Big Picture

The U.S. State of War – July 2017

July 23, 2017
The U.S. State of War – July 2017

NICHOLAS J.S. DAVIES - This is the state of war in the United States in July 2017.

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Posted in Big Picture, July 2017 | No Comments »

Businesses Urge Interior Dept. to Preserve Public Lands

July 19, 2017
Businesses Urge Interior Dept. to Preserve Public Lands

ERIC TEGETHOFF - Public lands provide a major economic boost to local communities in Oregon. That's the view of groups that support the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument being kept as it is, as the U.S. Interior Department reviews its status.

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China Firmly Opposes U.S. Arms Sale to Taiwan

July 13, 2017

MU XUEQUAN - China firmly opposes the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan and urges the United States to immediately revoke its decision, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy here said Friday, June 30

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Pruitt Will Launch Program to ‘Critique’ Climate Science

July 11, 2017
Pruitt Will Launch Program to ‘Critique’ Climate Science

EMILY HOLDEN - U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is leading a formal initiative to challenge mainstream climate science using a "back-and-forth critique" by government-recruited experts, according to a senior administration official. The program will use "red team, blue team" exercises to conduct an "at-length evaluation of U.S. climate science," the official said, referring to...

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Posted in Big Picture, July 2017 | No Comments »

Subcommittee Passes Bill to Make Yucca Mountain the U.S. Nuclear Repository

June 26, 2017

CRAIG FIEGENER and MARVIN CLEMONS - Despite Nevada protests against it, a measure to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste repository advanced in a congressional subcommittee Thursday morning.

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Posted in Big Picture, June 2017 | No Comments »

Lockheed Martin-Funded Experts Agree: South Korea Needs More Lockheed Martin Missiles

May 24, 2017
Lockheed Martin-Funded Experts Agree: South Korea Needs More Lockheed Martin Missiles

ADAM JOHNSON - As tensions between the United States and North Korea continue to rise, one think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has become a ubiquitous voice on the topic of missile defense, providing Official-Sounding Quotes to dozens of reporters in Western media outlets. All of these quotes speak to...

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Posted in Big Picture, May 2017 | No Comments »

Tunnel Collapse at Hanford Nuclear Dump-Harbinger of the Collapse of the Entire Industry?

May 20, 2017
Tunnel Collapse at Hanford Nuclear Dump-Harbinger of the Collapse of the Entire Industry?

HARVEY WASSERMAN - The collapse of a tunnel at the massive nuclear waste dump at Hanford, Washington, 200 miles east of Seattle, has sent shock waves through a nuclear power industry already in the process of a global collapse.

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Posted in Big Picture, May 2017 | No Comments »

Cherokee Nation Lawsuit Holds Drug Distributors Accountable for Opioid Diversion

May 14, 2017

KARLA JO HELMS - Prescription opioid overdose deaths among American Indians and Alaska Natives have increased nearly four-fold since 1999. Novus Medical Detox Center believes a new Cherokee Nation lawsuit against opioid distributors may be the first of many.

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Posted in Big Picture, May 2017 | No Comments »

Oil Price Collapse is ‘Permanent’; Analyst Says Fossil Fuel has had Its Day

May 6, 2017
Oil Price Collapse is ‘Permanent’; Analyst Says Fossil Fuel has had Its Day

JILLIAN AMBROSE - The latest collapse of the oil market is the harbinger of a global energy revolution which could spell the end-game for fossil fuels. These theories were laughable less than a decade ago when oil prices grazed highs of more than $140 a barrel. But the burn out of the oil industry...

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Posted in Big Picture, May 2017 | No Comments »

Trump’s Climate Demands Roil U.S. Allies

April 24, 2017
Trump’s Climate Demands Roil U.S. Allies

ANDREW RESTUCCIA - President Donald Trump’s abrupt turnaround on U.S. climate policy is fueling tension with several of America’s closest allies, which are resisting the administration’s demands that they support a bigger role for nuclear power and fossil fuels in the world’s energy supply.

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Posted in April 2017, Big Picture | No Comments »

The Potential of an “Oregon Climate Test”

April 20, 2017
The Potential of an “Oregon Climate Test”

ERIC DE PLACE - After a string of successes defending the Northwest from ill-conceived dirty energy projects, the thin green line—the Northwest’s opposition movement to coal, oil, and gas exports—is starting to play offense. Local governments around the region are already updating land use laws to protect their communities from the depredations of fossil...

