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Washington: March into the United Nations, name-calling and threatening destruction, and the chances are there’ll be push-back. Paul McGeough The Age Going one up on George W. Bush’s three-strong “axis of evil”, US President Donald Trump went after a four-strong “small group of rogue regimes” in his first speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. The inward rhetoric of his campaign notwithstanding, Trump issued a contradictory demand for patriotism and sovereignty for all nations that would be policed by his administration. If he ... Read More »

On April 29, the Turkish government announced that it completely blocked Wikipedia over the online encyclopedia’s refusal to delete articles and comments that suggest that Ankara is co-operating with terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. Uzay Bulut Philos Project Despite multiple requests by Turkish officials, Wikipedia refused to take down the content the Turkish government objected to. In response, Turkish authorities blocked online access to Wikipedia in all languages across the country. Wikipedia continues to be blocked ... Read More »

Aung San Suu Kyi’s moral conscience has seemingly taken a backseat to cold, hard politics. Michael Kugelman  The plight of the Rohingya community is truly one of the saddest stories of our times. The National Interest It is a tragic tale of perpetual persecution, major marginalization and mass migration. In Burma, where this Muslim community’s numbers are the highest—about a million, according to most estimates—its members are denied citizenship and land. They also live on the fringes of society in India and ... Read More »

Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced “Medicare for all” legislation, which would enroll all Americans into the nation’s Medicare program within four years. LANHEE J. CHEN and MICAH WEINBERG The New York Times Senator Sanders, the Vermont independent, argues that his proposal would create a system that “works not just for millionaires and billionaires, but for all of us.” Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and over a dozen of their Senate Democratic colleagues have co-sponsored the legislation. ... Read More »

Norway’s giant pension fund is now worth over $1 trillion. Yes, 1 followed by 12 zeros. The fund’s managers announced Tuesday that currency shifts had helped push its value above $1 trillion for the first time. Ivana Kottasová CNN “The growth in the fund’s market value has been stunning,” fund chief Yngve Slyngstad said in a statement. “I don’t think anyone expected the fund to ever reach $1 trillion when the first transfer of oil revenue was made in May ... Read More »

Modern slavery and child labour New data reveal that the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal Target 8.7, will not be achieved unless efforts to fight modern slavery and child labour are dramatically increased. ILO NEW YORK (ILO News) – New research developed jointly by the International Labour Organization (ILO)1  and the Walk Free Foundation2 , in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM)3 , has revealed the true scale of modern slavery around the world. The data, released during the ... Read More »

More than 150 million children, or nearly one in 10 globally, are victims of forced labor and progress in reducing that number has slowed, a leading United Nations’ anti-slavery group said on Sept. 19. Reuters Hurriyet Nearly half of children in forced labor do hazardous work and more than a third do not go to school, said a report by the U.N. labor agency, the International Labour Organization (ILO). Although the number of child laborers has fallen by 94 million ... Read More »

Exclusive: Rohingya sent to detention island in Papua New Guinea pressured to return to Myanmar, where thousands have fled ethnic persecution Oliver Holmes and Ben Doherty The Guardian Australia is promising thousands of dollars to Rohingya refugees who agree to return to Myanmar, a country that has been accused of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim minority. Asylum seekers in the Australian-run detention centre on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, have been pressured by officials to return to their home countries, ... Read More »

Efforts to reunify Libya after six years of internal strife have drifted. Global and regional powers should seize the opportunity of a high-level UN meeting on Libya and a new UN special envoy to speak with one voice and act to build an effective and inclusive peace process. ICG On 20 September, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, will chair a high-level meeting on Libya on the side-lines of the General Assembly. After a long period of drift ... Read More »

Study finds excessive levels of the metal, which can seriously harm unborn children, in women from Alaska to Indonesia, due to gold mining, industrial pollution and fish-rich diets Damian Carrington The Guardian Women of childbearing age from around the world have been found to have high levels of mercury, a potent neurotoxin which can seriously harm unborn children. The new study, the largest to date, covered 25 of the countries with the highest risk and found excessive levels of the ... Read More »

