Educate!
Education is the foundation of political change. In this section we provide news and analyses of current events that you won’t likely read or hear in the corporate media. Our sources are from organizations and independent media outlets free of corporate and government propaganda. We strongly encourage you to share these articles by email and social media so that together we create an echo chamber that overcomes the influence of the oligarchy. You will find large social media sharing buttons on the left side of each article when you open the article to read.
A high-ranking Lebanese security source revealed to Al-Akhbar newspaper that the US Ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, is continuing her agenda to prepare Lebanon for a “post-Hezbollah era” by mobilizing “internal” forces against the Islamic resistance movement while it fights the Israeli Army.
In discussions with Lebanese politicians, Johnson reportedly said, “Israel cannot achieve everything through war; it’s time for you to do your part and launch an internal uprising under the banner of ‘Enough.’”
The ambassador added, “The Lebanese people must show their desire to rise up and get rid of Hezbollah and return to the context that emerged after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, especially since the regional, international, and field circumstances are in your favor.”
US Military Makes First Confirmed OpenAI Purchase For Fighting Forces
October 30, 2024
Sam Biddle, Black Agenda Report.
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Artificial Intelligence, OpenAI, Pentagon, US military, Wars and Militarism
Less than a year after OpenAI quietly signaled it wanted to do business with the Pentagon , a procurement document obtained by The Intercept shows U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, believes access to OpenAI’s technology is “essential” for its mission.
The September 30 document lays out AFRICOM’s rationale for buying cloud computing services directly from Microsoft as part of its $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract, rather than seeking another provider on the open market. “The USAFRICOM operates in a dynamic and evolving environment where IT plays a critical role in achieving mission objectives,” the document reads, including “its vital mission in support of our African Mission Partners [and] USAFRICOM joint exercises.”
SADC Calls For ‘Unconditional Lifting’ Of ‘Illegal’ US Sanctions On Zimbabwe
October 30, 2024
Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch.
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Africa, Sanctions, Southern African Development Community (SADC), Unilateral coercive measures, US Imperialism, US Sanctions, Zimbabwe
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has condemned the US-imposed unilateral sanctions on Zimbabwe as “illegal” and a violation of the “basic human rights of ordinary Zimbabweans”. It has also once again called for their “immediate and unconditional removal.”
The regional intergovernmental organization with 16 member states has been observing every October 25 as the SADC Anti-Sanctions Day, after the date was thus designated by the heads of the SADC states at its 39th Summit in August 2019.
“These sanctions have not only affected the people of Zimbabwe and their Government, but the entire region.
Mapped: How Big Industries Hope To Sway The UN Biodiversity Talks
October 30, 2024
Hazel Healy and Rachel Sherrington, DeSmog.
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Activism, Big Ag, Big Pharma, Biodiversity, Colombia, COP16, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Pesticides, Social Justice, United Nations (UN)
Under thundery tropical skies, and amid ever more dire warnings on the precarious state of the world’s ecosystems, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference is unfolding in Colombia.
This year’s summit, known as COP16, follows on from the last biodiversity conference held in Montréal in 2022, when negotiators struck an historic deal – the equivalent of the Paris Agreement on climate change – to “halt and reverse” nature loss.
Now, government representatives from nearly 200 countries, along with scientists, Indigenous groups, and environmental activists, are gathered in the southern city of Cali to negotiate how to put this plan into action: protect earth’s habitats and the people who depend on them.
Israel’s Genocide Day 388: Ongoing Israeli Assault In Northern Gaza
October 29, 2024
Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss.
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Gaza, Genocide, Hospitals, Israel, Palestine, War crimes, Wars and Militarism
The last functioning hospital in northern Gaza has officially stopped functioning after Israeli forces raided it over the weekend, arresting all but two of its medical staff and damaging parts of the hospital premises.
On Saturday, Israeli forces began to raid the hospital, ordering patients and medical staff to leave its wings and descend to the courtyard. Israeli soldiers then separated the men from the women and arrested dozens of Palestinians, including all of the hospital’s staff except one nurse and the hospital’s Director, Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh.
Israeli Lawmakers Vote To Ban UN Agency For Palestinian Refugees
October 29, 2024
News Desk, The Cradle.
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Israel, Palestine, United Nations (UN), United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
The Israeli Knesset on 28 October passed two laws banning the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) from operating inside Israel, Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and occupied East Jerusalem.
In a 92-10 vote, the Knesset approved the first law, which says that the UN agency cannot “operate any institution, provide any service, or conduct any activity, whether directly or indirectly.” Moments later, lawmakers voted 87-9 for the second law, which states that no Israeli government official or agency may contact UNRWA, effectively prohibiting Israeli officials from providing services or dealing with UN employees.
What Is Going On At The International Criminal Court?
October 29, 2024
Mohammad Jamel, Middle East Monitor.
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Accountability, International Criminal Court (ICC), Israel, Palestine, Racism, Western imperialism
The International Criminal Court has never faced such scandalous pressure since its establishment. Even when an arrest warrant was issued against Russian President Vladimir Putin, the head of a nuclear state, we did not see major threats being made against the ICC and its staff as we are seeing now.
The court has been rightfully criticised for its procrastination and slowness over issues linked to Palestine. Since the referral of numerous crimes to the ICC in June this year, the Office of the Chief Prosecutor has not acted at the same level that it has done in other situations, especially in cases related to African countries and Ukraine.
