Portside

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.

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.

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.”