Americas edi 001 pol

Build Bikes, Not Walls: a Reflection on Open Borders

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 19:00:35 +0900

Build Bikes, Not Walls: a Reflection on Open Borders

It was August 2019, and I was at Imperial Beach, south of San Diego. Five hundred miles away (seemingly) was Tijuana and a hulking border wall that juts out more than 100 feet into the foaming Pacific Ocean. Before I knew it, my (almost) four-year-old was making a beeline for the wall. Above us, a More

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articles 2015 Leading Article

Why Are Moderna’s Billionaires Airbrushing Scientists Out of the Vaccine Patent Picture?

Americas edi 001 pol

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 18:59:56 +0900

Why Are Moderna’s Billionaires Airbrushing Scientists Out of the Vaccine Patent Picture?

Moderna, the world’s hottest new Big Pharma giant, now has four of its top players sitting on the annual Forbes list of America’s 400 richest. In early 2020, Moderna had none. Moderna’s Forbes 400 billionaire quartet owes its current good fortune completely to the company’s Covid-19 vaccine. And who made that vaccine possible? U.S. taxpayers. More

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articles 2015 Leading Article

Why is the U.S. Fueling the November 15 Cuba Protests?

Americas edi 001 pol

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 18:57:55 +0900

Why is the U.S. Fueling the November 15 Cuba Protests?

The Biden administration has interpreted the combined effect of the pandemic, the global crisis and the economic blockade—plus the 243 additionalmeasures imposed by the former U.S. President Donald Trump—as exceptional conditions that have hit Cuba even harder. No spies are required to realize that there are more queues, inflation and shortages in a country that has been managing shortages for 60 years, but it is also important to understand that the march does not have popular support within the country. Cuba is returning to normalcy with the opening of flights, families reuniting after being separated for two years, the return of students to schools and the revival of the national economy. More

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articles 2015 Leading Article

The Woody Biomass Blunder

Americas edi 001 pol

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 18:56:57 +0900

The Woody Biomass Blunder

As of 2020, 60% of the EU’s renewable energy mix comes from burning wood pellets, and that’s up by 50% from only six years ago. The EU can’t get enough of the stuff. Superimposed on top of the EU’s gargantuan appetite for wood pellets, both Japan and South Korea are switching coal to woody biomass, the world’s new growth story. More

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articles 2015 Leading Article

Roaming Charges: Split Identity Politics

Americas edi 001 pol

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 19:05:23 +0900

Roaming Charges: Split Identity Politics

Here they come: James Carville, Paul Begala, Mark Penn, Andrew Stein, and the rest of the doddering pack of “New Democrats” from the Clinton era, exploiting the loss of their pal Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, to decry the alleged “wokist” takeover of the Democratic Party, “wokism” being the latest K Street slang to refer to any progressive policy that the US Chamber of Commerce finds objectionable. More

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articles 2015 Leading Article Roaming Charges

Let the Sun Shine: Making Solar Power Work

Americas edi 001 pol

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 19:00:47 +0900

Let the Sun Shine: Making Solar Power Work

Now that the dust has settled on the COP26 Glasgow meeting, can we say anything has changed? The powers-that-be tell us there are pledges for 85% reduction in deforestation, reduced methane emissions in 80 countries, and an end to financing of overseas fossil-fuel projects by some countries. There was even a call for more US-China cooperation, despite one leader slagging off the other’s no-show. Alas, all a little vague with no enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance. More

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articles 2015 Leading Article

Facing Climate Collapse at the Eleventh Hour

Americas edi 001 pol

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 18:58:53 +0900

Facing Climate Collapse at the Eleventh Hour

Coal baron Manchin singlehandedly pulled the teeth out of Biden’s climate program, embedded in his now neutered reconciliation bill. Too bad the Dems didn’t strip Manchin of his committee assignments and chairmanship and, as suggested recently in CounterPunch, stop the massive flow of federal funds to West Virginia. That’s what Lyndon Baines Johnson would have done. But then, to do all that today the Dems and Biden would have actually WANTED to succeed, which, in truth, they’re allergic to. More

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articles 2015 Leading Article

The Forty Years War: Tariq Ali and Afghanistan

Americas edi 001 pol

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 18:58:16 +0900

The Forty Years War: Tariq Ali and Afghanistan

Warring factions, shifting alliances, the incomptence and corruption of the Karzai regime installed by the US, all this and more was kept from reporters or, we may guess, most did not want to know. The billions of dollars of aid never reached ordinary Afghanis, quite the reverse: the rich became richer while the poor suffered more and more deprivations. The NGOs, swarming but taking their orders from afar, living within heaquarters and constructed neighborhoods with no relation to the rest of the country, soon had to hire mercernaries to protect then when they ventured outward. More

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articles 2015 Leading Article

Day of the Dead

Americas edi 001 pol

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 19:00:53 +0900

Day of the Dead

Over the history of life in Earth, 99.9% of all species that have existed are now extinct. That makes the remaining ones all the more valuable and unique – these are the survivors, the ones who figured it out. They are also the species that may evolve into future life forms. Millions of species exist (the actual number is unknown), but we have supercharged extinction through our exploitation of the Earth, causing extinction rates 1,000 to 10,000 times the natural “background” rate. More

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articles 2015 Leading Article

Xenophobic Attitudes in France, Sweden, Germany, and Poland

Americas edi 001 pol

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 18:59:38 +0900

Xenophobic Attitudes in France, Sweden, Germany, and Poland

Perhaps ever since the Romans appeared in German woods, stroppy Germans from the hinterland have had a xenophobic streak. Feasibly, the Thirty Years’ War of 1618 to 1648 and its senseless mass killings did not help either. Of course, Germany’s 19th and 20th century’s right-wing elites never shied away from conjuring up xenophobia supporting two More

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articles 2015 Leading Article