Stephen Hawking says Trump’s climate policy could “push the Earth over the brink”

A Journal of People Report

Professor Stephen Hawking. Source: Internet

On his 75th birthday, one of the world’s greatest scientists, Prof. Stephen Hawking told BBC News that U.S President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement could lead to a point where climate change is ‘irreversible’.

Expressing great concern for the future of the human species, Prof. Hawking told BBC:

“We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid.”

Venezuela: “Terrorists” Torch 50 Tons of Food as ex-National Guard Chief Indicted

by RYAN MALLETT-OUTTRIM

venezuelanalysis.com | June 30, 2017

Around half the food in a government distribution centre was torched Thursday. (AVN)

Puebla, Mexico, June 30, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan authorities said Thursday more than 50 tons of food have been incinerated by anti-government groups, amid ongoing attacks on public infrastructure.

The attack took place in the municipality Simon Bolivar in Barcelona, Anzoategui state, when a group of attackers infiltrated a government food distribution centre. The Ministry of Food has stated the attackers set fire to the interior of a warehouse, destroying a stockpile of basic food products awaiting distribution.

Food Minister Rodolfo Marco Torres described the incident as an act of terrorism, blaming opposition supporters.

Laying down of arms by Colombia’s FARC-EP guerrillas completed

Granma | June 30, 2017

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos shakes the hand of Jean Arnault, head of the UN mission, with FARC-EP leader Rodrigo Londoño, alias Photo: EFE

On June 27, the Colombian people experienced one of the most important days of its history, with the completion of laying down of arms on the part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces- People’s Army (FARC-EP), in the Buenavista area, located in the municipality of Mesetas en Meta.

The first words of the ceremony were spoken by the head of the UN mission in Colombia, Jean Arnault, who emphasized that since August of 2016, the bilateral ceasefire has been fully respected and a total of 7,132 individual weapons have been received in the area.

Contemplating Guernica in all its greatness

by  Mireya Castañeda

Granma | June 29, 2017

The structure of the painting is similar to that of a triptych, whose central panel is occupied by the dying horse and the woman carrying the lamp. On the right, the house on fire with the woman screaming, and, on the left, the bull and the woman with her dead baby. Photo: museoreinasofia.es

Guernica is the most famous painting of the 20th century. Pablo Picasso (Málaga, 1881 – Mougins, France, 1973) first unveiled the monumental piece to the public 80 years ago and to celebrate this anniversary, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid has organized the exhibition Pity and Terror: Picasso’s Path to Guernica.

Milagro Sala: Imprisoned for her struggle

by  Gabriela Ávila Gómez

Granma | June 26, 2017

Photo: TELESUR

A year and five months ago the indigenous leader of the Tupac Amaru neighborhood association, Milagro Sala, was arrested at her home in Argentina for alleged “incitement to commit crimes and public disturbance.”

The activist led a month-long sit-in against the policies brought in by Governor Gerardo Morales in Jujuy – a province home to 10% of the Tupac Amaru organization’s members. These transformations, according to teleSUR, would risk social organizations like Tupac Amaru losing their legal status and social benefits.

However, as a member of the Mercosur parliament, Parlasur, Sala has immunity from arrest, making her detention illegal.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: Greece’s debt is not sustainable, warns IMF chief

Wages drop

Workers strike

A Journal of People report

 

GETTY

Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund chief, has warned that Greece’s debt is not sustainable.  She said: Greece requires significant debt relief from Europe.

But, under pressure especially from Berlin, Greece’s 18 other euro partners have not yet broached the issue of debt relief, preferring to push that hot-button topic to next year.

Protesters in Greece took to the streets this week to criticize the government for going along with public sector cuts imposed by the IMF and the EU. Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos accused the opposition of being behind a strike.

Greece is in its seventh years of austerity sought by international creditors in return for bailouts.

Americans and South Koreans Want Peace. Will Trump Listen?

by Christine Ahn

Foreign Policy In Focus | June 29, 2017

Leaders of national peace organizations meet with Rep. John Conyers before delivering petitions to South Korean Embassy. (Photo provided by Christine Ahn)

As the newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in meets President Donald Trump for his first White House visit, the South Korean leader should stay focused on his calls for diplomatic, economic, and cultural engagement with Pyongyang.

