Photo: Madhurantakam [CC BY-SA 3.0]
On April 15, 2019, the cathedral caught on fire and burned. The image of the spire collapsing will never leave the hearts and souls of the French people. We extend our deepest regrets and offer this video that captured just a touch of the glory Notre Dame was. Join us in remembrance.
By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-14-2019
Eman Al-Nafjan and Loujain Al-Hathloul—along with Nouf Abdulaziz, not shown for privacy and safety reasons—are recipients of the 2019 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award. (Photo: PEN America)
Three women’s rights activists on trial in Saudi Arabia this week because of their efforts to expand human rights in the infamously oppressive kingdom are this year’s recipients of an award “designed to honor a writer imprisoned for his or her work.”
PEN America, which works to defend free expression globally through the advancement of literature and human rights, announced Thursday that imprisoned writers Nouf Abdulaziz, Loujain Al-Hathloul, and Eman Al-Nafjan will be honored with the 2019 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award at the PEN America Literary Gala in May. Continue reading
By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-21-2019
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg led the seventh students’ climate strike in the last seven weeks in Brussels on Thursday. (Photo: @choucachamia/Twitter)
Sixteen-year-old climate action leader Greta Thunberg stood alongside European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker Thursday in Brussels as he indicated—after weeks of climate strikes around the world inspired by the Swedish teenager—that the European Union has heard the demands of young people and pledged more than $1 trillion over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet.
In the financial period beginning in 2021, Juncker said, the EU will devote a quarter of its budget to solving the crisis. Continue reading
By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-25-2019
That awkward moment of silence when a teenager tells you you’ve set the planet on fire.
Sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg just told a group of the elite gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum—as they were seated just feet away from her—that they are among those directly responsible for the climate crisis.
Speaking Thursday before a panel that included U2 frontman Bono, former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres, acclaimed conservationist Jane Goodall, and panel host and billionaire Marc Benioff, Thunberg echoed themes from a video she created to share with Davos-goers Continue reading
By Sigmund Fraud. Published 8-16-2018 by Waking Times
It’s a strange world of newspeak we live in. What was once a society devoted to logic and progress is now being herded in echo chambers of thought control and anti-critical thinking. Without the ability to examine an issue impartially and completely there is little hope of maintaining liberty and freedom, as history repeatedly demonstrated.
Today, we find that thinking is a diminishing art, and in its place, sound bites and stop-thought terms are used to put the brakes on the mind. These terms are widely used as signals to prevent minds from looking too deeply at a topic or issue. Continue reading
By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 12-26-2018
Screenshot: YouTube
As President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed without a shred of evidence that “many” furloughed or unpaid federal workers support the ongoing government shutdown because they want “funding for the wall,” public employees and their family members who say they have been harmed by the lapse in government funding took to social media to set the record straight.
“My husband is furloughed due to the Trump shutdown,” a Twitter user named Nancy wrote on Tuesday. “This is a very stressful time, and believe me, my husband does not want that wall.” Continue reading
By Jenna McGuire. Published 12-18-2018 by Common Dreams
Shaima Swileh, a Yemeni mother who the United States government had denied entry on the basis of the Trump administration’s controversial Muslim ban, has finally won a temporary visa to visit her dying two-year-old son, Abdullah Hassan, who has been on life support for over a month in an Oakland, California hospital with his father.
GOOD NEWS: Shaima Swileh has been granted a waiver to come see her son, Abdullah in his final days.https://t.co/slcYWUc5P4 pic.twitter.com/Vorlw9obsE
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) December 18, 2018
By Jon Queally, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 11-8-2018
Jim Acosta at a campaign rally. Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr
An online petition is surging towards its goal of 350,000 signatures on Thursday as it called on members of the White House Press Association to stand in solidarity against the Trump adminstration’s decision to strip credentials from CNN report Jim Acosta.
Posted on MoveOn.org’s platform, but coordinated by the watchdog group Media Matters for America, the petition reads:
If Trump blacklists or bans one of you, the rest of you need to stand up. Instead of ignoring Trump’s bad behavior and going about your business, close ranks and stand up for journalism. Don’t keep talking about what Trump wants to talk about. Stand up and fight back. Amplify your colleague’s inquiry or refuse to engage until he removes that person/outlet from the blacklist.
By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 11-6-2018
Photo: Big Dubya/flickr
A poll released as Americans cast their ballots in the midterm elections on Tuesday shows that more than half of the country believes Election Day should be made a national holiday—a likely partial solution to a number of problems that plague the voting system.
Fifty-four percent of respondents to the survey, taken by Hill.TV and HarrisX, say workers should be given the day off on Election Day, allowing them far more time to vote, saving them from having to leave their polling places without voting due to long lines and issues with voting machines, and potentially changing the United States’ generally low election turnout for the better. Continue reading
By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-22-2018
Breaking with its past as one of the world’s top coal users, Wales announced it would end its use of all fossil fuels following the IPCC’s report on the climate crisis. (Photo: Walt Jabsco/Flickr/cc)
Climate action groups on Monday applauded the government of Wales for demonstrating that it is taking seriously the existential and planetary threat posed by fossil fuels by announcing that the country would end its extraction of coal.
Wales’ new proposed plan to reject all future coal mining applications is set to be finalized by the end of the year, a government spokesperson told the BBC last week, as part of the country’s new energy strategy which will aim to ensure that 70 percent of Wales’ energy is derived from renewable sources by 2030. Continue reading