French reporter Loup Bureau, who had been held on “terror” charges in Turkey in a case that sparked tensions between Ankara and France, arrived in Paris on Sept. 17 after being freed. PARIS – Agence France-Presse Hurriyet Bureau, 27, arrived onboard an Air France jet at Charles de Gaulle Airport on a flight from Istanbul, the campaign group Reporters without Borders (RSF) said in a tweet. After his arrival, he was taken to a VIP suite where he was effusively greeted by his family and friends. ... Read More »

Οι προεδρικές εκλογές στην Κύπρο είναι μια ευκαιρία να γίνει μια εκ βαθέων συζήτηση για το μέλλον αυτού του τόπου. Στέφανος Κωνσταντινίδης * Δεν είναι δυνατόν να ακολουθείται για 43 χρόνια ένας δρόμος που δεν απέδωσε και να υπάρχει αυτή η επιμονή να συνεχιστεί η πεπατημένη. Πενταλιά<link href=’https://www.blogger.com/dyn-css/authorization.css?targetBlogID=7783771417625706945&zx=6d55a395-2faf-46d8-aedd-414b1fc318b2′ rel=’stylesheet’/> Διότι ή στραβός είναι ο γιαλός ή στραβά αρμενίζουμε! Να επανέλθουμε στις διαπραγματεύσεις είναι η επωδός κάποιων. Το θέμα όμως δεν είναι να επανέλθουμε στις διαπραγματεύσεις -που ούτως ή άλλως, αργά ... Read More »

Τη βούληση της Ελλάδας για συνέχιση των συζητήσεων στο πλαίσιο του Κραν Μοντανά, και ειδικότερα των προτάσεων που είχε διατυπώσει στο τέλος ο Γενικός Γραμματέας και με τις οποίες συμφωνεί, υπογράμμισε ο Ελληνας Υπουργός Εξωτερικών, Νίκος Κοτζιάς, μιλώντας στους δημοσιογράφους για το… Ο Φιλελεύθερος – philenews/KYΠΕ “Υπογραμμίσαμε την ανάγκη να διατηρηθεί το κεκτημένο του μοναδικού εγγράφου του ΟΗΕ που έχει κατατεθεί στη διάρκεια της διαπραγμάτευσης την τελευταία βραδιά, για το πλαίσιο μέσα στο όποιο θα εφαρμόζονταν οι αποφάσεις με τις ... Read More »

German voters will pick Angela Merkel again – not because she’ll make the world a better place but because they think she will protect them Natalie Nougayrède The Guardian Britain, France and Germany, the three most populous European countries, will all have held important elections this year – in many ways setting the stage for much of what lies ahead for our part of the world. Election campaigns can sometimes be more telling than the statistical results they actually deliver. ... Read More »

According to the latest Western media revealing reports, the leadership of Ukraine loses the support of both Europe and the United States The West exposes the Ukrainian authorities for corruption. ISF In a recent issue of Focus, a German current affairs magazine, an article was published about the activities of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his entourage: As a result of Euromaidan, some oligarchs were replaced by others, and Ukraine is built out of patronage pyramids, which are based on ... Read More »

Πώς θα συμπεριφερόταν ό μέσος άνθρωπος αν μόλις στα 17 του χρόνια έχανε και τα δυο του πόδια από το γόνατο και κάτω; Ασφαλώς θα ανάλωνε το υπόλοιπο της ζωής του να κλαίει την κακή του μοίρα. Ζήνα Πουλλή Δε συνέβη όμως το ίδιο για το βιοφυσικό μηχανικό καθηγητή στο Media Lab (ιδρυτής Νικόλας Νεγροπόντης) του ΜΙΤ, Hugh Herr, που ηγείται εκεί μιας 40μελούς ερευνητικής ομάδας. Το 1982, σε ηλικία 17 χρονών, ακρωτηριάστηκαν και τα δύο του πόδια λόγω καταστροφής των ... Read More »