The Trump administration will undoubtedly try to steer Moon in the opposite direction, towards “maximum pressure” on North Korea. However, while the United States may have heavily influenced South Korea’s economy and politics for the last 70 years, including still maintaining wartime operational control over its military, it’s a new day.

American Judge Says “Democracy Is Broken” as Court Declines to Oversee Drone Killing

Reprieve | June 30, 2017

A senior judge has today described American democracy as “broken” and Congressional oversight a “joke” in failing to check the US drone killing program.

In a concurring opinion in the DC Court of Appeals case Jaber v. Trump, Judge Janice Rogers Brown appears troubled that the law prevents her court from acting as a check on potential executive war crimes. Calling drone strikes an “outsized power,” she questioned who would be left to keep them in check.

The case was brought by Faisal bin ali Jaber, a Yemeni engineer whose innocent family members were mistakenly killed by a US drone in 2012. It sought an apology and a declaration that the strike was unlawful.

What Gujarat govt calls ‘historic’, could be catastrophic for 1,00,000 villagers

by Jitendra

Down To Earth | June 19, 2017

 Protests gather pace across Narmada Valley after the Supreme Court allows the Sardar Sarovar Dam to operate at its full capacity and asks the government to relocate all affected families by July 31 (Courtesy: Narmada bachao andolan)

Down to Earth Editor’s Note: Fifty-six years after the foundation stone for the Sardar Sarovar dam on the River Narmada was laid the Gujarat government got permission from the Centre to shut its gates. While 30 gates of the dam have been closed, it will open the gates of misery for more than 100,000 people, whose houses and land are likely to get submerged. Down To Earth visited villages near the dam to find out their concerns.

Utter chaos reigns over at least 176 villages and Dharampuri town in Narmada Valley. Every day, revenue officials, accompanied by platoons of police and armed with a Supreme Court order, visit these places in  and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh and ask the residents to vacate their houses, shops, farmland, pasture land and places of worship by July 31. “Some officials even threaten that they would unleash water from the Sardar Sarovar Dam on our villages if we do not relocate by the said date,” says Vijay Marola of Nasirpur village in Dhar.

Bhoomaiah, Kishta Goud, Bhabani Da and Sumanta

by Varavara Rao

Frontier | Vol. 49, No.51, Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2017

Sumanta Banerjee’s article ‘Remembering my old Comrades’ (on the eve of ‘Naxalbari 50’) took me also, down memory lane. It connects me to my acquaintances with Bhoomaiah, Kishta Goud, Bhabani Da and of course, Sumanta himself.

Let me first write about the peasant revolutionaries Bhoomaiah and Kishta Goud.  Bhoomaiah was from Muthunuru village of Peddapalli Taluq (now district, the place from where Kishanji and Vadkapuram Chandramouli also hail) of Karimnagar district on the banks of the Godavari. He comes from a ‘Jangama’ – a non-Brahmin priest  community. Kishta Goud was from Kannaram village of Asifabad Taluq, Adilabad district on the other side of the Godavari. Both were married. Bhoomaiah had children also. But most of their youthful life was spent in Telangana Armed Struggle (1946-51) till it was withdrawn.Sumanta Banerjee’s article ‘Remembering my old Comrades’ (on the eve of ‘Naxalbari 50’) took me also, down memory lane. It connects me to my acquaintances with Bhoomaiah, Kishta Goud, Bhabani Da and of course, Sumanta himself.

It was as under trial prisoners in Secunderabad Conspiracy Case during May 1974 -1975, we six members of Virasam (Revolutionary Writers’ Association), K V  Ramana Reddy, Cherabanda Raju, M T Khan, T Madhusudan Rao, M Ranganatham and myself used to meet Bhoomaiah and Kishta Goud now and then on certain rare occasions though we were kept in a different barrack. During that period the Superintendent of Jail Kurudulkar was a liberal democrat and very humanitarian. He was a friend of M T Khan outside because of his interest in theatre. He used to enact Vijay Tendulkar’s Marathi dramas. Once he brought Vijay Tendulkar to meet us in jail, when he was in Hyderabad, in 1974.