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Global Issues
@globalissues.org
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https://www.globalissues.org - a website, since 1998, looking at inter-related global issues 🌍

Follow @globalissues.org on BlueSky to see daily world news from Inter Press Service and United Nations as well as personal commentary on various issues.
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globalissues.org
Worth noting his past global influence he's had also. I hope he also regrets that as well.

From an admittedly old article I wrote quite some time ago: www.globalissues.org/article/238/...
In 1991, then Chief Economist for the World Bank Larry Summers, (and US Treasury Secretary, in the Clinton Administration, until George Bush and the Republican party came into power), had been a strong backer of IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment Policies, which have proved to be so disastrous to the developing world. He wrote in an internal memo (leaked to the Economist in 1992) that is very revealing: Quote: Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging more migration of dirty industries to the LDCs [less developed countries]?… The economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable, and we should face up to that… Under-populated countries in Africa are vastly under-polluted; their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City… The concern over an agent that causes a one in a million change in the odds of prostate cancer is obviously going to be much higher in a country where people survive to get prostate cancer than in a country where under-five mortality is 200 per thousand. -- citation: Lawrence Summers, Let them eat pollution, The Economist, February 8, 1992. Quoted from Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest, (South End Press, 2000) p.65; See also Richard Robbins, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism (Allyn and Bacon, 1999), pp. 233-236 for a detailed look at this. A World Bank spoof site, the Whirld Bank, posted the leaked memo. It also had a postscript which contained a reaction from the then Brazilian minister for the environment. The article noted: Quote: After the memo became public in February 1992, Brazil’s then-Secretary of the Environment Jose Lutzenburger wrote back to Summers: "Your reasoning is perfectly logical but totally insane… Your thoughts [provide] a concrete example of the unbelievable alienation, reductionist thinking, social ruthlessness and the arrogant ignorance of many conventional "economists" concerning the nature of the world we live in… If the World Bank keeps you as vice president it will lose all credibility. To me it would confirm what I often said… the best thing that could happen would be for the Bank to disappear." Sadly, Mr. Lutzenburger was fired shortly after writing this letter. Mr. Summers, on the other hand, was appointed the U.S. Treasury Secretary on July 2nd, 1999, and served through the remainder of the Clinton Admistration. Afterwards, he was named president of Harvard University. -- citation: The Bank Memo, The Whirled Bank Group (A Spoof of the World Bank web site).
November 17, 2025 at 7:14 PM
globalissues.org
Definitely. Accessible websites benefit everyone.

Your post reminded me of this tongue in cheek pie chart from long time web accessibility advocate @codepo8.bsky.social :

