Last Monday night Israeli fighter jets executed airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip for the ninth night in a row in an act that may be another on Israel’s long list of possible war crimes.
Israeli leaders characterized the actions as retaliatory, naming Gazan “incendiary balloons” and “riots” as justification.
French President, Emmanuel Macron, is in no position to pontificate to Lebanon about the need for political and economic reforms. Just as thousands of Lebanese took to the streets of Beirut demanding “revenge” against the ruling classes, the French people have relentlessly been doing the same; both peoples have been met with police violence and arrests.
The U.S. Military-Industrial complex is sprinting on a chariot to shore up the encryption space before the next era of computation upends the entire digital edifice built on semiconductors and transistors. But, the core of the effort is protecting markets for Big Tech and all of its tentacles, which stand to lose years or even decades of profits should the new tech be rolled out too quickly.
Should Trump fail to carry the Electoral College, Noam Chomsky admonishes, “he could send Blackshirts out in the streets… preparation for a plan to try to bring the military in to carry out something which would amount to a military coup.”
A decision by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that Chad Wolf, the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and his deputy, Ken Cuccinelli are ineligible to serve in their respective roles, throwing the most powerful U.S.
To the dismay of many Americans, Congress and the Senate adjourned until September, meaning that any coronavirus relief package is still, at least, many weeks away. As a result, a growing number of Americans are calling for a general strike, the topic trending on social media this weekend.
In October 2019, Ecuador’s president Lenin Moreno announced a new round of austerity measures. As the cost of gasoline, diesel, transport and food skyrocketed in the wake of his announcement, the national strike quickly transformed into mass protests. I was in the heart of Ecuador’s capital, Quito, as riot police, tanks, untold amounts of tear gas, and the full gamut of the security apparatus was deployed against demonstrators.
The latest chapter in the sometimes Orwellian world of Middle Eastern politics occurred this weekend, as the Trump administration, which unilaterally walked away from Obama’s Iran deal, attempted to convince the world to enact a global arms embargo on the Islamic Republic, citing the very treaty it had itself destroyed.
No words can appropriately describe the horror that has befallen Beirut. Whether this massive explosion was the result of reckless negligence, stupidity, an act of terrorism, or a combination of all of the above – it was horrifying. As the people of Beirut pick up the pieces, our thoughts and our hearts are with them. And indeed, expressions of love and sympathy can be found on social media from people throughout the world.
Social media giant YouTube announced yesterday a host of new measures it says are aimed at preventing any interference in the upcoming presidential elections. Chief among the list it wrote on its blog, is “removing content that contains hacked information, the disclosure of which may interfere with democratic processes, such as elections and censuses.” An example it gives, would be deleting “videos that contain hacked information about a political candidate.”
