Portside

The largest Union in Britain, UNITE, endorsed a call to Boycott, Divest and Enact Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, because of its treatment and occupation of Palestine. Another article explains the BDS movement.

According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center, the number of full-time reporters covering state politics for daily newspapers has declined by 35% since 2003, most dramatically in the South. The "nontraditional" news sources that have sought to fill this vacuum in state political coverage are dominated by conservative organizations and their websites. The Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity owns 14 of these 33 "ideological websites."

Less than a month after Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi became president of Egypt, he launched a massive cut in state subsidies causing fuel, bread and other prices to rise dramatically. The new austerity plan has provoked anger from consumers, taxi drivers and shop owners, and threatens to spread to other sectors.

In wake of new revelations regarding NSA and FBI targeting of prominent Muslim-Americans for surveillance, civil liberties organizations denounced the monitoring as "arbitrary and abusive." They called upon President Obama to prove the government surveillance of these prominent Muslim-Americans, including a political candidate and several civil rights activists, academics and lawyers, was not motivated by "racial or religious bias."

Plea for peace from Julia Chaitin, a kibbutzim who teaches in Israel, and lives near Gaza. She and some Israelis are challenging the endless hatred and violence practiced by both sides. She is joined by some Palestinians. Together they care for each other, that there is a way forward around the violence. J.J. Goldberg, writing in the Jewish Daily Forward charges that the Israeli Gaza onslaught is built on lies, and the heavier responsibility lies on Netanyahu government.