Greek Prime Minister and Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras secured the backing of parliament early Thursday for the savage programme of austerity he agreed with eurozone officials last weekend. 

Obtaining passage of the programme was never in doubt. The legislation was …

The US Defense Department (DOD) officially began continental-scale drills across a broad swath of the southern and western United States, including areas of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas on Wednesday.

The drills mark a …

Monsanto has commissioned an industry consultancy firm to review the report of the World Health Organisation’s cancer agency IARC, which said glyphosate is a probable carcinogen.

The consultancy firm, Intertek, was formerly known as Cantox.

Intertek says on its website, …

On May 26, 2014 Narendra Modi was sworn as the 16th Prime Minister of India – «the largest democracy of the world».

Long before it happened experts had been saying that Modi’s coming to power would mean a more independent …

VIENNA – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today urged Turkish authorities to reform laws that endanger free expression and media freedom, following the release of an updated study on imprisoned journalists.

“There are 21 members of …

Here’s AIPAC’s statement:

“AIPAC Statement on Proposed Iran Nuclear Agreement

“AIPAC has consistently supported diplomatic efforts to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program,”

Except when lobbying for ever greater sanctions that would have blocked the negotiations, and even for a US …

— Bani-Sadr says Iran was trying for a nuclear bomb until 2003

— He says “mismanagement and corruption” plague the country

— He calls current government “despotic”

— He says winners in nuclear deal are “Israel, Saudi Arabia and their

During the 14-year Japanese invasion of China, the Chinese suffered more than 35 million military and nonmilitary casualties, accounting for a third of the total casualties of all the countries in World War II.

Military casualties during the invasion totaled …

Abortion giant Planned Parenthood is facing harsh criticism after the release of footage allegedly showing its top doctor describing how the organization offers body parts from aborted babies for money.

“A lot of people want intact hearts these days, they’re …

The Iraqi Government officially announced the start of military operations to “recapture Anbar” in western Iraq from ISIS. Although the announcement did not detail the nature of these operations, ISIS’s positions in the province are entrenched and distributed, challenging military …

Tears flowed freely at the memorial held in Kuala Lumpur on 11 July 2015 to remember the victims of the MH 17 tragedy — the Malaysian airline that was blown out of the skies a year ago on 17 July …

Film by Harald Schumann, Árpád Bondy

What is happening in Europe in the name of the troika? A must-see for anyone who wants to understand the situation in Greece.

The European Union and International Monetary Fund have lent more than …

As Netanyahu prepares to fight the Iran agreement in Congress, Israel is further planning talks to receives financial compensation from the US for the deal. Having it both ways?

Israeli leaders were not surprised by Tuesday’s announcement of a deal …

This article by former Finance Minister Prof. Varoufakis was first published in November 2014

Tim Geithner is now on the public record,[1] confirming that which we have always known: In February 2010, clueless as to the Euro Crisis that …

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigned after being pushed out – replaced by Euclid Tsakalotos. 

After leaving, he said he’s no longer under “incredible pressure to negotiate for a position I find difficult to defend…”

He cited the “complete lack of …

The Arabian Peninsula has been trapped in a time warp for nearly a century, thanks to the House of Saud and indomitable Western support.  Some may find it curious, browsing the US State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) website, …

Glyphosate is “definitely genotoxic”, says Prof Chris Portier, a co-author of the report by the World Health Organisation’s cancer agency, which classed glyphosate as a probable carcinogen

Prof Christopher Portier, one of the co-authors of the recent report by the …

After the California State Legislature passed SB277, which forces all children attending school or daycare to be vaccinated, it was clear that this state was on the road to medical tyranny. Unfortunately, it’s hard to say where that road …

This article was first published by WhoWhatWhy.

Convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev might face additional charges related to the Watertown shootout and the murder of MIT cop Sean Collier. That is, if Middlesex County District Attorney Marian T. …

The speech delivered early in the morning of July 11 by Zoe Konstantopoulou, president of the Greek parliament, on the question of the government’s proposal to the creditor institutions.

Ladies and gentlemen,

At times like these we must act …

All of Europe, and insouciant Americans and Canadians as well, are put on notice by Syriza’s surrender to the agents of the One Percent. The message from the collapse of Syriza is that the social welfare system throughout the West …

The Euro Summit statement (or Terms of Greece’s Surrender – as it will go down in history) follows, annotated by yours truly. The original text is untouched with my notes confined to square brackets (and in red). Read and weep… …

The spirits of the more than 2,000 Palestinians who were killed in Israel’s 50-day military operation against Gaza last summer have been immortalized in the posters that have emerged from the conflict. The online Palestine Poster Project Archives contains more …

It’s not a done deal yet. It has miles to go with stiff congressional and Israeli opposition. 

A previous article discussed Netanyahu and AIPAC vowing in less than so many words to undermine what was achieved. Expect them going all-out …

Image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations in 2012, drawing his own “red line” on how far he will let Iran go in refining nuclear fuel.

