The olive harvest time in Palestine is a wonderful time for a visit. The trees are full of ripe olives and in solidarity with the Palestinian land owners we will be part of this traditional experience. You can either climb a tree or work down on the ground. We collect the olives on the tarps and then in buckets and bags. We will have traditional Palestinian lunch on the fields and we will visit an olive press. Besides volunteering on the land you will have the chance to discover Palestine and travel around with your guide Baha, to understand the reality of the geo-political situation. There are excursions to Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Lifta, Hebron and the South Hebron hills, Ramallah (the Arafat Museum) and Nabi Saleh. read full story / add a comment

The WSWS website carries an interesting report on the atrocity in Sri Lanka providing background and relevant context unlikely to appear in the corporate and state media. For starters they say:

Despite an intelligence alert 10 days before, both the government and police failed to warn the public and took little or no action to prevent the terrible bombings. read full story / add a comment

After months of negotiations and four days of formal meetings, the United Nations voted on development policies at the fourth UN Financing for Development Forum. The UN meetings convene world leaders, ministers, governments, the IMF, World Bank and development groups. The annual process attempts to implement the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, an international agreement that includes policies on debt, tax, trade, transparency and aid. read full story / add a comment

Tomorrow the European Parliament will vote on a 13 billion military research and development fund, the so called European Defence Fund. One thousand researchers, scientists and academics from twenty-five European countries call on the Parliament to vote against the Fund. They argue that the EU should tackle the root causes of conflict instead of funding military research.

On Thursday the European Parliament votes on a ‘compromise text’ on the European Defence Fund. This would be a significant break with past European policies, as military funding has until now been excluded from the EU budget.

The 1000 researchers warn of the consequences of an R&D programme for new arms technology. "The establishment of an EU military research programme points towards an unprecedented acceleration in the militarisation of the EU," says Dr Stuart Parkinson, Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility. "Investing EU funds in military research will not only divert resources from more peaceful areas, but is also likely to
fuel arms races, undermining security in Europe and elsewhere". read full story / add a comment

Julian Assange who helped setup Wikileaks and in one of the first set of leaks revealed the murderous campaign of the US military against innocent civilians in Iraq amongst many other leaks showing the systematic criminality and inhumanity of the US government was betrayed this morning by the right wing corrupt president Lenin Moreno of Ecuador. Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa – whose government granted Assange asylum in 2012 – branded his more pro-US successor Lenin Moreno the “greatest traitor in Ecuadorian history” for rescinding the asylum claim and allowing British officers to enter his country’s embassy.

At the moment in a damage limitation exercise to try and shutdown support for Assange the corporate press is saying if charged, he could face up to 5 years in prison. This is to make it not so bad, but we can be 100% sure if deported to the USA, they will have a long list of dubious charges and most likely will give him a prison sentence that will more than easily cover the rest of his lifespan for that is the way of such regimes. read full story / add a comment

In Somalia, 60 percent of the 15 million person population lives in extreme poverty. According to the United Nations Development Programme almost 10 million people live in extreme poverty or close to poverty in Somalia while the war-torn African nation wrestles with a $4.6 billion debt. On Friday, Somalia's Finance Minister Abdirahman Beileh will call for debt cancellation for humanitarian assistance. read full story / add a comment

For the second day in a row, the International Monetary Fund raised concerns of pending financial crisis. Ahead of the Spring IMF and World Bank meetings, the IMF released the Global Financial Stability Report, warning of "vulnerabilities" in corporate debt, house values and sovereign (country) debt. read full story / add a comment

As world leaders, finance ministers, business leaders and development groups gather for the Spring International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings, the IMF raises fresh concerns about the global economy. The IMF releases the biannual World Economic Outlook Report noting a slowdown in global growth and focusing on economic challenges that include unsustainable debt, trade tensions and the impact of natural disasters on the financial system. read full story / add a comment

Today (4th Apr) is the seventieth anniversary of the foundation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On 3rd and 4th April foreign ministers from NATO countries are meeting in Washington D.C.

This is no cause for celebration. NATO is an aggressive imperialist war machine that expresses and serves the interests and profitability of capital and the monopolies. NATO is the enemy of peace and social progress. It exists in the interests of preserving the current social system. read full story / add a comment

On Monday the Senate failed to pass disaster relief funding to benefit Americans impacted by wildfires, hurricanes, flooding and other natural disasters. Republicans and Democrats clashed over recovery aid amounts for Puerto Rico and two separate proposals could not muster enough votes for passage. read full story / add a comment

The Senate agreed to vote next week on disaster relief legislation that includes $600 million in emergency food assistance for Puerto Rico. In recent days, a turbulent exchange between President Trump and Congressional leadership exploded over whether or not Puerto Rico disaster aid monies should be included in Senate legislation. read full story / add a comment

ARE TREES THE NEW COAL? UN International Day of Forests Documentary Release
UN International Day of Forests on Thursday 21 March

A documentary about the burning of wood at an industrial scale for energy is being released today to coincide with UN International Day of Forests.

"BURNED: Are Trees the New Coal?" tells the story of the accelerating destruction of our forests for fuel. read full story / add a comment

Yesterday, the governor of the Paris military district told France Info that soldiers of the Operation Sentinel counter-terror mission had been authorized to fire today on the “yellow vests.” Asked about whether soldiers were capable of carrying out law enforcement duties, General Bruno Le Ray replied: “Our orders are sufficiently clear that we do not need to be worried at all. The soldiers’ rules of engagement will be fixed very rigorously.” read full story / add a comment

Protests at Shannon abound read full story / add a comment

The House of Representatives is holding hearings on legislative initiatives to deter corruption and secrecy in the global financial system. read full story / add a comment

The death last month of a former senior British police officer, John Stalker, will no doubt have rekindled many disturbing and distressful memories for the families of six men shot dead by the RUC during the dark read full story / add a comment

On March 8 each year, there is certainly no shortage of outrages that have been perpetrated against women over the course of another year of violence, human rights abuses and oppression read full story / add a comment

THIS IS OUR LAST CHANCE TO OVERTURN THE EU COPYRIGHT REFORM

In September 2018, MEPs voted for a version of the copyright Directive which will indirectly lead to implementing upload filters on most of the services you use online. The European Parliament’s (EP) Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee Rapporteur, MEP Axel Voss, then started the ‘trilogue negotiations’ – closed-door ‘informal’ negations with the representatives of the EU Member States (Council) and the European Commission (EC). These negotiations resulted in a trilogue agreement in Mid-February 2019. Despite massive criticism, the text has been made even worse than the EP’s proposal. read full story / add a comment

You think war was bad for you, well, think again… It’s worse for children; whether they are babies, small children or old enough to carry a gun or a knife and engage in the savagery of modern war… read full story / add a comment

In 2015, our governments committed in Paris to protecting our future by providing a safe pathway well below 2C with Social and Climate Justice..

Three years have passed, and our future looks bleaker than ever!
The greedy guess that 3C warming is ok. Climate scientists have evidence that even 2C will cause massive starvation, drought, fire tornados, floods, wars and death. read full story / add a comment