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1 week ago | 
countercurrents.org | Alfred McCoy |Marwan Asmar |Sanjay N. Parate |Tom Engelhardt
Most of us can remember at least a few troubling scenes from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984: the mandatory love demanded for the spectral dictator Big Brother; the malleability of facts at the Ministry of Truth; or the ruling party’s memorably grim slogans, “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery.” But for me, the most disturbing image of all — and I first read the book in high school — was the “Two Minutes Hate,” aroused among the public by threatening images on giant video screens.
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1 week ago | 
countercurrents.org | Marwan Asmar |Aviva Chomsky |Kevin Reed |Ramzy Baroud
What should one make of the recent White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Well, this time Netanyahu was almost summoned to the White House to be told a few home truths. This meeting was not like the first time when Netanyahu came to the White House in early February when it was all glowed to be unexpectedly told that Trump wants the USA to take over Gaza.
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1 month ago | 
countercurrents.org | Andre Damon |Countercurrents Collective |Vijay Prashad |Marwan Asmar
Geneva – The US military airstrikes on Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and multiple Yemeni governorates have resulted in several civilian deaths and injuries. The provisions of the UN Charter and the principles of international law must be upheld, especially regarding using force and protecting civilians.
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1 month ago | 
countercurrents.org | Andre Damon |Countercurrents Collective |Vijay Prashad |Marwan Asmar
The US military carried out dozens of airstrikes on Yemen Saturday and Sunday, including strikes on residential areas in the densely populated city of Sanaa, killing at least 53 people, including 31 civilians. Anis al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Yemeni Health Ministry, said that over 100 people were wounded, “most of whom were children and women.”In an unhinged rant on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY.
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1 month ago | 
countercurrents.org | Gideon Polya |Binoy Kampmark |Eliza M. Grames |Marwan Asmar
The apartheid era (1948-1994) in South Africa stands as a stark reminder of how religious texts can be distorted to justify oppression and racial supremacy. During this period, the Bible was frequently misinterpreted to validate social hierarchies, reinforce white supremacy, and marginalize non-white populations. This misreading was not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern in history where sacred texts have been weaponized to serve political and ideological interests.
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1 month ago | 
countercurrents.org | Eliza M. Grames |Bharat Dogra |Marwan Asmar |Phil Pasquini
If the joy of seeing butterflies seems increasingly rare these days, it isn’t your imagination. From 2000 to 2020, the number of butterflies fell by 22% across the continental United States. That’s 1 in 5 butterflies lost. The findings are from an analysis just published in the journal Science by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Powell Center Status of Butterflies of the United States Working Group, which I am involved in.
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1 month ago | 
countercurrents.org | Saurav Sarkar |Andre Damon |Julia Conley |Marwan Asmar
Palestinian Territory – Israel has killed 150 Palestinians—an average of three people every 24 hours—since the ceasefire on 19 January 2025. The Euro-Med Monitor field team has documented Israeli sniper and drone attacks since the ceasefire went into effect, as well as the continued use of the blockade as a weapon of slow death by starvation in the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
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1 month ago | 
countercurrents.org | Marwan Asmar |Ankit Kumar |Akbar E. Torbat |Vijay Prashad
One couldn’t help but feel a tinge of pleasure in Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian lashing out at Donald Trump. Without mincing his words, and certainly not sticking to diplomatic niceties, no doubt taking his cue from the new boss at the White House, Pezeshkian told the US president a few home truths. Depending on the translation into English from Persian, he basically told the US president to “go to hell”.
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1 month ago | 
countercurrents.org | Phil Pasquini |Marwan Asmar |Kim Petersen |Michael Albert
Emboldened by Donald Trump’s war on words and “woke” phrases, Congressman Andrew Clyde (R-GA) a member of the House – Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on March 3 introduced bill H.R. 1744 to eliminate Black Lives Matter Plaza (BLM). The racist overtones in erasing this important symbolic part of DC and American history are not lost on anyone.
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1 month ago | 
countercurrents.org | Saurav Sarkar |Andre Damon |Julia Conley |Marwan Asmar
As chants of ‘No ICE, No KKK, No Fascist USA!’ echoed through downtown Manhattan on 10 March 2025, I spoke to a person named Richard who had been marching just ahead of me. He declined to give his last name but was eager to speak his piece. ‘We need to be out in the streets and say “This will not fly. This will not happen on our watch”’, he said.