In a rare rebuke to his bullying, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin …

Overwhelming Greek debt is a time bomb sure to explode. It’s unsustainable. It’s just a question of when the Hellenic Republic implodes – crushed under the weight of a deepening financial burden no nation can bear indefinitely – especially ones …

The crushing Greek debt could be canceled the way it was made – by sleight of hand. But saving the Greek people and their economy is evidently not in the game plan of the Eurocrats.

Greece’s creditors have finally brought …

President Gerald R. Ford and the Shah of Iran confer over a map during the Shah’s May 1975 visit to Washington, D.C. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger sits in the background. (Photo courtesy of Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library)

Washington, …

Acting Greens leader, Senator Scott Ludlam, made statements last week that are noteworthy not only for their content, but for the fact that they generated absolutely no controversy or debate within the Australian media and political establishment.

Ludlam was a …

Only days before the first anniversary of the killing of Eric Garner by a police chokehold in the borough of Staten Island, the New York City Comptroller announced a $5.9 million settlement with his family this past Monday.

The death …

We all know that biotech lobbyists spend millions of dollars influencing the political agenda, but the former CEO of Stonyfield Farms and a public supporter of GMO labeling just hosted a $2700-per-person fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in his own home. …

Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far right Front National party. (Rémi Noyon/Flickr)

French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen is attempting to win the favor of Israel lobby groups for her far-right Front National party.

According to the …

An alarming recent report revealed not only that prominent psychologists colluded with the Department of Defense and CIA to create a framework of justification for appalling and inexcusable torture, but the person heading that partnership was none other than Stephen …

It’s a horrifying prospect:  Greece may have to sell it’s ancient ruins and sights in Athens and elsewhere, as well as nature preserves, and islands as part of it’s deal under the new bailout agreement.  People are very rattled at …

A German company was found to be the biggest tax evader in Greece. A court in Athens found that Hochtief, the German company that was running the “Eleftherios Venizelos” Athens International airport was not paying VAT for 20 years. It …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi dismissed media reports claiming that Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have reached an agreement which allows access to Iran’s military centers.

“In the inked …

On Wednesday July 15th, 2015, the Senate will vote on a measure that would require social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to report suspected terrorist activity to Federal authorities. This is part of the Intelligence Authorization Act …

For the United States to sit and talk and come to an agreement with a nation it has been antagonizing and demonizing since the dictator it installed in 1953 was overthrown in 1979 is historic and, I hope, precedent setting. …

A new FAIR study finds that NPR‘s regular commentary is dominated by white men, predominantly addresses arts and culture, and almost never touches directly on political issues.

This study reviewed transcripts from January 1 to May 31, 2015, looking …

Shanghai’s Bull Statue on Its Bund Waterfront (left); Bull Statue in Lower Manhattan (right)

Remember the Super SIV, also known as the Master Liquidity Enhancement Conduit or MLEC? That was a 2007 scheme in the U.S. to create a toxic …

Image: Funeral of eight members of the Abu Jarad family in Beit Hanoun, July 19, 2014

One year has passed since Israel began its devastating assault on the occupied and besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip. The 50-day attack, which killed more …

Years of talks brought fruition. It’s all over except for Iran’s continued struggle to be accepted unconditionally as a member in good standing in the world community of nations.

A first step requires full implementation of agreed on terms – …

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, also known as HAARP is to be transferred from military operation to “civillian control”, as the site is handed over to the University of Alaska, which will continue to use the mysterious facility …

A report released by the United Nations on Monday reveals a sobering reality of the ongoing war in Iraq: civilians are being targeted en masse. The data shows that the Iraqi conflict has resulted in at least 15,000 civilian deaths …

The overall percentage of U.S. crop acreage exposed to chemical insecticides is significantly higher than regulatory authorities are claiming, warns a shocking new report released by the Center for Food Safety (CFS). Data compiled by scientists from Pennsylvania State University …

Image: Yanis Varoufakis feels “on top of the world” now his part in the crisis talks is over. Photo: Getty

 The full transcript of the former Greek Finance Minister’s first interview since resigning.

This conversation took place before the deal.…

‘Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely called the deal an “historic surrender”. She said on Twitter that Israel would “act with all means to try and stop the agreement being ratified”, a clear threat to try to use its influence …

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2016 US presidential election, presented an unabashedly right wing, pro-business economic program Monday in a major policy speech.

Speaking at the New School for Social …

A diagnosis of cancer is devastating. But cancer sufferers who have followed medical provider advice to undergo treatment with so-called cancer-fighting drugs may have unknowingly been exposed to the additional risk of stroke or other life-threatening medical event.

Why is …

The fallout continues in Puerto Rico’s debt crisis following the June 29 announcement by Governor Alejandro García Padilla that the US commonwealth’s $73 billion debt is “not payable.”