Worth reading the associated blog post as well
christianheilmann.com/2021/06/30/t...
Pie chart titled: Why I use subtitles. Shows: 5% because I can't understand the language 5% because there are too many accents and slang, and 90% because I am going to eat chips
November 3, 2025 at 4:49 AM
globalissues.org
"I coded the world wide web on a single computer in a small room. But that small room didn’t belong to me, it was at Cern. […] It is hard to imagine a big tech company agreeing to share the world wide web for no commercial reward like Cern allowed me to.
I coded the world wide web on a single computer in a small room. But that small room didn’t belong to me, it was at Cern. Cern was created in the aftermath of the second world war by the UN and European governments who identified a historic, scientific turning point that required international collaboration. It is hard to imagine a big tech company agreeing to share the world wide web for no commercial reward like Cern allowed me to. That’s why we need a Cern-like not-for-profit body driving forward international AI research. I gave the world wide web away for free because I thought that it would only work if it worked for everyone. Today, I believe that to be truer than ever. Regulation and global governance are technically feasible, but reliant on political willpower. If we are able to muster it, we have the chance to restore the web as a tool for collaboration, creativity and compassion across cultural borders. We can re-empower individuals, and take the web back. It’s not too late.
September 29, 2025 at 6:36 AM
globalissues.org
"Antifa is not a single organization but an umbrella term [...] more of an idea than an actual organization, so Trump’s order [...] isn’t simply idiotic and unconstitutional but says a great deal about where the “beloved leader” stands on free speech and fascism itself."
Trump’s executive order designating Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” has spurred widespread interest in the anti-fascist movement. Of course, it is well understood that Antifa is not a single organization but an umbrella term for loosely affiliated groups of activists scattered across the United States and parts of Europe that confront and combat fascism and racism. Antifa, however, is more of an idea than an actual organization, so Trump’s order calling on US authorities to act against “any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa, or for which Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa provided material support” isn’t simply idiotic and unconstitutional but says a great deal about where the “beloved leader” stands on free speech and fascism itself.
September 28, 2025 at 4:32 PM
globalissues.org
Anyone else finding @farhanasultana.com
Dr. Farhana Sultana's account is suspended?
Image showing profile for @farhanasultana.com which says Not Found Account has been suspended
September 11, 2025 at 8:09 PM
globalissues.org
Talk about framing and "vandalism"...!
Shorpshire star has a headling: "A mini-roundabout has been vandalised with a 'Love All Stop Hate' graffiti message, painted over a St George's Cross that appeared during a flag debate"
August 27, 2025 at 10:44 AM
globalissues.org
As often is the case, easier to blame complex global issues on immigrants etc. A good article on how misinformation, fear, and delusion combine
GB News is one of several media outlets that pushes misinformation and anti-migrant talking points. One of its star presenters is Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage, who branded asylum-seeking people a “danger to our country.” But GB News is not alone. A report by the race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust found that “racist discourse from the highest levels of UK society, including politicians and the media, is used to frame immigration as an existential threat to the British way of life.” Dr Hannah Ryan, from the University of Birmingham, says that “it is important to acknowledge the role of the British press in spreading sensationalist news stories based on anti-immigrant rhetoric. From the over-reporting of migration to the consistent use of the factually incorrect term ‘illegal asylum seeker’, the tabloid press in particular create the narrative of asylum seekers as problematic and threatening.” Media imagery, she told openDemocracy, “emphasises asylum seekers as dangerous others with a particular focus on men of colour who are represented as ‘breaking into Britain’.” Media reporting and political quotes find its way onto social media, where the far right increasingly gets its information. A common enemy? There is one thing both protests have in common: an anger with the current government and the broader political system. While the anti-migrant crowd chant “Keir Starmer is a wanker,” the counter-protest condemns Starmer’s Labour as “the enemy”, accusing the Prime Minister of enabling Reform and the rise of far right influencer Tommy Robinson. Both sides are angry about homelessness, low productivity, unemployment, poor public services, long waits in the NHS. But while these issues have been caused by more than a decade of austerity under Conservative rule, and the financial crisis that preceded it, the far right has chosen to blame migrant people, claiming falsely that people seeking asylum are receiving preferential treatment and benefits, including by being housed in hotels. Like everyone else I have spoken to, he insists he’s not racist, but that “you can’t have a conversation anymore.” Except the arguments voiced by the crowd are racist: that migrant people are dangerous and dishonest, put children and women at risk, and take rights away from British people, as is the insistence that sexual violence is a race, not a male, issue. And while the far right has set itself up as a defender of women and children when the alleged perpetrators are migrant or minority ethnic men, it is either silent on rape and sexual abuse allegedly committed by its own ranks, or piles gross misogynistic abuse on the victims.
August 11, 2025 at 5:07 PM
globalissues.org
Follow the money:

Staple food prices during:
- Irish Potato Famine: 3-5x rise
- Great Bengal Famine, 1943: 10x rise
- North Korean famine, 1990s: 12x

At least 1m people died in each.

