Q&A with Sheena Josselyn who is a researcher at The Hospital for Sick Children, a professor at the University of Toronto and holds a Canada Research Chair in Brain Mechanisms Underlying Memory, among other positions.
A new report by UN International experts advancing racial justice and equality in policing, published after an official visit to the country, shows that Black people in the US are three times more likely to be killed by police than if they were White, and 4.5 times more likely to be incarcerated....
Blockchain adoption is on the rise in Latin America as citizens in the region are increasingly inclined towards transacting using cryptocurrencies. The trend has been gaining traction since El Salvador became the first nation in the world to adopt Bitcoin as an official form of currency in 2021.
Army Gen. Paul Nakasone said the center would be incorporated into the NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, where it works with private industry and international partners to harden the U.S. defense-industrial base against threats from adversaries led by China and Russia.
The founder of the World Central Kitchen (WCK), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing food and humanitarian assistance in disaster-stricken areas worldwide is skeptical that large international organizations like the United Nations (UN) are equipped to tackle the issue of global hunger. “Will the UN be the right...
The US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair, Gray Gensler, has continued slamming crypto companies and criticizing the crypto space in Wednesday’s congressional hearing....
The families of almost half a million food insecure children in Pennsylvania collectively owe nearly $80 million in public school lunch debt, according to Sen. John Fetterman’s office. Across the US, more than 30 million kids can’t afford their school meals and the total debt is $262 million annually.
He said countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Norway benefited from a “lottery style bonanza” last year, as the price of oil soared. Mr Brown argues a $25bn (£20.4bn) levy would boost prospects of a deal on a climate fund for poorer countries.
“Twenty years on, Iraqis who were tortured by US personnel still have no clear path for filing a claim or receiving any kind of redress or recognition from the US government,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “US officials have indicated that they prefer to leave torture in the past, but the...
Neuralink was founded in 2017 and began animal experiments 12 months later. Last year, a Reuters investigation indicated that the company had slaughtered around 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs, and monkeys, which suffered from serious disorders before dying. But it wasn’t until September 10 that Musk...
The right paved the way for once-unthinkable bans by first pursuing goals that were more palatable to the public, using bathroom bills and school sports bans to normalise hateful anti-trans rhetoric in the American public sphere. This tactic has been effective....
A UN report found that 700,000 Palestinians had been arrested since the occupation began, equal to roughly 40% of all the men and boys in the territories. The damage wasn’t only to the affected families, each of them grieving lost years and lost childhoods. It was to the entire society, to every mother, father and grandparent,...
Two PR professionals from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) are identified as providing “additional support” to the team running the summit, according to a Cop28 communications strategy document obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) and the Guardian. The two Adnoc communications executives - Philip...
Court documents in the case revealed that Facebook’s parent company Meta supplied police with the private Facebook messages that Celeste and Jessica Burgess had sent one another.
The Republican-led Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression, or Eats, Act aims to end the authority of states and localities to set animal welfare and food safety standards. If passed, it could also jeopardize more than 1,000 state and local health and safety laws that set food-quality requirements and stop the spread of invasive...
When the US supreme court overturned Roe, Americans rushed to rage-donate millions to abortion funds and clinics scattered across the United States. Now, with the first year of post-Roe life in the rearview mirror, much of that money has been spent and the flow of donations has dried up for many organizations. And yet, as states...
The move was sparked by the death of a 23-year-old primary school teacher in July. She was found dead at her school in Seoul in an apparent suicide after reportedly expressing anxiety over complaints from abusive parents. Since then, other teacher suicides suspected of being related to malicious complaints have come to light.
In Abdel Fattah alSisi’s Egypt, Telling the Truth Is a Crime. The president’s agencies have controlled, purchased, or coerced all mainstream media in the country, and opposition media in exile is largely partisan. So web platforms like Matsadaash play a valuable role as one of the last remaining voices for independent...
The school teacher was released after officials with Hamshire-Fannett independent school district said the teacher presented the “inappropriate” book to students. The graphic novel, written by Ari Folman and illustrated by David Polonsky, adapts the diary of 13-year-old Anne Frank, who wrote while hiding in an annexe in...
I don’t know whether or not she would have wanted this stuff to be published nor what her father did, but that’s not the issue here. What Texas is doing here is deeply anti-democratic and authoritarian. That reminds us on China’s or Russia’s dictatorship.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, announcing the summit in December, said he would make the summit “no nonsense” and include only leaders of countries with concrete plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar was brazenly shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. on June 18. Nijjar, a supporter of a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state, had been branded by the Indian government as a “terrorist” and accused of leading a militant separatist group — something his...
"The fact that so many people cannot benefit from affordable, quality, essential health services not only puts their own health at risk, it also puts the stability of communities, societies and economies at risk,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “We urgently need stronger political will, more...
