The worst drought in China in 60 years is threatening its wheat crop and leading many to worry about the potential effects on already high global food prices. According to The New York Times: “China has been essentially self-sufficient in grain for decades, for national security reasons. Any move by China to import large quantities […]
I’ve written many times about the “despicable practice” of mountaintop removal mining. (Al Gore called it that – and he couldn’t be more right.) There’s an op-ed in the NY Times today from one of the co-authors of a new book: Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal. Silas House remind us in “My Polluted Kentucky […]
Female child combatants are overlooked both in the media, as well as in the rehabilitation process. All too often, female child soldiers are also expected to perform sexual services for older male soldiers; in many countries of conflict, girls in armed forces are claimed by militia leaders as “wives.” The use of child soldiers in armed conflict […]
Food security is sometimes only thought of in terms of the availability of food, but the preparation of food is an important part of ensuring its safety and nutrition. The United Nations Foundation is leading an initiative called the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves to draw attention to the 1.9 million deaths that occur each […]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced that the U.S. State Department plans to spend $25 million this year on initiatives designed to protect bloggers and help them get around curbs like the Great Firewall of China. She also added, “Those who clamp down on internet freedom may be able to hold back the full […]
I took a tour today of NYU’s new trigeneration plant: It’s “tri” because it produces electricity, heat and hot water, and chilled water for air conditioning. It’s a great facility, well thought out and executed. It’s state of the art. It provides 13.4 MW of electricity and that which isn’t used by the school is […]
Joshua Pollack at Arms Control Wonk predicts that the IAEA is preparing to refer the Syria situation to the UN Security Council. The situation has been strange since it began in September 2007, when Israel bombed a suspected nuclear facility in Syria. The initial Syrian response was to denounce the Israeli violation of Syria’s sovereignty […]
The sequence of events that occurred on February 15th and ended in the murder of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata and in the shooting of Special Agent Victor Avila are as follows–evidence that the attack on two US federal agents was premeditated and planned, not a case of ‘being in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ or an incident triggered by the desire of the assailants to hijack a valuable vehicle.
If you’re going to be around NYC next Tuesday night, do yourself a favor and come to this event, organized by NYU’s Center for Global Affairs (where I teach) and the state of Navarra (in Spain). It’s free and should be compelling. Register here.
SparkAction!, a national youth news site, has just launched a unique open-source democracy contest. The contest coincides with the United States Department of Education’s (ED) Voices in Action: National Youth Summit, which will be held in Washington, D.C., on February 26, 2011. Summit registration filled up in 48 hours, but through the contest, young people […]
President Obama has promised Zapata’s family that the US government will spare no effort to bring the Mexican gunman responsible for the attack to justice, and Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, has express outrage, declaring “The full resources of our department are at the disposal of our Mexican partners in this investigation.”
Given the dearth of substantive press coverage on both side of the border, and the muted attitude of US officials toward Mexico’s efforts to curb drug trafficking and cartel violence over the past five years—during which roughly 38,000 people have been killed, including scores of US citizens—the vocalization of even these stylized objections is noteworthy.
Years ago President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a State of the Union address in which he articulated four basic freedoms that people all over the world should have: freedom of speech and expression; freedom of worship; freedom from want; and, freedom from fear. Now, after witnessing the world’s first political revolution inspired and organized with […]
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