- Gaza: 30-50x…

2/
The Nobel prize-winning Indian economist Amartya Sen observed some decades ago that famines are always political and economic events, and that the most direct way to analyse them is to look at food quantities and prices. This has led to decades of research on past famines. One observation is that dramatic increases in food prices always mean there is a famine, even though not every famine is accompanied by rising food costs. The price increases we have seen in Gaza are unprecedented. The economic historian Yannai Spitzer observed in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that staple food prices during the Irish Potato Famine showed a three- to five-fold increase, while there was a ten-fold rise during the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. In the North Korean famine of the 1990s, the price of rice rose by a factor of 12. At least a million people died of hunger in each of these events. Now, the New York Times has reported the price of flour in Gaza has increased by a factor of 30 and potatoes cost 50 times more.
August 5, 2025 at 6:43 AM
globalissues.org
Commissioner-General for UNRWA reminds it is Israeli/US-backed GHF responsible for the killing of nearly 1,400 starving Palestinians near its sites and convoy routes. Also blames them for preventing UNRWA – “the backbone of humanitarian response” in Gaza – from bringing in assistance since 2 March
The Commissioner-General for UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, underscored that this near-famine is largely due to deliberate efforts to dismantle the UN-coordinated humanitarian system through the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is responsible for the killing of nearly 1,400 starving Palestinians near its sites and convoy routes, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Prioritising the GHF, Israel has prevented UNRWA – “the backbone of humanitarian response” – from bringing in assistance since 2 March, he said.
August 4, 2025 at 7:49 PM
globalissues.org
Undermining peace, internationalising through the ICC, Witkoff trying to salvage ceasefire...

The podcast itself is not better but takes trump's intent (to understand for himself the situation) at face value... It's a "safe"position to take...
The United States has imposed travel restrictions on members of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, accusing them of undermining peace efforts with Israel. The US State Department said those targeted continued to support terrorism and were internationalising the conflict, for example through the International Criminal Court. Washington's special envoy Steve Witkoff, who's in Israel trying to salvage Gaza ceasefire talks, will travel to the territory on Friday where he will inspect aid distribution sites.
August 2, 2025 at 6:49 AM
globalissues.org
"This is not only an American issue. Around the world, executive overreach and judicial undermining threaten democratic resilience. Judge Coughenour’s ruling is a solemn reminder that courts must fiercely protect constitutional order against political expediency."
Judge John C. Coughenour, appointed by President Reagan, strongly criticized the administration’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship via executive order. His words were direct and chilling: “It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals, the rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain.”
July 27, 2025 at 6:07 AM
globalissues.org
Dr. Nick Maynard, a surgeon who has just returned from volunteering in Gaza for the past month, describes a pattern reminiscent of “target practice” visible in the injuries medical staff are treating in Gaza. As evidence grows of deliberate massacres of Palestinians seeking aid at the U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid sites, Maynard says the pattern of injuries suggests that Israeli military forces and other security contractors staffing the sites are “playing some sort of game” in their targeting of civilians, shooting at the head one day, “the abdomen tomorrow, the testicles the day after that.” Because of Israel’s blockade on food and medicine outside of the sparse supplies available at these dangerous aid sites, Maynard continues, normally survivable injuries have become fatal. “Because they’re so malnourished, their tissues don’t heal. Their immune systems are suppressed. … They often end up breaking down, causing terrible infections inside the body, and frequently these patients die.”
July 25, 2025 at 3:53 PM
globalissues.org
Report highlights a significant shift in climate denial tactics, with "New Denial" claims now making up 70% of climate denial on YouTube, up from 35% six years ago. This shift focuses on undermining trust in climate science and solutions rather than outright denial of climate change.
Image shows old climate denialist claims shifting to new ones: Five broad categories of denialist claims: 1 Global warming is not happening 2 Human-generated greenhouse gasses are not causing global warming 3 The impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless 4 Climate solutions won’t work 5 Climate science and the climate movement are unreliable 1 and 2 are old, 3-5 are new Each claim has sub-claims which report explains further
July 24, 2025 at 8:09 PM
globalissues.org
Cognitive warfare, or cog war

Propaganda, hearts and minds, psyops etc all as significant.

