at a press conference in June in Lebanon, courtesy of the State Department) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations’ International Affairs Fellows Conference last week. An edited video of her remarks can be viewed here. The thrust of Rice's speech centered on the “elements of continuity” thatthe Bush administration's […]
Agricultural land once used to produce basic foodstuff is increasingly being used to produce biofuels. According to a recent report by the aid agency Oxfam, the production of biofuels has increased food prices by 30% and pushed another 30 million people into poverty. Compounded by social upheavals, political instability, and drought, the world's poorest are […]
New polio threat prompts mass vaccination campaign, as seven million children in nine of the 11 provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are being vaccinated against polio, a disease thought to have been eradicated in the vast country. The campaign, which began on 19 June, targets children up to the age of five, […]
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson visited Norway last week looking for foreign investors, and the local media back home reported his trip as a success. According to the El Paso news station KVIA, Richardson had succeeded in convincing Norway's largest energy company StatoilHydro to come to New Mexico to explore investment opportunities, apparently in natural […]
European media outlets reported extensively when flooding of the Mississippi river caused major damage in the U.S. Midwest last week. Much of the European reporting linked the latest floods to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which received huge amounts of negative media coverage in Europe and was widely used to accuse the Bush administration of insensitivity […]
In response to an IDF operation that killed two in the West Bank town of Nablus early this morning, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militants claimed to have fired three rockets from the Gaza Strip at the Israeli town of Sderot. Israeli sources confirm that rockets did hit the town, lightly wounding two. One of those […]
As I said on Friday, there is so much going on. Here are some more salient items for you. Jim Rogers , I quoted the Duke Energy CEO here a while back. In the Sunday "NY Times Magazine," there's a profile of the head of the nation's third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Why has he […]
Here's a YouTube link to Al-Jazeera's English coverage of the recent clashes in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli. Note that the fighting between the residents of the largely Alawite Baal Mohsen and the predominantly Sunni Beb al-Tabbaneh neighborhoods is reminiscent of the 1980's when, during the civil war, the same areas were respectively split […]
Countries which are involved in conflict and strife are seeing an increasing use of violence against children, including kidnapping, torture and even murder. UNICEF issued a statement on the continued abduction, torture and rape of children around the world, saying; “It is everyone's duty to ensure children are safe from harm, and governments have a […]