8 Sep 2022 – In an address to the Trondheim World Festival in Norway, John Pilger charts the history of power propaganda and describes how it appropriates journalism in a ‘profound imperialism’ and is likely to entrap us all, if we allow it.
.
.
In the 1970s, I met one of Hitler’s leading propagandists, Leni Riefenstahl, whose epic films glorified the Nazis. We happened to be staying at the same lodge in Kenya, where she was on a photography assignment, having escaped the fate of other friends of the Fuhrer.
She told me that the ‘patriotic messages’ of her films were dependent not on ‘orders from above’ but on what she called the ‘submissive void’ of the German public.
8 September 2022 – Having seen its controversial plan to expel potential refugees to Rwanda temporarily blocked by the European Court of Human Rights, the UK government is at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this week to try and make the case that it should be allowed to proceed. The UK’s plan has been roundly criticized.
SEATTLE, USA, Sep 9 2022 (IPS)* – For a while in 2018, the Donald Trump administration’s “family separation” policy looked like it might become the Stalingrad of his war on immigrants. It was clearly a bridge too far politically, given the global outcry it provoked. Even parts of the Republican party couldn’t stomach it.
.
Katy Rodríguez (R) and her son (in his father’s arms) when they were reunited after leaving the Migrant Assistance Centre in San Salvador following their deportation. Like thousands of other families, mother and son were separated for four months after entering the United States without the proper documents. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS
There is clear evidence that climate-related threats are becoming more severe.
One can think of the record-breaking heat waves in Europe and the Americas as well as in China. One can think of drought and falling water tables, which are threatening agriculture in very many countries.
And one can also think of the poles, which are warming four times faster than the remainder of the world.
There is a danger that coastal cities everywhere will soon be flooded because of rapidly melting polar ice, as is discussed in my book, “Warnings from the Poles.”
What are we to do? What actions can we take to avoid a climate catastrophe? Below is a list of helpful actions that can and should be taken.
MADRID, Sep 7 2022 (IPS)* – More than two-thirds of 10-year-olds are unable to read and understand a simple text. This shocking finding should be enough to be alarmed about the horrifying fate of an entire generation. But there is much more.
There are 244 million children out of school. Credit: Shafiqul Alam Kiron/IPS
6 September 2022 — As the United Kingdom’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss names her cabinet, she has an opportunity to halt the systematic destruction of freedoms that have been hard won over decades in the UK, and to redefine how the office of Prime Minister is viewed at home and abroad.
The world’s largest intact forest, the Amazon plays a key role in regulating the global climate. It is home to Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities whose land stewardship practices can lead us all toward a more sustainable future. It is perhaps the world’s most biodiverse region yet also a place where there are likely still many species unknown to science.
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 2022 (IPS)* – Most sub-Saharan African French colonies got formal independence in the 1960s. But their economies have progressed little, leaving most people in poverty, and generally worse off than in other post-colonial African economies.
Anis Chowdhury
Decolonization?
Pre-Second World War colonial monetary arrangements were consolidated into the Colonies Françaises d’Afrique (CFA) franc zone set up on 26 December 1945.
For colonies to get ‘independence’, France required membership of Communauté Française d’Afrique (still CFA) – created in 1958, replacing Colonies with Communauté.
.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 