Working People Place Cost Of Living As Top Concern In US Elections
October 29, 2024
Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch.
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2024 US Presidential elections, Cost of living, Donald Trump, Finance and the Economy, Housing, Inflation, Kamala Harris, Poverty, Price Gouging, United States
Just eight days remain until the people of the US head to the polls to decide their next president. The economy and inflation continues to be the top issue for voters by far, with eight in ten registered voters saying the economy will be very important to their vote according to the Pew Research Center. According to Gallup, the economy is the most important out of 22 issues voters were polled on, including “terrorism and national security”, immigration, education, healthcare, and crime.
If one were to read exclusively the mainstream media, one would get the impression that all is well with the economy, that inflation is falling, and the job market is doing just fine.
What Venezuelans Think About Their Presidential Election
October 29, 2024
Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance.
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Elections, US Interference, US Sanctions, Venezuela
It’s been nearly three months since the Venezuelans went to the polls on July 28, and there is still contention domestically and abroad regarding the winner of the presidential election. This is not unexpected.
The US has not recognized the legitimacy of the previous two presidential elections in Venezuela and had announced way before this election that if Washington’s chosen candidate lost, it could only be because of fraud.
The official Venezuelan electoral authority (CNE) declared incumbent President Nicolás Maduro the winner with 52% of the vote. The nearest contender, the US-backed Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, got 43% of the vote.
Are Railroads Slowly Committing Suicide?
October 29, 2024
David Sparkman, Material Handling and Logistics.
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Privatization, Public Rail, Railroads, Staffing
North America’s remaining six major freight railroads appear to be committing slow motion suicide, according to testimony offered by rail customers, industry analysts and labor to regulators on the Surface Transportation Board (STB) at two days of public hearings held last month.
STB Chairman Robert E. Primus contended that the industry’s growth has not measured up to all of the opportunities that were presented to it over the past seven years, after Wall Street activist investors ignited the fad of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), an operations model sold to investors as a Holy Grail by prioritizing squeezing out costs over growing the business, and which has persisted since gaining widespread acceptance among investors in 2017.
Israel And Its Neighborhood, An Interview With Ambassador Chas Freeman
October 28, 2024
Patrick Lawrence, Scheer Post.
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Brazil, BRICS, China, India, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Russia, South Africa
A German newspaper recently published an interview with the Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, who expressed his profound frustration with the Americans as Israel continues its assault in Gaza—and now the West Bank and Lebanon. You can’t work with the Americans, he complained in so many words. They say one thing, they rarely mean it, and typically do something else altogether.
It prompts my first question in the context of the enlarging crisis in West Asia, please comment on the diplomatic positions of America’s allies in the region. What, generally, is going through their minds? Why haven’t they reacted more vigorously to the Israeli assault? Are they simply “bought,” in one or another way? Or is there more to it?
How Russia Is Overwhelming Ukrainian Frontlines
There seems to be a bit of a panic along the Ukrainian front lines. Several units, for lack of men, have recently left positions they were supposed to hold. The daily progress of the Russian forces along the line is increasing.
The medium level of the Ukrainian military seems to understand that their defense is breaking down.
Xi Jinping: Global South Countries March Together To Modernisation
October 28, 2024
Friends of Socialist China.
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BRICS, China, Global South, History, Multipolarity, Russia, Xi Jinping
The summit meeting of the BRICS cooperation mechanism was held, October 22-24, in Kazan, the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation, and was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Alongside dozens of other events within its framework, the summit of the nine full members of BRICS was held on October 23, under the theme “Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security”. This was the first such gathering in which Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were joined by Ethiopia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran, since the 2023 summit meeting held in South Africa invited the latter four countries to take up full membership in the first wave of BRICS expansion.
Chris Hedges: Israel’s War On Journalism
October 27, 2024
Chris Hedges, Scheer Post.
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Censorship, Israel, Journalism, Palestine, Repression, Suppression
There are some 4,000 foreign reporters accredited in Israel to cover the war. They stay in luxury hotels. They go on dog and pony shows orchestrated by the Israeli military. They can, on rare occasions, be escorted by Israeli soldiers on lightning visits to Gaza, where they are shown alleged weapons caches or tunnels the military says are used by Hamas. They dutifully attend daily press conferences. They are given off-the-record briefings by senior Israeli officials who feed them information that often turns out to be untrue. They are Israel’s unwitting and sometimes witting propagandists, stenographers for the architects of apartheid and genocide, hotel room warriors.
Microsoft Fires Employees Over Gaza Vigil; Tech Giants Face Scrutiny
October 27, 2024
Palestine Chronicle.
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Gaza, Israel, Microsoft, No Tech for Apartheid, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Retaliation, Worker Rights and Jobs
Microsoft recently fired two employees who organized a vigil at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to remember Palestinians killed amid Israel’s ongoing genocide on Gaza, the Associated Press reported.
According to the employees, they were dismissed over the phone late on Thursday, following a lunchtime gathering they had planned on the company campus.
AP reported that “both workers were members of a coalition of employees called ‘No Azure for Apartheid’ that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli government.”
Tuesday’s event, however, was reportedly similar to other charitable campaigns organized within the company to aid communities in crisis.