All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

US and Saudi Arabia blocking regulation of geoengineering, sources say

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Delegates at UN environment assembly say the oil producers are protecting their industries

The United States and Saudi Arabia have hamstrung global efforts to scrutinise climate geoengineering in order to benefit their fossil fuel industries, according to multiple sources at the United Nations environment assembly, taking place this week in Nairobi.

The world’s two biggest oil producers reportedly led opposition against plans to examine the risks of climate-manipulating technology such as sucking carbon out of the air, reflective mirrors in space, seeding the oceans and injecting particulates into the atmosphere.

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US accused of trying to dilute global agreements on women’s rights

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Draft documents suggest US will refuse to reaffirm commitment to international declaration on women’s rights at New York forum

US officials in New York are attempting to water down language and remove the word “gender” from documents being negotiated at the UN, in what is being seen as a threat to international agreements on women’s rights.

In negotiations at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which resume at UN headquarters this week, the US wants to replace “gender” in the forum’s outcome document with references only to women and girls.

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Dick Dale: the surf guitar king whose wave kept on rolling

RIP Dude!

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While his music featured most famously in Pulp Fiction, echoes of Dale’s sound can be heard across the rock spectrum

In theory at least, Dick Dale should have been a long-forgotten figure. He was the self-proclaimed King of the Surf Guitar, and surf music – particularly in its instrumental, twangy-guitar-led variety – was a brief fad: one of the passing fancies with which American pop occupied itself between the waning of the first wave of rock’n’roll and the arrival of the Beatles.

Those famous surf music advocates, the Beach Boys, had completely abandoned the genre within a couple of years of their debut single, cannily turning their attentions first to cars, then to the more general vicissitudes of teenage life; Dale’s career should have been over when Capitol Records dropped him in 1965.

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‘Bring back Jeanine Pirro’: Trump defends Fox host after show goes off air

Before attending church on Sunday, Donald Trump defended a Fox News host who was taken off air after she questioned whether a Muslim congresswoman’s religious beliefs were compatible with the US constitution.

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  • Absence follows furore over comments about Ilhan Omar
  • President: ‘Fox must stay strong and fight back with vigour’

Before attending church on Sunday, Donald Trump defended a Fox News host who was taken off air after she questioned whether a Muslim congresswoman’s religious beliefs were compatible with the US constitution.

Related: Pete Buttigieg to Fox News: ‘Ideological spectrum has never been less relevant’

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He Used to Call Viktor Orban an Ally. Now He Calls Him a Symbol of Fascism. – The New York Times

Mr. Ivanyi did not keep silent. In both word and deed, he repeatedly challenged the prime minister, continuing to provide services to the homeless and refugees, even giving one Afghan a room in his own home. And he often questioned Mr. Orban’s presentation of Hungary as a monoethnic country, and his claims of governing by Christian principles. “What he does is against the teachings of Christ,” Mr. Ivanyi said recently. “It is the exact opposite of what the Bible preaches about treating the poor, about justice, about responsible service.”

As Elections Near, Duterte Adds Dozens Seeking Office to His Deadly Drug List – The New York Times

Almost all of those named are running for office in May, when Filipinos go to the polls to choose senators, representatives, mayors and other local officials. Many are political opponents of Mr. Duterte, and he is again being widely accused of playing deadly politics against his critics. “I will just be clear that my last remaining years will be the most dangerous years for a person into drug trafficking,” Mr. Duterte said over national television from the southern city of Davao, his hometown, where he released the list.

Slovakia: pro-EU Zuzana Čaputová wins first round of presidential election

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Anti-corruption campaigner secures 40% and will face run-off with ruling Smer party candidate

An anti-corruption campaigner with no experience of public office has won the first round of Slovakia’s presidential election, as voters spurned the ruling Smer party a year after the murder of an investigative journalist.

Environmental lawyer Zuzana Čaputová won 40.5% of the vote, with 99.4 of the ballots counted on Sunday, far ahead of the Smer candidate, Maroš Šefčovič, who had 18.7%.

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Australians are asking how did we get here? Well, Islamophobia is practically enshrined as public policy | Jason Wilson

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Any 28-year-old Australian has grown up in a time racism was quickly ratcheting up in the country’s public culture

The worst terror attack in New Zealand’s modern history took place on Friday, and the alleged perpetrator is an Australian.

Appropriately, this calamity has started a process of deep reflection in the man’s home country. Everywhere, decent Australians are asking, how did we get here? Do we own him?

There has been extensive, international discussion about the role of the online subculture of the far right in these events – the codes, memes, and signals of internet-mediated white supremacy.

There’s been less reflection on the fact that any 28 year old in Australia has grown up in a period when racism, xenophobia, and a hostility to Muslims in particular, were quickly ratcheting up in the country’s public culture.

In the period of the country’s enthusiastic participation in the War on Terror, Islam and Muslims have frequently been treated as public enemies, and hate speech against them has inexorably been normalised.

Australian racism did not of course begin in 2001. The country was settled by means of a genocidal frontier war, and commenced its independent existence with the exclusion of non-white migrants. White nationalism was practically Australia’s founding doctrine.

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‘White men are considered everyone’: Ocasio-Cortez calls out poll stories bias

Same old same old bias in polls

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Commentators suggest Americans view Democrat negatively even as poll finds women and non-white respondents disagree

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized media coverage of her latest polling results on Saturday, noting her net favorability among all women and all non-white Americans, even as some commenters suggested that “Americans” now viewed her negatively.

“So older, conservative white men are considered ‘everyone’ and everyone else is discounted as an exception,” the progressive New York congresswoman tweeted. “Cool.”

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