I wrote this some 20 years ago and seems very relevant, still:
www.globalissues.org/article/157/...
The digital revolution has allowed ever-more tailored content to play into biases mapped through our digital footprint, which is called “microtargeting”. Machine intelligence can even feed us targeted content without ever taking a picture or recording a video. All it takes is a well-designed AI prompt, supporting bad actors’ pre-defined narrative and goals, while covertly misleading the audience. Such disinformation campaigns increasingly reach into the physical domain of the human body. In the war in Ukraine, we see continued cog war narratives. These include allegations that the Ukrainian authorities were concealing or purposefully inciting cholera outbreaks. Allegations of US-supported bioweapons labs also formed part of false-flag justifications for Russia’s full-scale invasion. During COVID, false information led to deaths when people refused protective measures or used harmful remedies to treat it.
July 19, 2025 at 12:58 PM
globalissues.org
"That is not the power of a president, it’s the power of a dictator. More than granting Trump immunity, more than anything else this court has done, this ruling gives him the powers of a king.

And the Republicans on the court did this while they were on vacation

The Supreme Court is … no … use"
That is not the power of a president, it’s the power of a dictator. More than granting Trump immunity, more than anything else this court has done, this ruling gives him the powers of a king. And the Republicans on the court did this while they were on vacation, in an emergency-docket ruling that didn’t even require them to explain themselves. The Supreme Court is of no more use. It will not protect democracy, the rule of law, or even the constitutional order. The next Democratic president should use the powers granted to Trump to impound the court.
July 16, 2025 at 6:16 PM
globalissues.org
And is it even justice if these courts are not part of the judiciary, but Trump's executive branch instead?
Immigration courts, which are run by the Executive Office for Immigration Review — part of the executive branch, not the judiciary — are far less transparent than most courts. Their prosecutors work for ICE and DHS; they have no obligation to provide defense lawyers; and their judges are appointed — and fired — by the president. That reasoning echoes DHS’s questionable claim that ICE agents need to mask up because of what the department described as an almost 700 percent increase in assaults against agents nationally during the first six months of this year. But as DHS revealed last week, the raw number of assaults this year is 79, compared to 10 in the same period last year. Given that ICE arrests have more than quadrupled since Trump took office — and the agency’s determination of what qualifies as an assault is often dubious — this uptick likely sounds more dramatic than it is. Adam Boyd, a former ICE attorney who resigned last month, according to a report in The Atlantic, said that many ICE lawyers feel frustrated about having to ask judges to dismiss cases so that ICE enforcement and removal officers can grab immigrants outside courtrooms and swell the Trump administration’s deportation numbers. Boyd said he left after making what he called “a moral decision.” As the Trump administration orders ICE to ramp up its removal operations, hundreds of immigrants to the United States are being arrested and beaten by people with their faces covered and no proof of who they are. Now, they may not know the names of the attorneys making the case to deport them, either.
July 16, 2025 at 4:57 AM
globalissues.org
theconversation.com/plans-to-rel...

Orwell and Tacitus anyone? "Humanitarian city" = a prison camp; "They make a desert and call it peace..."
Army reservists have reportedly also complained that the plan amounts to a war crime. In my view as an expert in international law, they are correct. Forcibly relocating a population is prohibited, even in war. It is also a crime against humanity and could even amount, under certain circumstances, to genocide.
July 10, 2025 at 7:18 PM
globalissues.org
theconversation.com/new-us-direc...

"Your social media is no longer a personal space. It may be used by governments to determine whether you fit in."
The US is not alone in integrating digital surveillance into border security. China has implemented social credit systems. And the United Kingdom is exploring digital ID systems for immigration control. There are even calls for Australia to use artificial intelligence to facilitate digital border checks. The United Nations has raised concerns about the global trend toward digital vetting at borders, especially when used without judicial oversight or transparency. A free speech issue
July 7, 2025 at 5:41 AM
globalissues.org
Choice quotes attached, noting how much a threat the protesters were; how this is literally worse a punishment than under Putin; how UN and others note this dangerous precedent conflates protest (a fundamental right in a functioning democracy) with terrorism.

