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British MPs on Tuesday debated their country's funding of radical anti-Israel NGOs, with several legislators questioning why the government's aid agency is spending so much on extremist organizations which undermine Israeli democracy. The debate on foreign aid at the UK House of Commons was prompted by a petition which garnered nearly a quarter of a million signatures - well over the 150,000 needed to force a nonbinding parliamentary discussion on the issue. That petition calls for the UK government to end its policy of spending a fixed 0.7% of national income on overseas aid, and was launched after an expose...

Emails released by the State Department on Friday show that Hillary Clintons longtime friend Sidney Blumenthal reached out to her on behalf of a former United Kingdom diplomat who was interested in setting up secret channels between insurgents and governments. Clinton was receptive to the idea which came via Blumenthal from Jonathan Powell, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blairs chief of staff. (Quote) Hillary, Jonathan Powell has launched a new NGO that has already initiated some very interesting work below the radar, (Unquote) Blumenthal wrote in the March 18, 2012 email. (Quote)Sid We are trying to replicate what we did...

Washington University in St. Louis and the United Way of Greater St. Louis have formed a joint partnership that aims to provide support and resources to local initiatives that are uniting in their efforts to combat gun violence in the region.

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Feb.3 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese influence in Tanzanian soil is increasingly becoming big and bold. This can be seen after the Asian nation built two ultra-modern primary schools in Tanzania. The schools have been built in Tanzania's University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and University of Dodoma (UDOM) campuses. China built the two schools under the Sino-Africa Friendship Primary Schools Project worth 3.23 million U.S. dollars. The schools are fully furnished with all modern teaching and learning facilities, and students enrolled in those schools will have chance of learning Chinese language and culture from Standard One to Standard...

When a devastating earthquake leveled Haiti in 2010, millions of people donated to the American Red Cross. The charity raised almost half a billion dollars. It was one of its most successful fundraising efforts ever. The American Red Cross vowed to help Haitians rebuild, but after five years the Red Cross' legacy in Haiti is not new roads, or schools, or hundreds of new homes. It's difficult to know where all the money went. NPR and ProPublica went in search of the nearly $500 million and found a string of poorly managed projects, questionable spending and dubious claims of success,...

The developed world appears to be changing in the same direction, at the same time, at an alarming speed, relatively speaking. What is the common denominator and drive behind this change towards a one world global governance and global citizenship? What is rushing everything towards global socialism? How is this possible when countries have different levels of development, education, economies, government, history, religion, wars, and conflicts? The wails and demands of "equality" resound in the corridors of power and in the mainstream media around the globe. I've heard the tired-out claims that "Socialism means genuine social equality," giving "basic rights...

In April, 2010, I posted a story pointing out a curious paradox. Inasmuch as healthcare—Obamacare—was such a hot topic, no one seemed to care about how poorly physicians were being treated by the system. Indeed, for all of its billions in spending, Obamacare does almost nothing to improve the lot of doctors, even as its rollout underscores the problems they face. Nor does it do much to alleviate their shortage. It is hardly a revelation that government bureaucrats are the enemies of practicing physicians. Heck, this goes back 50 years to Medicare. But it is only recently that academic medicine,...

This refugee thing doesn't make sense. Hundreds of thousands of people, supposedly pushed out of Syria and Afghanistan by war, are swarming into Europe and demanding asylum. We have seen riots, and a drowned little boy, and cheering crowds of welcome. It is an interesting and historic spectacle, but I don't think we understand much about it. And I don't think we're asking enough questions, or grasping all of the consequences. So let's talk about it. First, if there is a true refugee problem, it's pretty likely the last six or seven years of American foreign policy are primarily to...

Betzalel Smotrich, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, has written a letter to US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro that is worth reading in full: [Emphasis below mine, SB] His Excellency Mr. Daniel B. Shapiro Ambassador of the United States of America to the State of Israel Honorable Sir: Re: The Position of the State Department of the United States regarding the issue of the illegal Arab encampment adjacent to the town of Susiya Last week, a statement was issued by the State Department of the United States (Mr. Kirby) relating to the issue of an illegal Arab encampment near the...

Only an hour ago we had been lamenting yet another incredibly bad road. Here in the Ugandan outback, it is as pointless to complain about the roads as it is to complain about politicians in America, but railing against the unchangeable can lighten the mood. But on the way out of a small village in the Bukedea region of Uganda, we didn’t feel the bumps. That was when our team’s defenses failed, and when the gravity of the assault on women—perpetrated by the champions of “women’s health” and “empowerment”—really hit home. It may have been just me, but my guess...