The rate of incarceration for Indigenous children in Queensland is 33 times the rate of non-Indigenous children. Maggie Munn, a Gunggari person and National Director of First Nations justice advocacy group Change the Record, says the move to hold children as young as 10 in adult watch houses was “fundamentally cruel and...
Ahead of the Sept. 16 anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, days before her 22nd birthday, government opponents say Iran is conducting a wide-ranging crackdown to stifle possible dissent, including seekingfull control of internet in Iran....
A temporary but vital firefighter pay bump, implemented as part of US president Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure bill, will expire at the end of September. Without it, firefighters say the US risks exacerbating a crisis of burnout and retention at a time when fires are becoming bigger, more dangerous and harder to control.
“It is undeniable that the intrinsics of Julian’s case are so shocking it is something one would expect from the worst dictatorships,” Stella Assange said....
"The draft law could be described as a form of gender apartheid, as authorities appear to be governing through systemic discrimination with the intention of suppressing women and girls into total submission,” experts said.
The Center for Reproductive Rights on Tuesday filed legal actions in Tennessee, Idaho and Oklahoma on behalf of women who say they were denied abortion care in medical emergencies. The actions represent an escalation of the strategy the center used earlier this year in a Texas lawsuit arguing that exceptions to protect the life...
Bethany Alhaidari is facing a 24 October court date that will determine her future life with her eight-year-old daughter, Zaina. Human Rights Watch, which took the unusual step of submitted an amicus brief in the family dispute, has warned that the 36-year-old mother would face a “serious risk of corporal punishment, lengthy...
The California law requires social media platforms to post their content moderation policies — which they already do — and twice a year submit a report to the state on how they address hate speech, racism, misinformation, foreign political interference and other issues.
The data covers the work of organisations HazteOir and CitizenGO, comprising documents which date from 2001 to 2017 like spreadsheets of donors and members, strategy and planning documents, letters, financial charts and legal and training documents. HazteOir was first founded in 2001 in Spain to campaign for right wing values,...
Sheena Josselyn, neuroscientist: ‘Eliminating a memory is fairly simple, once you have the right tools’ (english.elpais.com)
Q&A with Sheena Josselyn who is a researcher at The Hospital for Sick Children, a professor at the University of Toronto and holds a Canada Research Chair in Brain Mechanisms Underlying Memory, among other positions.
UN rights experts slam ‘systemic racism’ in US police and courts (news.un.org)
A new report by UN International experts advancing racial justice and equality in policing, published after an official visit to the country, shows that Black people in the US are three times more likely to be killed by police than if they were White, and 4.5 times more likely to be incarcerated....
Brazil and Argentina turn to blockchain for citizen ID rollouts (www.biometricupdate.com)
Blockchain adoption is on the rise in Latin America as citizens in the region are increasingly inclined towards transacting using cryptocurrencies. The trend has been gaining traction since El Salvador became the first nation in the world to adopt Bitcoin as an official form of currency in 2021.
Electoral inscriptions discovered in Pompeii reveal political patronage and corruption in ancient Rome (english.elpais.com)
U.S. National Security Agency is starting an artificial intelligence security center (apnews.com)
Army Gen. Paul Nakasone said the center would be incorporated into the NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, where it works with private industry and international partners to harden the U.S. defense-industrial base against threats from adversaries led by China and Russia.
‘Food is a national security issue:' José Andrés calls on world leaders to appoint national security food advisers (cepa.org)
The founder of the World Central Kitchen (WCK), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing food and humanitarian assistance in disaster-stricken areas worldwide is skeptical that large international organizations like the United Nations (UN) are equipped to tackle the issue of global hunger. “Will the UN be the right...
U.S., SEC Chair Gary Gensler continues slapping crypto companies, says Bitcoin is 'not a security' but refuses to call it a commodity (web.archive.org)
The US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair, Gray Gensler, has continued slamming crypto companies and criticizing the crypto space in Wednesday’s congressional hearing....
Chinese hackers stole emails from US State Department in Microsoft breach (www.euractiv.com)
A U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts returned to Earth after being stuck in space for just over a year [video, 1 min] (apnews.com)
U.S. Senate Dems Want to Cancel All Student Lunch Debt: A "Term So Absurd That It Shouldn't Even Exist" (www.commondreams.org)
The families of almost half a million food insecure children in Pennsylvania collectively owe nearly $80 million in public school lunch debt, according to Sen. John Fetterman’s office. Across the US, more than 30 million kids can’t afford their school meals and the total debt is $262 million annually.
