Portside

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is warning of a major humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where violence “has radically increased” since March, when the U.S.-backed Saudi aerial offensive began. According to Teresa Sancristóval, the head of MSF’s emergency unit, “The impact of this conflict is much wider than only the bombing or the shooting. Yemen is predicted to be the first country in the world to have a capital without water, and water scarcity has an enormous impact.”

Fires are proliferating throughout California where an unprecedented drought has turned the California countryside into a tinder box of dry and dying vegetation. But the fires are also emblematic of the state’s dependence on inmates to help battle the wildfires. California’s firefighting program (Cal Fire) boasts the country’s largest inmate firefighting program. Close to half of Cal Fire’s firefighters, approximately 4,000 prisoners, are inmate firefighters.

The rapidly deteriorating health of Mohammed Allaan, a Palestinian political prisoner on hunger strike has pit Israeli legislators, who recently enacted a law mandating that he be force-fed, against physicians, who refuse to comply on grounds that doing so would be tantamount to "torture," and violate their Hippocratic Oath. Hunger strikes have become a common form of protest by Palestinians held indefinitely without charge in Israeli administrative detention.

Social Security, which continues to provide benefits at costs far below those in the private sector, celebrated its 80th birthday Friday. And polls show Americans are extremely pleased with it. But, while Democrats finally seem to have abandoned their flirtation with benefit cutting, Republicans remain committed to its privatization. Yet campaigning against Social Security is political suicide, so the Republican strategy is to convince voters the program is unreliable.

On the campaign trail in Iowa, Donald Trump's antics have forced the other candidates to get crazy or go home

Right now, the novelty of a politician who doesn’t constantly spew lies is grabbing headlines. But after months of Bernie Sanders telling the truth, voters are going to start wondering, Is that all he’s got?

Ninety seven percent of scientific papers find that climate changing is occurring and that it is caused by human activity. Only 44 percent of Americans agree. What is the cause of this disparity, and is there any way to close the gap between the scientific consensus and the public perception?

A tour of the "real Israel" would show members of Congress the ugly truth behind Israel's propaganda.

Our mother was not a spy. The government held her life hostage to coerce our father to talk, and when that failed, it extracted false statements to secure her wrongful execution . . . It is never too late to correct an egregious injustice.

The NFL would be the last place you would expect to find a philosopher and a poet — and an atheist to boot.