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Posted in April 2017, Big Picture | No Comments »

The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump, a Political Hot Potato, is Back

March 18, 2017
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump, a Political Hot Potato, is Back

TOM DICHRISTOPHER - The White House's budget blueprint released Thursday seeks to revive spending for a hotly contested facility in Nevada that would store the nation's nuclear waste.

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Posted in Big Picture, March 2017 | No Comments »

U.S. Prepares for War in Korea

March 14, 2017

BRUCE GAGNON - South Korea and the US launched their annual Key Resolve military exercise Monday, which involves scenarios for the employment of US anti-missile assets and special warfare forces tasked with removing North Korea’s leadership in a contingency.

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Posted in Big Picture, March 2017 | No Comments »

Arizona Leader Kills Protest Bill after Widespread Criticism

March 1, 2017

BOB CHRISTIE - The speaker of the Arizona House said Monday he won't hear a bill that makes participating in or helping organize a protest that turns into a riot an offense that could lead to criminal racketeering charges, a move prompted by widespread criticism that the legislation sought to limit First Amendment rights.

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Posted in Big Picture, March 2017 | No Comments »

NW Ratepayers Will Save Over $250 Million if Columbia Generating Station Nuclear Power Plant Replaced with Renewables

February 19, 2017

OREGON AND WASHINGTON PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY - Portland utility economist Robert McCullough’s study indicates savings to Northwest ratepayers of between $261.2 million and $530.7 million over ten years if the Columbia Generating Station nuclear plant is closed and replaced with clean renewable energy alternatives.

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Posted in Big Picture, February 2017 | No Comments »

Dutch Bank Will Not Pursue Future Business With Energy Transfer Equity due to the Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline

February 16, 2017
Dutch Bank Will Not Pursue Future Business With Energy Transfer Equity due to the Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline

WAKINYAN WAANATAN (MATT REMLE - LAKOTA) - ABN AMRO Bank based in Amsterdam released a statement strongly condemning Energy Transfer Equity (ETE), the parent company to Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), over the Dakota Access pipeline. While the Dutch based bank is not involved in financing the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, and is...

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Posted in Big Picture, February 2017 | No Comments »

Cherokee Nation Wins Restraining Order to Prevent Radwaste Disposal Near Local Rivers

February 13, 2017

ANADISGOI, OFFICIAL CHREOKEE NATION NEWSROOM - The Cherokee Nation and state of Oklahoma jointly filed and were granted a restraining order today against Sequoyah Fuels Corporation near Gore to stop the company from disposing radioactive waste near the Arkansas and Illinois rivers. The request was granted by Sequoyah County District Judge Jeff Payton.

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Posted in Big Picture, February 2017 | No Comments »

Gorbachev Urges Trump and Putin to Introduce UN Resolution Banning Nuclear War

February 1, 2017

DAVID CAPLAN - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has issued a dire warning: "The world is preparing for war." And with a phone call scheduled on Saturday between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Gorbachev is urging the leaders to put a halt to a such a deadly path by spearheading a...

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Posted in Big Picture, February 2017 | No Comments »

Chinese Billionaire Says US Wasted Trillions on Wars and Wall Street

January 22, 2017
Chinese Billionaire Says US Wasted Trillions on Wars and Wall Street

LAUREN MCCAULEY - "In the past 30 years, America had 13 wars spending $2 trillion," said Alibaba founder Jack Ma. "What if the money was spent on the Midwest of the United States?" Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Wednesday, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma accused the United States of spending too...

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Posted in Big Picture, January 2017 | No Comments »

We’re There! Renewables Now Cheapest Unsubsidized Electricity in U.S.

January 2, 2017
We’re There! Renewables Now Cheapest Unsubsidized Electricity in U.S.

STEPHEN EDELSTEIN - Over the past few years, the cost of electricity generation from renewable-energy sources has decreased dramatically. So much so, that renewable energy may have just hit an important milestone, according to one study. In the U.S., wind and solar power are now cheaper sources of electricity than natural gas—even without subsidies.

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Posted in Big Picture, January 2017 | No Comments »

Climate-Change Effects Happening Faster Than Expected

December 26, 2016
Climate-Change Effects Happening Faster Than Expected

ERIC TEGETHOFF - Many of the effects of climate change scientists did not expect to happen for decades into the future are happening now. According to a new study in the journal Science, researchers found that every ecosystem on Earth is being impacted by a warming globe, from the genetic level up.