No-pay publishing: use institutional repositories [July 2023] (www.nature.com)
The world's richest oil states should pay a global windfall tax to help poorer nations combat climate change, says former UK prime minister Gordon Brown (www.bbc.com)
He said countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Norway benefited from a “lottery style bonanza” last year, as the price of oil soared. Mr Brown argues a $25bn (£20.4bn) levy would boost prospects of a deal on a climate fund for poorer countries.
US failed to provide regress to Iraqis who suffered torture and other abuse by US forces at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons in Iraq two decades ago, rights activists say (www.hrw.org)
“Twenty years on, Iraqis who were tortured by US personnel still have no clear path for filing a claim or receiving any kind of redress or recognition from the US government,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “US officials have indicated that they prefer to leave torture in the past, but the...
Open letter asking to reinstate a censored book chapter and problematizing the fact that commercial publishers are in a position to directly censor academic publications (www.buala.org)
To whom it may concern.
Medical ethics organization lodges complaint over monkey deaths in Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip trials as company is looking for human volunteers to test its implants (english.elpais.com)
Neuralink was founded in 2017 and began animal experiments 12 months later. Last year, a Reuters investigation indicated that the company had slaughtered around 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs, and monkeys, which suffered from serious disorders before dying. But it wasn’t until September 10 that Musk...
How anti-abortion laws shape trans healthcare bans in the U.S. [Opinion] (www.opendemocracy.net)
The right paved the way for once-unthinkable bans by first pursuing goals that were more palatable to the public, using bathroom bills and school sports bans to normalise hateful anti-trans rhetoric in the American public sphere. This tactic has been effective....
‘A hidden universe of suffering’: the Palestinian children sent to jail [Long read] (www.theguardian.com)
A UN report found that 700,000 Palestinians had been arrested since the occupation began, equal to roughly 40% of all the men and boys in the territories. The damage wasn’t only to the affected families, each of them grieving lost years and lost childhoods. It was to the entire society, to every mother, father and grandparent,...
UAE oil company executives working with Cop28 team, leak reveals (www.theguardian.com)
Two PR professionals from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) are identified as providing “additional support” to the team running the summit, according to a Cop28 communications strategy document obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) and the Guardian. The two Adnoc communications executives - Philip...
US mother sentenced to two years in prison for giving daughter abortion pills (www.theguardian.com)
Court documents in the case revealed that Facebook’s parent company Meta supplied police with the private Facebook messages that Celeste and Jessica Burgess had sent one another.
From cage-free chicks to puppy mills and Avian flu: Republicans are trying to roll back animal protections in the U.S. (www.theguardian.com)
The Republican-led Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression, or Eats, Act aims to end the authority of states and localities to set animal welfare and food safety standards. If passed, it could also jeopardize more than 1,000 state and local health and safety laws that set food-quality requirements and stop the spread of invasive...
‘Feels horrible to say no’: abortion funds run out of money as US demand surges (www.theguardian.com)
When the US supreme court overturned Roe, Americans rushed to rage-donate millions to abortion funds and clinics scattered across the United States. Now, with the first year of post-Roe life in the rearview mirror, much of that money has been spent and the flow of donations has dried up for many organizations. And yet, as states...
"Woman’s Brutal Assault Highlights Police Failures in Kyrgyzstan:" Authorities Should Step Up Domestic Violence Protections, rights activists (www.hrw.org)
South Korea passes law to protect rights of teachers after mass protests over abuse from parents (www.theguardian.com)
The move was sparked by the death of a 23-year-old primary school teacher in July. She was found dead at her school in Seoul in an apparent suicide after reportedly expressing anxiety over complaints from abusive parents. Since then, other teacher suicides suspected of being related to malicious complaints have come to light.
U.S. Judge rules 9/11 Defendant not fit for trial due to psychosis and delusions, which his lawyer blames on his torture by the C.I.A. (web.archive.org)
Col. Matthew N. McCall, the judge, disqualified Ramzi bin al-Shibh, 51, from what had been a five-defendant conspiracy case in an 11-page ruling....
How Brute Violence Became Egypt’s Answer to Virtually Everything (fpif.org)
In Abdel Fattah alSisi’s Egypt, Telling the Truth Is a Crime. The president’s agencies have controlled, purchased, or coerced all mainstream media in the country, and opposition media in exile is largely partisan. So web platforms like Matsadaash play a valuable role as one of the last remaining voices for independent...
U.S., Texas teacher fired for showing Anne Frank graphic novel to eighth-graders (www.theguardian.com)
The school teacher was released after officials with Hamshire-Fannett independent school district said the teacher presented the “inappropriate” book to students. The graphic novel, written by Ari Folman and illustrated by David Polonsky, adapts the diary of 13-year-old Anne Frank, who wrote while hiding in an annexe in...
