Progressive news feed

By Juliette Jowit - Thursday 18 February 2010

The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world's biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found...The report comes amid growing concern that no one is made to pay for most of the use, loss and damage of the environment, which is reaching crisis proportions in the form of pollution and the rapid loss of freshwater, fisheries and fertile soils.

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By Gideon Levy - 07/03/2010

There have been societies in the past in whose name frightful injustice has been committed, but at least within some of them, genuine, angry and determined left-wing protest took place - of the sort that requires personal risk and courage, and which is not limited to action within the cozy consensus. An occupying society whose town square has been empty for years, with the exception of hollow memorial rallies and poorly attended protests, cannot wash its hands of the situation.

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Bob Barker has donated $2.5 million to help the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals open a new location in Los Angeles.

By Peter Kulchyski - March 1st 2010

Colonialism continues to ravage First Nations, Inuit, and Metis lands from real estate, logging, and hydro developments in the west coast, to the tar sands developments in Miskew Cree and Chipweyan territories...But perhaps nothing is as inspiring as seeing and hearing people from...these communities — and more — gathered together to tell their stories and try to find ways of supporting each other.

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By Dawn Paley - March 7, 2010

Beyond rhetoric about improving competitiveness and establishing the province as a centre for innovation, among the most concrete strategies suggested in the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources...Service Plan are government sponsored marketing campaigns to promote the benefits of the extractive industries.

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The banking crisis was not cataclysmic; the financing bubbles that caused it had been developing for many years. So where were the banks’ auditors? Why were bank financial statements showing high levels of profitability right up to the point of the financial collapse? What went wrong with the audit of these banks? Could it have had something to do with excessive standardization? Less than a decade after Arthur Andersen, has the CA profession learnt anything?

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In this undated image supplied by Doctors Without Borders , a rape victim is photographed at a clinic in Western Kasai, Congo, 5 Dec 2007 Marking the 100th anniversary of Women's Day, human-rights watchdog Amnesty International says female victims of rape are denied access to justice in rich and poor countries.


By Bill Tieleman - 9 March 2010

The poor and the disabled are definitely at the top of the B.C. Liberal government's list -- the hit list for more suffering, that is...Last week -- with tens of thousands of British Columbians having lost their jobs and thousands more dependent on meagre disability benefits to survive -- the government slashed social assistance to save $25 million over two years.

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By CONN HALLINAN - March 9, 2010

A heavy-handed crack down on Israeli dissidents is drawing sharp criticism by human rights organizations and at least a mild judicial slap on the wrist for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu...“Since [the Gaza war], the political climate in Israel has become extremely polarized. And this polarization has reached a level where anyone who is critical is presented as a traitor.”

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Water is life, not a commodity.

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"Mr Boncore had reasonable grounds to attempt to do what he said to the police he wanted to do," Davison told provincial court Judge Manfred Delong, "and that was to carry out a citizen's arrest of George W Bush," the lawyer said.

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North Carolina prisoners can write and try to publish manuscripts after the state and the American Civil Liberties Union reached a settlement.

Reporting from Toyota City, Japan - All six Toyota veterans around the table agreed: The memo they were about to send to senior management could damage their careers.

The official death toll from the war is 100,000, but it is widely estimated to be much higher, perhaps even as high as one million. In his latest piece of artwork, Iraqi American artist Wafaa Bilal tries to grapple with the enormity of these numbers. It’s a twenty-four-hour live tattooing performance called “..and Counting” that began at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts gallery in New York Monday night. By tonight Bilal’s back will be tattooed with the names of Iraqi cities, 5,000 red dots representing dead American soldiers and 100,000 dots in invisible ink representing the official death toll for Iraqis. The dots representing the Iraqi death toll will only be visible under ultraviolet light. [includes rush transcript]

Major environmental groups are coming under criticism from within their own ranks for taking positions that some say are antithetical to their stated missions of saving the planet. In the latest issue of The Nation magazine, the British journalist Johann Hari writes, “As we confront the biggest ecological crisis in human history, many of the green organizations meant to be leading the fight are busy shoveling up hard cash from the world’s worst polluters—and burying science-based environmentalism in return…In the middle of a swirl of bogus climate scandals trumped up by deniers, here is the real Climategate.” [includes rush transcript]

• Obama Campaigns for Healthcare Reform
• Former Rep. Massa Claims He Was Forced Out over Healthcare Bill
• Protests Planned Outside Health Insurance Company Meeting
• Gates: “More Dark Days” Ahead in Afghanistan
• Claim: Pentagon Peddled Misinformation about Attack on Marjah
• Nigerians Bury Dead After Massacre
• Greek PM Calls for Crackdown on Financial Speculators
• Biden: US Ties to Israel Are “Unshakable”
• Burmese Refugees in Bangladesh Face Starvation
• UN Official Warns Against Full Body Airport Scanners
• Midwestern Towns Sue Manufacturer of Atrazine Weedkiller
• Interior Dept. Puts Off Listing Sage Grouse as Endangered Species
• Obama Criticized for Adding Just Two Species to Endangered List
• Conservationist Edgar Wayburn, 103, Dies

A woman reads the signs on flowers delivered by Chinese Google users outside the Google China headquarters in Beijing.

A woman reads the signs on flowers delivered by Chinese Google users outside the Google China headquarters in Beijing.

Iranian authorities have freed five men, including reformist journalists and aides of opposition leaders, on bail after some of them paid hefty sureties, an opposition website reported late on Sunday.

Iranian authorities have freed five men, including reformist journalists and aides of opposition leaders, on bail after some of them paid hefty sureties, an opposition website reported late on Sunday.