Portside

Six ways that Biden can make the world safer in 2021.

Let “natural herd immunity” as a pandemic relief strategy be extinguished with the end of 2020.

During the hearing, the High Court justices saw no problem with demoting the status of Arabic and claimed that 'equality' is something best left for the future.

The acceptance of Trump’s behavior by millions of his supporters will be his vilest legacy.

The Persian American poet Majid Naficy warns of celebrating a change of regimes too soon.

Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is gone but Libya is now more dangerous than ever. Where are the NATO Alliance "liberators" that facilitated the demise of the Libyan dictator's regime and left the country to the fate of warring militias and tribal warlords? Libya desperately needs viable political institutions and a credible security apparatus but "none of the 'liberators' seem interested any more."

Hundreds of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worried about what’s being called the new Agent Orange: open air burn pits. Burn pits are open-air areas where the US military burned water bottles and plastic-foam cups, as well as human and medical waste. In a survey of some 2,000 veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, three-quarters reported being exposed to burn pits and half said they have "symptoms associated with that exposure."

The Environmental Protection Agency, the government agency charged with safeguarding the country's health from environmental pollutants, pursues criminal charges in “fewer than one-half of one percent” of total legal violations. And the U.S. Justice Department has an even worse record. Consequently, all corporate violators, even repeat offenders and those involved in the illegal release of large amounts of dangerous toxic chemicals, escape criminal prosecution.