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Posted in Big Picture, December 2016 | No Comments »

Détente Now: A New Call for Peace, Security, and Cooperation

December 16, 2016

GILBERT DOCTOROW, UTE FINCKH-KRAMER, LUDGER VOLMER, ROLF EKEUS and NOAM CHOMSKY - A transatlantic appeal for a new policy of détente with Russia has been launched. The declaration’s authors invite the general public to join leading political figures and social activists who have publicly rallied to support the call.

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Posted in Big Picture, December 2016 | No Comments »

Congress Must Drain the Swamp, Not Clog the Drain

December 6, 2016

PRESS RELEASE, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY - Congress must take the shackles off of federal agencies trying to drain the Washington swamp and fix government, nine newly elected members of Congress told their future colleagues in a letter circulated November 28..

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Posted in Big Picture, December 2016 | No Comments »

Governor Kate Brown, West Coast Leaders Reaffirm Commitment to Climate Action

November 22, 2016

NEWS RELEASE, OFFICE OF GOVERNOR KATE BROWN - Oregon Governor Kate Brown, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., Washington Governor Jay Inslee, and British Columbia Premier Christy Clark issue a statement that strongly supports their continuing lead on Climate Change.

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Posted in Big Picture, November 2016 | No Comments »

Fear and Strength in Oregon’s Immigrant Communities Post-Election

November 18, 2016
Fear and Strength in Oregon’s Immigrant Communities Post-Election

ERIC TEGETHOFF - Immigrant communities across Oregon are preparing to take President-elect Donald Trump at his word regarding ramping up deportations during his presidency.

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Posted in Big Picture, November 2016 | No Comments »

First Effect of Trump Win: Al-Qaeda Morale in Aleppo Collapses, Western Campaign against Russian Bombing Ends

November 14, 2016
First Effect of Trump Win: Al-Qaeda Morale in Aleppo Collapses, Western Campaign against Russian Bombing Ends

ALEXANDER MERCOURIS - One place where Donald Trump’s election victory has had an immediate effect is in the battlefield around Aleppo. Reports from the area of the battlefield speak of a total collapse of morale amongst the Al-Qaeda led Jihadi forces which have been attacking the city from the south west, as whatever lingering...

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Posted in Big Picture, November 2016 | No Comments »

Top US General: Hillary’s No Fly Zone Strategy Would ‘Require’ War With Russia

October 23, 2016

SPUTNIK INTERNATIONAL - During testimony before the Senate Committee on Armed Services last week General Joseph Dunford rang the alarm over a policy shift that is gaining more traction within the halls of Washington following the collapse of the ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia in Syria saying that it could result...

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Posted in Big Picture, October 2016 | No Comments »

Justin Trudeau Gives Provinces Until 2018 to Adopt Carbon Price Plan

October 17, 2016
Justin Trudeau Gives Provinces Until 2018 to Adopt Carbon Price Plan

KATHLEEN HARRIS - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took provinces by surprise Monday, October 3, by announcing they have until 2018 to adopt a carbon pricing scheme, or the federal government will step in and impose a price for them.

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Posted in Big Picture, October 2016 | No Comments »

Russia Suspends Weapons-Grade Plutonium Deal with US

October 9, 2016
Russia Suspends Weapons-Grade Plutonium Deal with US

BBC - Russia has suspended an agreement with the US on the disposal of surplus weapons-grade plutonium, the latest sign of worsening bilateral relations.

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Posted in Big Picture, October 2016 | No Comments »

Corporate Profits Are Way Up, Corporate Taxes Are Way Down

October 1, 2016
Corporate Profits Are Way Up, Corporate Taxes Are Way Down

HUNTER BLAIR - Since 1952, corporate profits as a share of the economy have risen dramatically (from 5.5 percent to 8.5 percent), while corporate tax revenues as a share of the economy have plummeted (from 5.9 percent to just 1.9 percent). This trend has worsened since the end of the Great Recession.

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Posted in Big Picture, October 2016 | No Comments »

Massive Insurance Giants Call For End To Fossil Fuel Subsidies

September 9, 2016

KARL MATHIESEN - Climate change is the “mother of all risks” says Aviva CEO, and hundreds of billions in annual government assistance to oil, gas and coal is “simply unsustainable.” Three of the world’s biggest insurers called on G20 leaders to implement a timeframe for the end of fossil fuel subsidies when they met...

