The PR firm advising the UN on climate change campaigns has been accused by US lawmakers of helping BP “greenwash” its fossil fuel investments, openDemocracy can reveal. Internal BP documents released to the US House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee and published last week show Brunswick created a strategy in 2017 or 2018 to help “reframe… Read More Secret files reveal how UN climate advisers ‘greenwashed’ for BP
By Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn / CounterPunch All through the 1980s and 1990s, professorial mountebanks like James Q. Wilson and Charles Murray grew plump from best sellers about the criminal, probably innate, propensities of the “underclass,” about the pathology of poverty, the teen predators, the collapse of morals, the irresponsibility of teen moms. There… Read More Neoliberalism and Its Discontents
Jonathan Watts For anyone who cares about the Amazon rainforest, there will be an extra reason to celebrate the new year countdown in Brazil on 31 December because the first stroke of midnight will mark the last moment in power of Jair Bolsonaro. The defeat of the ultra-right former army captain, who unleashed a wave of… Read More Seven reasons to be cheerful about the Amazon in 2023 – and three to be terrified
Tabloid rule is rule by intimidation. It has long rested on the presumption that no one – not even the royals – would dare to stand up to the papers. The ongoing barrage of fury against the Sussexes is motivated therefore by more than the usual strategy of selling newspapers by monetising hate. It also… Read More Meghan and Harry’s documentary has hit the raw nerve of tabloid prejudice
It’s not just indifference. It’s an active, and deadly, cavalier attitude towards the lives of others: an example other nations follow George Monbiot The question that assails those who strive for a kinder world is always the same but endlessly surprising: how do we persuade others to care? The lack of interest in resolving our existential… Read More The US is a rogue state leading the world towards ecological collapse
Gaby Hinsliff A wave of industrial action affecting everything from the Christmas post to new year getaways, with border officials at some of the country’s busiest airports due to walk out later this month, means everyday life is about to get more difficult for most of us, and actively frightening for some. But, to put it bluntly,… Read More Britain is braced for a winter of strikes
By Sam Husseini / Substack Trump was the opposable thumb of the establishment. He pretended to be against it, effectively logrolling with CNN, but effectively helped it grab more. Trump, a creation of Big Media, posed as a great critic of it. This took place during his presidency, see below, but it is taking place now… Read More Trump is the Opposable Thumb of the Establishment
Rosemary Collard and Jessica Dempsey At the biodiversity Cop taking place in Montreal, much attention will focus on a policy proposal calling for 30% of the planet’s land and oceans to be protected by 2030, known as 30×30. Protected areas have their place in addressing the biodiversity crisis, but we also know that they are… Read More ‘Extractivism’ is destroying nature: to tackle it Cop15 must go beyond simple targets
Helena Smith in Athens Thousands of people have joined protests in Athens, Thessaloniki and other Greek cities to commemorate the fatal police shooting of a teenager, hours after violence erupted over a similar incident in the north of the country. Police estimated more than 11,000 protesters had joined protests on Tuesday amid fears of renewed clashes as… Read More Thousands take to streets in Greece in protest over 2008 shooting of teenager
A Manhattan jury has found two Trump Organization companies guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives. The Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. were found guilty on all charges they faced.… Read More Trump Organization found guilty on all counts of criminal tax fraud
After the truth-shower 