Portside

Pine trees, brought to Palestine with the establishment of the State of Israel, symbolize the varied means of “ethnic cleansing” directed at the Palestinian population. Used to cover-up the past destruction of Palestinian villages and neighborhoods, and the present displacement of Bedouins, these pine forests are now presented as Israel’s “green lungs.”

Last week the New York Times reported the Obama Administration is considering reaffirming the Bush-era position that the ban on cruel treatment doesn't apply when the United States is operating abroad. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) demanded the Obama Administration "close the oversees torture loophole." The ACLU said the ban on torture and ill-treatment is universal and applies everywhere the U.S. is holding people in detention.

The Hong Kong government and student protest leaders remain far apart following the first face to face talks between protesters and government officials over demands to democratize the process for the 2017 election of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. No date has as yet been fixed for future talks, and student protest leaders resisted government calls for an end to the mass sit-ins.

Cuba’s commitment of 461 doctors and nurses to combat Ebola in West Africa is the largest single-country offer of healthcare workers to date to combat the crisis. But, this is not the first example of Cuba’s “unprecedented medical solidarity.” Cuba has also sent medical teams to assist the peoples of Guatemala, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Haiti in this past decade. And Cuba has a lot to teach the world about disaster relief and epidemic control.

For the very first time, the Left Party may lead a coalition -- by the narrowest of margins -- with the Social Democrats and Greens that governs a German state. But forming that coalition would require difficult compromise and reversals on the part of all the coalition partners.

Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?”

“The flu is a much greater threat to the American public than Ebola is,” says a public health expert.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have to grapple with free speech and hate speech—and they haven’t done a good job.

You Don't Own Me (music video). Vaccine Delivery: The Last Mile. Behind the Scenes: Big Beverage. "We Want a Co-op!" Google VP Leaps From Stratosphere.

The southern New Mexico mining town of Santa Rita no longer exists, even as a ghost town, except in the memories of Terry Humble and others who lived there. In September, another vestige of Santa Rita disappeared when workers at the Chino Mine voted 236-83 to decertify a 72-year-old union celebrated for its heroic struggle to improve the lives of Hispanic miners and immortalized by the 1954 movie “Salt of the Earth.”