When Pope John Paul II visited Damascus in May 2001, Bashar used his welcoming speech to denounce the Jews, saying, “They tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad.”   read more

He served as a second lieutenant in Cambodia’s army from 1972 to 1975 as a military police officer, with training in the United States at Fort Gordon, Georgia. When the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975, Bun Rong initially went into hiding, then was imprisoned by the regime. He told journalists, according to his biography, “I basically thrown away my uniform and escaped into the jungle feeding myself with insects and roots to survive.”   read more

Sayavongs began working with Laos’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1982. He was sent to the then-Soviet Union for education, earning an MA in international relations in 1988. Upon his return to Laos, Sayavongs was a desk officer in the ministry’s Department of International Organizations. He took time to earn another MA, this one in Asia and international studies from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, in 1996.   read more

Eighty of the largest cities in the world are working together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the effort seems to be a success. A new report says the C40 network of cities (now with 80 members) is expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 645 megatonnes by 2020. The reduction would be equivalent to not using 1.5 billion barrels of oil, or nearly 170 coal-fired power plants. The cities collectively represent 600 million people and a quarter of the global economy.   read more

Nix, a federal employee, gave a copy of his film to the FBI, but sold the original to then-wire service UPI for $5,000. UPI promised to keep it for 25 years. Nix died in 1972. When Nix’s granddaughter, Gayle Nix Jackson, tried to recover the film from UPI, the wire service said it no longer had it. Jackson has been trying for years to get the government to return the film to her family and has now filed a lawsuit seeking its return.   read more

Thanks to the import policy and labeling, the number of dolphin deaths related to tuna fishing has gone down 97% since the ban went into effect in 1990. But that successful effort is now being threatened by the WTO, which has ruled for the fourth time in four years that the labeling program is unfair to Mexico. The Mexican government fought the labeling since 2008, resulting in WTO decisions against the U.S. in 2011, 2012 and twice this year.   read more

He came home in 2006 to serve as executive assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. He was sent back to Mozambique the following year, this time as Deputy Chief of Mission. He did a tour in Kabul, Afghanistan, as senior diplomatic coordinator for economic affairs, from 2010 to 2011, where he helped administer $4 billion in economic assistance.   read more

In 1988, Greenberg joined the Center for Law and Social Policy, where he wrote extensively on federal welfare policies. He was on hand for the welfare reform signed into law by President Clinton. “This is not a proposal that provides or creates jobs for people. It simply pulls out the rug from under them,” said Greenberg in 1993. “So long as we have a society with unemployment, there are going to be people who cannot find jobs. Under this proposal, they and their children are going to be hurt.”   read more

Pritzker and seven scientific organizations have not backed down in the face of Smith’s threats, going so far as to accuse the congressman of conducting “a partisan witch hunt” and “inquests.” “The repercussions of the committee’s actions could go well beyond climate science, setting a precedent to question other topics such as [GMOs] and vaccines that have controversial regulatory and policy implications,” the groups wrote. “It’s an affront to the scientific process," said AAAS CEO Rush Holt.   read more

Valeant Pharmaceuticals is boosting the prices of older drugs, this time remedies for cancer patients with skin conditions. The soaring costs “have been off the charts," said researcher Dr. Steven Rosenberg. "We're not talking about new [or exotic] drugs. None of this makes any sense other than that they can get away with it.” Drug giant Pfizer is planning to boost profits another way, by buying Allergan and relocate to Ireland so it can avoid paying income taxes to the U.S. government.   read more

Over the past two years, frackers have been less forthcoming, with drillers increasingly citing use of proprietary compounds to limit disclosure. The trend was discovered by two Harvard researchers who examined more than 96,000 disclosure forms. It was found that drillers have been holding back more information. The study documented a 16.5% withholding rate on forms filed between 2013 and April 2015, compared to 11% in an Environmental Protection Agency analysis between 2011 and 2013.   read more

Walmart leadership was so concerned about the union activity that “it hired an intelligence-gathering service from Lockheed Martin, contacted the FBI...ranked stores by labor activity, and kept eyes on employees (and activists) prominent in the group” Susan Berfield reported for Bloomberg. The media investigation into Walmart revealed that inside its global security operation is a unit operated by a former FBI officer and an executive who used to run the Arkansas State Police.   read more

Republican Brian Kemp, the Georgia secretary of state, sent out a voter file to 12 recipients—media and political parties—that contained more than the usual names and addresses. Also in it were Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and dates of birth for 6,184,281 registered voters, according to a lawsuit filed by Elise Piper and Yvette Sanders. The two women, who filed a class-action lawsuit against Kemp, said they were among those whose information was revealed.   read more

It’s no accident that a large minority of Americans don’t believe the scientific evidence on climate change. New research shows that corporations have spent two decades funding studies that have sown the seeds of doubt in many Americans’ minds. “We sort of always suspected that this was the case...but this really demonstrates it empirically,” said professor Robert Brulle. Corporate funding helped create “a united network within which the contrarian messages could be strategically created.”   read more

American Family Voices is funded by labor unions, environmental interests and a major corporate retail lobbying group. Its video features Sen. Harry Reid criticizing the use of dark money in politics. “Working families can’t compete with billionaires,” he says in the video. “Let’s stop the flood of dark money into our political system and do it now.” But Reid has benefited from dark money as well. Patriot Majority USA spent more than $10 million running ads against Republican candidates.   read more

The men are suing the city of Manteca for adopting ordinances making it illegal to sleep or set up encampments outside. It also banned urination and defecation in public. The four say they have been cited by police for illegal campsites and argue the laws violate their constitutional rights by making homelessness a crime. “If we are not doing a crime, leave us alone,” Acosta told ThinkProgress, adding, “I shouldn’t be arrested and dragged off to county” just for being homeless.   read more

The demand has created business for companies such as Enviva, the so-called pellet giant of the U.S., according to the NRDC report. Other industry leaders include Franklin Pellets, Wood Fuel Developers and Georgia Biomass, which operates the world’s largest pellet factory. “Wood pellet manufacturing in the region is expected to continue skyrocketing, with production estimates as high as 70 million metric tons by 2020,” the report states.   read more