Just days after the Obama White House accused House Speaker John Boehner of “breaking protocol” by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress, a team of up to five Obama campaign operatives has reportedly arrived in Israel to lead a campaign to defeat the Israeli Prime Minister in upcoming national elections scheduled for March 17. The anti-Netanyahu, left wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports a group called “One Voice,” reportedly funded by American donors, is paying for the Obama campaign team. That group is reportedly being lead by Obama’s 2012 field director Jeremy Bird. As...

The US President vowed to “ratchet up pressure on Russia” amid fears the fighting in eastern Europe is worsening by the day. Barack Obama today threatened to use all measures - short of military action - to force Vladimir Putin to back down over the Ukraine crisis. He vowed to “ratchet up pressure on Russia” amid fears the fighting in eastern Europe is worsening by the day. He also warned Putin was “hell-bent on engaging in military conflicts” regardless of the damage it caused to Russians with its sanctions-hit economy nosediving into recession. The US leader spoke out in India...

While Western newspapers were debating whether or not to reprint the Mohammed cartoons, in Nigeria as many as 2,000 people were massacred by the Islamic State in Nigeria, also known as Boko Haram, in what is being called the deadliest attack by the Muslim group to date. Survivors described the Islamic State setting up efficient killing teams and massacring everyone while shouting “Allahu Akbar”. “For five kilometers (three miles), I kept stepping on dead bodies until I reached Malam Karanti village, which was also deserted and burnt,” one survivor said. There’s a word for that. It’s genocide. The Islamic State...

Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine took a historic step toward NATO on Tuesday in a parliamentary vote that stoked Russia's anger ahead of talks on ending the ex-Soviet state's separatist war. Lawmakers in the government-controlled chamber overwhelmingly adopted a bill dropping Ukraine's non-aligned status -- a classification given to states such as Switzerland that refuse to join military alliances and thus play no part in wars. President Petro Poroshenko had vowed to put Ukraine under Western military protection after winning an election called in the wake of the February ouster in Kiev of a Moscow-backed president. "Ukraine's fight for its independence,...

As working people in Missouri gather for days of action demanding justice for Michael Brown, the labor movement and the AFL-CIO are joining them and supporting the groundwork being laid for racial and economic justice for the people of Ferguson and all over the country. See updates from Ferguson October (Oct. 10–13) by following the hashtag on Twitter: #FergusonOctoberIn the meantime, check out AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's speech on confronting racism. 

Ferguson Braces for Lynch Mob RevivalPosted By Matthew Vadum On October 10, 2014 @ 12:28 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 10 Comments Police in Ferguson, Mo. are preparing for the mayhem and deadly violence that radical activists are promising if a grand jury declines to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown two months ago.A grand jury is expected to determine next month if Wilson, a decorated white policeman, will face criminal charges for killing Brown, an 18-year-old black man who reportedly attacked him minutes after robbing a convenience store. The St. Louis suburb has been...

BERLIN--A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin praised German diplomacy on Thursday while railing against the U.S. in the latest effort by Moscow to highlight western divisions over the Ukraine crisis. Vladimir Yakunin, president of the Russian Railways and one of the Russian officials on the U.S. sanctions list, lavished praise on Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, who visited Ukraine this week to endorse the government's planned dialogue with its critics at home. "I know Mr. Steinmeier a little bit myself. I know he is very balanced and a very objective politician," Mr. Yakunin told reporters. "To my mind,...

It's not Russia that's pushed Ukraine to the brink of war The attempt to lever Kiev into the western camp by ousting an elected leader made conflict certain. It could be a threat to us all The threat of war in Ukraine is growing. As the unelected government in Kiev declares itself unable to control the rebellion in the country's east, John Kerry brands Russia a rogue state. The US and the European Union step up sanctions against the Kremlin, accusing it of destabilising Ukraine. The White House is reported to be set on a new cold war policy with...

Land Management: A Chinese solar farm that fries birds is OK, as is redrawing tortoise habitat boundaries to benefit political donors. But an American rancher grazing his cattle brings feds with sniper rifles. It appears Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has, at least temporarily, wonhis "range war" with the paramilitary wing of the Bureau of Land Management. Fearing another Waco, BLM has announced it will no longer enforce a court order and stop stealing Bundy's cows, called "trespass cattle" by the feds, accused of grazing free on part of the 84% of Nevada that is federal property.

The profound and pervasive crisis in Ukraine is a matter of grave concern for Russia. We understand perfectly well the position of a country which became independent just over 20 years ago and still faces complex tasks in constructing a sovereign state. Among them is the search for a balance of interests among its various regions, the peoples of which have different historical and cultural roots, speak different languages and have different perspectives on their past and present, and their country's future place in the world. Given these circumstances, the role of external forces should have been to help Ukrainians...