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

The European Court has invalidated an international agreement that allows the sharing of online data between the U.S. and Europe by Internet companies like Google and Facebook. The ruling could affect the flow of digital information such as users’ web search histories and social media updates. “The court said leaks from Edward J. Snowden...made it clear that American intelligence agencies had almost unfettered access to the data, infringing on Europeans’ rights to privacy,” said the Times.   read more

Valeant’s corporate strategy has nothing to do with finding cures for disease. Instead, it buys other drug firms that own older medicines. Then it jacks up the price. If “products are sort of mispriced and there’s an opportunity, we will act appropriately in terms of doing what I assume our shareholders would like us to do,” Valeant CEO J. Michael Pearson told analysts. In other words, he’s happy to squeeze money out of patients for the sake of his shareholders.   read more

When Virginia’s GOP-dominated legislature was found to have drawn congressional district maps that were racially discriminatory, the districts were ordered to be redrawn. However, the Republicans say their intent was not to discriminate, but to unfairly draw districts that favored candidates from their party, and any remapping should reflect that. Now they’ve admitted in court filings that the gerrymander was intentional, and may they please keep it.   read more

Researchers found that patients with less education, who were unemployed and who were black, Hispanic or another minority tended to have longer wait times. Hispanic patients, for example, spent 105 minutes at a clinic, while white patients spent an average of 80 minutes. When it came to travel time, black patients spent an average of 45 minutes, while white patients traveled an average of 36 minutes getting to a clinic.   read more

The chemical safety board has been rocked by chaos and coup, thanks to poor leadership, which makes you wonder what has gone on at the African Development Foundation to generate such a bottom-of-the-barrel score. Other agencies scoring below 50% were the Federal Election Commission (43%), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (46%), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (47%), and Commission on Civil Rights (49%). DHS had the lowest mark among large federal agencies.   read more

Doctors Without Borders contacted the U.S. military to urge them to stop the attack, but it went on for 30 minutes.The Pentagon first denied it even happened, then said it did but that the Taliban could have been using it as a base; then blamed it on Afghan forces that requested help from the U.S. while fighting the Taliban. Gen. John F. Campbell, American commander in Afghanistan, is said to believe U.S. troops broke rules of engagement by calling in the airstrike on behalf of Afghan forces.   read more

These failures often occur because local armies are being asked to put their lives on the line for regimes that lack legitimacy and fail to inspire people to fight for their country. “The question is can we put a government in place that’s worthy of their sacrifice?” said Richard Armitage. “And if we can’t do that, they won’t die for their country, and all the training in the world won’t get you anywhere.” Also, U.S. forces are trained to fight wars, not train others to do so.   read more

Calling slaves “workers” alarmed former English teacher Dean-Burren because it suggested that they were compensated for their labor. The passage was contained in a section called “Patterns of Immigration,” which implied the slaves weren’t forced against their will to come to the U.S. Texas authorities have an outsized effect on what goes into U.S. textbooks. Publishers defer to Texas’ wishes because their statewide market is huge, leading conservatives to push their ideas into the books.   read more

The Justice Dept. didn't point out how much of the settlement BP can write off come tax time. Advocacy group US PIRG said not only can BP deduct more than $15 billion from its income, it can expect a tax windfall of $5.35 billion from it. “This not only sends the wrong message,” said PIRG’s Michelle Surka, “but it also hurts taxpayers by forcing us to shoulder the burden of BP’s tax windfall in the form of higher taxes, cuts to public programs, and more national debt.”   read more

Judge Chutkan wrote that it was “particularly puzzling” that for some documents there was “no explanation of how the information, if released, could risk circumvention of the law, no explanation of what laws would purportedly be circumvented, and little detail regarding what law enforcement purpose is involved (other than vague references to ‘national security concerns.’) This is not enough to justify withholding records under the FOIA.”   read more

“It is appalling that Faisal was deemed worthy of meetings in Washington D.C. with White House and National Security Council officials, but that the U.S. is trying its level best to avoid apologizing, and to block his quest for justice by kicking him out of the courts,” said his attorney, Cori Crider. “There is no good reason that the president stood up in front of the world with the Lo Porto and Weinstein families to say sorry for the U.S.’s tragic mistake, but can’t do so for a Yemeni man.”   read more

The VW plant employs more than 3,200 workers. “I am very concerned as to the financial impact these violations could present to the state of Tennessee,” wrote State Senator Watson. “Some people are going to lose jobs, at least temporarily,” Hutchinson said. The number of VW vehicles potentially involved in the scandal ranges from 500,000 in the United States to 11 million worldwide. The Chattanooga plant makes the Passat, whose diesel models have the cheating software.   read more

NHTSA failed to include at least 101 vehicle deaths in 2013 related to police chases. The agency’s total was 322, which was off by 31%. The undercount may go back to 1979, meaning the total of police chase-related deaths is not 11,506, as reported by NHTSA, but more than 15,000. “The findings expose potentially major flaws in how the federal government tracks motor-vehicle fatalities and...how police document high-speed chases, which often result in innocent people being killed," said Frank.   read more

The Atlantic’s Gillian White explained this “means that no matter how rich or poor the district in question, funding gaps existed solely based on the racial composition of the school. Just the increased presence of minority students actually deflated a district’s funding level.” Mosenkis’ research showed districts that “have a few more students of color get lower funding than the ones that are 100 percent or 95 percent white.”   read more

The jails, which are largely empty, cost the federal government $70 million to build, but should have cost less than $40 million The prisons are not only bigger than what’s needed, they’re also too big to operate. The Bureau of Indian Affairs can afford only 40% of the staffing for prisons that size. It can pay for just 25 of the 63 full-time correction officers needed to staff the Tuba City jail, which is 82% vacant for want of funding to pay corrections officers.   read more

The World Trade Center Health Program, serving more than 70,000 first responders to the 9/11 attacks, was allowed to expire on Oct. 1. Funding will continue for about a year, with services being gradually phased out. Eventually, these heroes, sickened by the work they did, will be turned away.   read more