Puerto Rico’s non-voting member of the US House of Representatives, Pedro Pierluisi …

“Valuable Greek assets of [EUR 50 bn] shall be transferred to an existing external and independent fund like the Institution for Growth in Luxembourg, to be privatized and decrease debt.”

The idea of a foreign fund in Luxemburg, with up …

Personally, like most of you, I always thought Germany, besides all its other talents, good or bad, was a nation of solid calculus and accounting. Gründlichkeit. And that they knew a thing or two about psychology. But I stand corrected.…

Image: Still from RT video

New data shows that America’s war in Afghanistan is costing taxpayers roughly $4 million an hour, despite the Obama administration’s drawdown of troops leaving only 10,000 soldiers in the country.

Despite the colossal cost, the …

South African Communist Party (SACP) leaders held a special congress July 7-11 where a broad discussion was held on the contemporary situation inside the country as well as internationally.

As a close ally of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) …

Michigan residents still subjected to health hazards and termination of service

On July 10 the state water march ended in Flint. This demonstration which lasted for one week was organized under the theme “CLEAN, AFFORDABLE WATER FOR ALL: Detroit to …

The Connecticut General Assembly last week passed legislation banning toxic lawn pesticides on municipal playgrounds, effective October 1, 2015. In the omnibus budget implementation Bill 1502 at Section 448 (p.563 at line 17579). The bill also improves the existing parents’ …

It sounds almost unimaginable, but it isn’t the script of a new Hollywood movie: the Pentagon has literally forced movie producers to turn villains into heroes, add U.S. Military rescues, as well as changing scenes that they deem “sensitive.”

Producers …

Your mobile phone is not only a carcinogenic, radiation emitting device, but may alter the structure and function of the brain, including brain wave activity that is intimately connected to cognition, mood and behavior.  

A concerning new clinical study published …

KPL plant and fields. © Greenpeace

A flagship rice plantation in Tanzania run by UK investors has allegedly destroyed the livelihoods of local smallholder farmers, driven them into debt and impacted the local environment, according to a new report …

“The Turks have passed by here; all is in ruins and mourning. “

So wrote France’s great writer, Victor Hugo,  of the horrors he had witnessed during the Balkan liberation wars of the 1880’s.  If Hugo were alive today, he …

Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs is raising eyebrows on Wall Street with its unchecked bullish stance on the stock markets in China, as other major Wall Street firms issue investor cautions or take outright negative …

Greece is being systematically raped and pillaged. It’s painful to see how easily powerful monied interests can destroy a nation without firing a shot. Financial war is as cruel and ruthless as naked aggression.

Long-suffering Greeks understand better than establishment …

Image: President Barack Obama and President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine talk after statements to the press following their bilateral meeting at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, Poland, June 4, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Whatever positive …

There’s been a virtual blackout of news from this year’s seventh annual BRICS summit in Ufa, Russia.  None of the mainstream media organizations are covering the meetings or making any attempt to explain what’s going on.  As a result, the …

WikiLeaks last week published more than one million emails from the Italian surveillance malware vendor Hacking Team, shedding further light on the extent of the spying being conducted by governments around the world against their populations.

Emails in the searchable …

In a stepped up effort to provide government spies with “backdoor” access to privately encrypted information, FBI Director James B. Comey gave testimony on July 8 to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and—along with Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian …

Thousands of military veterans will soon divvy up a ten-year installment of about $47.5 million in disability benefits recently awarded by the federal government as compensation for harm caused by exposure to Monsanto’s Agent Orange herbicide.

As many as 2,100 …

A judge recently halted the merging of two of the largest food corporations in the world – Sysco and US Foods. Think of Sysco and US Foods like Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Were they to merge, the global market …

Jeb Bush, one of the leading Republican candidates for the presidency, is in the news again—and not in a good way. During a meeting with the editorial board of the New Hampshire Union Leader, he reportedlysaid the following:

“My …

German newspaper Bild found that the US military used deadly anthrax spores in chemical weapons defense training on a military base in Germany.

U.S. officials said the CIA has trained and equipped nearly 10,000 fighters sent into Syria over the past several years — meaning that the agency is spending roughly $100,000 per year for every anti-Assad rebel…

The United States has been …

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov says that authorities in Kiev are driving the country into the depths of economic depression, while brainwashing ordinary Ukrainians into believing that their political predecessors and ‘Russian aggression’ are to blame for their troubles.…

An historic betrayal has consumed Greece. Having set aside the mandate of the Greek electorate, the Syriza government has willfully ignored last week’s landslide “No” vote and secretly agreed a raft of repressive, impoverishing measures in return for a “bailout” …

My late uncle Muhammed Abu Louz and his 2-year-old son. My uncle was killed during the 51-day attack on Gaza in 2014.

I can almost hear my dad’s voice breaking in tears and echoing in my ears when I called …

Article to Appear in Die Zeit on Thursday 16th July 2015

Pre-publication summary: Five months of intense negotiations between Greece and the Eurogroup never had a chance of success. Condemned to lead to impasse, their purpose was to pave the …