E.g. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “We commend the counter-terrorism police for their decisive action in protecting the people of London from some cardboard signs opposing the genocide in Gaza and expressing support for those taking action to prevent it. It’s a relief to know that counter-terrorism police have nothing better to do.” An environmental campaigner, Donnachadh McCarthy, said: “To proscribe an organisation of peaceful direct action as terrorists is a huge red line for our democracy. It means that all the rest of us, whether we’re climate activists, Greenpeace, women’s suffragettes, disabled activists, it means that the government can now declare any act of property damage to be terrorism, which gives you a sentence of 14 years. “This is worse than Putin’s Russia. I don’t say that lightly. It’s 10 years for doing what we’re doing today in Russia; it’s 14 years in the UK, because of Yvette Cooper’s outrageous betrayal of democracy, liberalism, and what is in my view a step towards fascism.” UN experts, civil liberties groups, cultural figures and hundreds of lawyers have condemned the ban as draconian and said it sets a dangerous precedent by conflating protest with terrorism. The ban means Palestine Action has become the first direct action protest group to be banned under the Terrorism Act, placing it in the same category as Islamic State, al-Qaida and the far-right group National Action.
July 6, 2025 at 10:26 AM
globalissues.org
“The planet is sending us increasingly clear signals that we are crossing critical thresholds,” concludes Estrella Olmedo. “And in this case, it has done so from a remote corner of the world that is very difficult to monitor: the Southern Ocean.”
According to the research team, the consequences of this reversal are already becoming visible. The upwelling of deep, warm, CO₂-rich waters is believed to be driving the accelerated melting of sea ice in the Southern Ocean. In the long term, this process could double current atmospheric CO₂ concentrations by releasing carbon that has been stored in the deep ocean for centuries—potentially with catastrophic consequences for the global climate.
July 5, 2025 at 8:23 AM
globalissues.org
"Slapp [strategic lawsuits against public participation] cases are on the rise across the board.

...

these cases were having a chilling effect not just on individual campaign groups but on the wider democratic process."
“These cases have a dual impact,” he said. “On the one hand, they have a devastating effect on the individual campaigner, reporter or organisation, but also they have this systemic impact on democracy because they work to block accountability and shut down information about corporations, politicians or other powerful individuals or groups.” Holt said the rise of the cases over the past decade was due in part to an increased polarisation in society. “Previously a large-scale civil lawsuit would have been viewed as ill-advised for big corporations because it was understood to risk a major reputational backlash, whereas I think in an era of intense polarisation, it’s easier to discredit and isolate the target of the attack.” He said the trend also reflected the growing power of corporations in the global economy. “The costs and the sheer scale of these cases are enormous but giant corporations are able to absorb that … these cases feed off the wider imbalance between the corporate claimant and the defendant – the wider that imbalance, the more effective they will be.”
July 5, 2025 at 5:49 AM
globalissues.org
Thanks @nickturse.bsky.social

Great article as you say.

It's incredibly barbaric... bsky.app/profile/glob...
Meanwhile, hear about “Alligator Alcatraz?” Probably. Because unlike the brutal, sadistic Communist camp guards and officials who went out of their way to hide the existence of the gulags, the brutal, sadistic MAGA crowd is reveling—joyously reveling—in the snap construction of a camp for immigrants in the Florida everglades.
July 5, 2025 at 5:01 AM
globalissues.org
From the article
“What the Government wants to do, concretely, is send the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States from Djibouti to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the local authorities without regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death,” wrote Sotomayor. “Today’s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial.”
July 3, 2025 at 11:21 PM
globalissues.org
Good report. Thanks. This bit caught my eye... How it potentially benefits US armed industry
In the past, rapid increases in military expenditure have been associated with significant risks: procurement inefficiencies, overpricing, misuse and the bypassing of oversight mechanisms. Moreover, the capacity of the arms industrial base to absorb sharp and substantial increases in military spending is uncertain. The industry has struggled to scale up production, particularly in Europe, and meet rising demand since 2022. This mismatch between rising demand and supply could push European countries to buy off-the-shelf equipment from major US arms producers, which is arguably at odds with calls for Europe to increase its strategic and defence autonomy.
July 1, 2025 at 7:59 AM
globalissues.org
Cities are heating up the planet – how they can do more to fight climate change
theconversation.com/cities-are-h...

"Cities have a central role to play tackling climate change. They contribute 67–72% of the greenhouse gas emissions which are heating up the planet."
Priority areas for minimising damaging emissions generated by cities.
June 30, 2025 at 12:19 AM