US, China barred from UN’s 'Climate Ambition Summit' (20 September) after promises only to include the most ambitious (www.euractiv.com)
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, announcing the summit in December, said he would make the summit “no nonsense” and include only leaders of countries with concrete plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accuses India's government of involvement in killing of Canadian Sikh leader (www.cbc.ca)
Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar was brazenly shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. on June 18. Nijjar, a supporter of a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state, had been branded by the Indian government as a “terrorist” and accused of leading a militant separatist group — something his...
‘Radical reorientation’ needed as half of humanity lacks basic health coverage, warns UN (news.un.org)
"The fact that so many people cannot benefit from affordable, quality, essential health services not only puts their own health at risk, it also puts the stability of communities, societies and economies at risk,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “We urgently need stronger political will, more...
Australian state of Queensland suspends human rights law to lock up children (www.aljazeera.com)
The rate of incarceration for Indigenous children in Queensland is 33 times the rate of non-Indigenous children. Maggie Munn, a Gunggari person and National Director of First Nations justice advocacy group Change the Record, says the move to hold children as young as 10 in adult watch houses was “fundamentally cruel and...
Property developer Tim Gurner wants unemployment to "rise to 40-50%" reminding people that "they work for the employer, not the other way around" [video, 2 min] (yewtu.be)
It makes you laugh, then think: Jan Zalasiewicz explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks and other 2023 Ig Nobel Prize Winners (improbable.com)
Iran steps up internet crackdown one year after Mahsa Amini death, blocks sites, apps, imposes “digital curfews” (www.reuters.com)
Ahead of the Sept. 16 anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, days before her 22nd birthday, government opponents say Iran is conducting a wide-ranging crackdown to stifle possible dissent, including seekingfull control of internet in Iran....
"We can’t afford to have children:" low pay and a high-pressure environment drive exodus of US wildfire fighters (www.theguardian.com)
A temporary but vital firefighter pay bump, implemented as part of US president Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure bill, will expire at the end of September. Without it, firefighters say the US risks exacerbating a crisis of burnout and retention at a time when fires are becoming bigger, more dangerous and harder to control.
‘There simply is no moral high ground anymore:' Stella Assange argues her husband’s situation is used as justification by authoritarian regimes that imprison journalists (www.indexoncensorship.org)
“It is undeniable that the intrinsics of Julian’s case are so shocking it is something one would expect from the worst dictatorships,” Stella Assange said....
"It serves no purpose, it is unjust:" 63 Australian politicians urge US to let WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walk free (www.theguardian.com)
‘Gender Apartheid:’ UN denounces Iran’s proposed law threatening women who refuse to wear hijab with 5-to-10-year prison sentence (www.ictj.org)
"The draft law could be described as a form of gender apartheid, as authorities appear to be governing through systemic discrimination with the intention of suppressing women and girls into total submission,” experts said.
New Research Exposes 5 Global North Countries Responsible for 51% of Planned Oil and Gas Expansion Through 2050 (priceofoil.org)
Here is the study (pdf): priceofoil.org/…/OCI-Planet-Wreckers-Report-Final…...
U.S., abortion rights group sues on behalf of women denied care in emergencies (www.washingtonpost.com)
The Center for Reproductive Rights on Tuesday filed legal actions in Tennessee, Idaho and Oklahoma on behalf of women who say they were denied abortion care in medical emergencies. The actions represent an escalation of the strategy the center used earlier this year in a Texas lawsuit arguing that exceptions to protect the life...
World Bank secretly spent $3.7 billion on oil & gas through 'trade finance' projects in 2022 despite its green pledges, study suggests (www.urgewald.org)
Here’s the study (pdf): urgewald.org/…/urgewald - Briefing - World Bank a…...
US activist at ‘risk of death penalty’ in custody battle with Saudi father, rights group says (www.theguardian.com)
Bethany Alhaidari is facing a 24 October court date that will determine her future life with her eight-year-old daughter, Zaina. Human Rights Watch, which took the unusual step of submitted an amicus brief in the family dispute, has warned that the 36-year-old mother would face a “serious risk of corporal punishment, lengthy...
U.S., Elon Musk's social media site X sues California over the state's content moderation law, saying it violates the First Amendment (apnews.com)
The California law requires social media platforms to post their content moderation policies — which they already do — and twice a year submit a report to the state on how they address hate speech, racism, misinformation, foreign political interference and other issues.
Australia, women were told their babies would not survive - but Catholic hospitals refused to provide abortion (www.theguardian.com)
WikiLeaks publishes "The Intolerance Network", over 17,000 documents from right-wing campaigning organisations globally (wikileaks.org)
The data covers the work of organisations HazteOir and CitizenGO, comprising documents which date from 2001 to 2017 like spreadsheets of donors and members, strategy and planning documents, letters, financial charts and legal and training documents. HazteOir was first founded in 2001 in Spain to campaign for right wing values,...