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Posted in Big Picture, September 2016 | No Comments »

U.S. Military Contractors Tell Investors Russian Threat Is Great for Business

August 28, 2016
U.S. Military Contractors Tell Investors Russian Threat Is Great for Business

LEE FANG - The escalating anti-Russian rhetoric in the U.S. presidential campaign comes in the midst of a major push by military contractors to position Moscow as a potent enemy that must be countered with a drastic increase in military spending by NATO countries. Weapon makers have told investors that they are relying on...

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Posted in August 2016, Big Picture | No Comments »

Audit: Pentagon Cannot Account For $6.5 Trillion Dollars Is Taxpayer Money

August 24, 2016
Audit: Pentagon Cannot Account For $6.5 Trillion Dollars Is Taxpayer Money

JAY SYRMOPOULOS - A new Department of Defense Inspector General’s report, released last week, has left Americans stunned at the jaw-dropping lack of accountability and oversight. The glaring report revealed the Pentagon couldn’t account for $6.5 trillion dollars worth of Army general fund transactions and data, according to a report by the Fiscal Times....

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Posted in August 2016, Big Picture | No Comments »

‘No First Use’ Nuclear Policy Proposal Assailed by U.S. Cabinet Officials, Allies

August 20, 2016
‘No First Use’ Nuclear Policy Proposal Assailed by U.S. Cabinet Officials, Allies

PAUL SONNE, GORDON LUBOLD, CAROL E. LEE - A proposal under consideration at the White House to reverse decades of U.S. nuclear policy by declaring a “No First Use” protocol for nuclear weapons has run into opposition from top cabinet officials and U.S. allies. The opposition, from Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of...

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Posted in August 2016, Big Picture | No Comments »

Investigators Fool U.S. Nuke Agency Into Providing Material for ‘Dirty Bomb

August 3, 2016
Investigators Fool U.S. Nuke Agency Into Providing Material for ‘Dirty Bomb

ADAM KREDO - Undercover inspectors working for the U.S. Government Accountability Office were able to fool the United States’ top nuclear regulator into granting it licenses to acquire material necessary to build a “dirty bomb,” or crude nuclear device, according to a new oversight report.

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Posted in August 2016, Big Picture | No Comments »

Momentum Builds for Nuclear Ban Treaty

June 4, 2016

KINGSTON REIF - A growing number of non-nuclear-weapon states are expressing support for the immediate commencement of negotiations on a legally binding agreement to prohibit nuclear weapons, despite strong opposition from those states that possess nuclear weapons and many U.S. allies. The contentious debate over how best to advance nuclear disarmament occurred at a...

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Posted in Big Picture, June 2016 | No Comments »

NATO’s Dangerous Game: Bear-Baiting Russia

May 13, 2016
NATO’s Dangerous Game: Bear-Baiting Russia

CONN HALLINAN - “Aggressive,” “revanchist,” “swaggering”: These are just some of the adjectives the mainstream press and leading U.S. and European political figures are routinely inserting before the words “Russia,” or “Vladimir Putin.” It is a vocabulary most Americans have not seen or heard since the height of the Cold War. The question is,...

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Posted in Big Picture, May 2016 | No Comments »

Iraq Today: Can We Feel the Heat?

May 1, 2016

CATHY BREEN - Outwardly everything seemed so normal that at first I forgot I was with people now counted among the hundreds of thousands who are internally displaced in Iraq. In the next couple of hours, though, we would hear many tragic stories that would dispel any thought of “normalcy.”

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Posted in Big Picture, May 2016 | No Comments »

For First Time, Majority in U.S. Oppose Nuclear Energy

April 1, 2016
For First Time, Majority in U.S. Oppose Nuclear Energy

REBECCA RIFFKIN - For the first time since Gallup first asked the question in 1994, a majority of Americans say they oppose nuclear energy. The 54% opposing it is up significantly from 43% a year ago, while the 44% who favor using nuclear energy is down from 51%.

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Posted in April 2016, Big Picture | No Comments »

33,480 Americans Dead After 70 Years of Atomic Weaponry

March 30, 2016

NUKEWATCH QUARTERLY - The U.S. government has compensated over 52,000 nuclear workers for illnesses related to radiation exposure, but the process is complicated. Deaths resulting from exposure while working at the factories and the compensation process for survivors begs the question: How much is a life worth? As the death toll mounts, nuclear weapons...

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Posted in Big Picture, March 2016 | No Comments »

7 Top NRC Experts Break Ranks to Warn of Critical Danger at Aging Nuke Plants

March 12, 2016
7 Top NRC Experts Break Ranks to Warn of Critical Danger at Aging Nuke Plants

HARVEY WASSERMAN - Seven top Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) experts have taken the brave rare step of publicly filing an independent finding warning that nearly every U.S. atomic reactor has a generic safety flaw that could spark a disaster. The warning mocks the latest industry push to keep America’s remaining 99 nukes from being...

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Posted in Big Picture, March 2016 | No Comments »

Future of Draft for Men and Women Goes to Court and Congress

March 2, 2016

EDWARD HASBROUCK - On Friday the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that had dismissed the complaint in National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System. The Court of Appeals reinstated the complaint, and remanded the case to the U.S. District Court for consideration...

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Posted in Big Picture, March 2016 | No Comments »

Fukushima in Deep Nuclear Trouble

February 29, 2016

ROBERT HUNZIKER - The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster may go down as one of history’s boundless tragedies and not just because of a nuclear meltdown, but rather the tragic loss of a nation’s soul.

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Posted in Big Picture, February 2016 | No Comments »

For the First Time Ever, China May Put Its Nuclear Arsenal on High Alert

February 27, 2016
For the First Time Ever, China May Put Its Nuclear Arsenal on High Alert

ELLIOT NEGIN - China's military wants to put its relatively small nuclear arsenal on hair-trigger alert for the first time, according to newly translated documents. That's not good. Such a radical departure from the country's longtime nuclear policy could pose a threat not only to the United States, but to China itself.

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Posted in Big Picture, February 2016 | No Comments »

Israel Receives Fifth German Nuclear-Capable Submarine

January 30, 2016

PRESSTV - The Israeli regime has received of a fifth submarine from Germany, amid pressure on Berlin to halt the delivery of the state-of-the-art weaponry that is capable of being armed with nuclear warheads.

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Posted in Big Picture, January 2016 | No Comments »

The Tragedy of Al Jazeera America’s Demise

January 26, 2016
The Tragedy of Al Jazeera America’s Demise

ARI PAUL - Skeptics said it wouldn’t last, and they were right. On January 13, the world learned that Al Jazeera America would soon close. And while some employees could migrate into the network’s expanded digital operations, many will spend the coming days and weeks looking for new work.

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Posted in Big Picture, January 2016 | No Comments »

Kenyan Muslims Nonviolently Shield Christians in Bus Attack

January 10, 2016
Kenyan Muslims Nonviolently Shield Christians in Bus Attack

BASHKAS JUGSODAAY - A group of Kenyan Muslims travelling on a bus ambushed by Islamist gunmen protected Christian passengers by refusing to be split into groups, according to eyewitnesses.

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Posted in Big Picture, January 2016 | No Comments »

Top U.S.Special Forces Chief: Iraq War was a “Huge Error”

December 17, 2015
Top U.S.Special Forces Chief: Iraq War was a “Huge Error”

PAUL VALE - The former top US Special Forces chief claimed on Sunday, November 29, that blinding emotion after the 9/11 attacks led the United States and its allies to take the wrong strategic decisions to counter al-Qaeda, calling the subsequent Iraq War a “huge error.” The admission by Michael Flynn, made to German...

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Posted in Big Picture, December 2015 | No Comments »

Can Cities Take the Lead on Climate Change?

December 7, 2015
Can Cities Take the Lead on Climate Change?

SAM ROSS-BROWN - As national efforts heading into the Paris summit fall short of averting catastrophic warming, how far cities can go to close the gap is hard to know.

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Posted in Big Picture, December 2015 | No Comments »

Former Drone Operators Say They Were “Horrified” By Cruelty of Assassination Program

December 5, 2015
Former Drone Operators Say They Were “Horrified” By Cruelty of Assassination Program

MURTAZA HUSSAIN - U.S. DRONE OPERATORS are inflicting heavy civilian casualties and have developed an institutional culture callous to the death of children and other innocents, four former operators said at a press briefing in New York.

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Posted in Big Picture, December 2015 | No Comments »