Portside

Since 9/11, the Pentagon has increasingly viewed the African continent as a place with a multitude of problems that can only be remedied by military means. But, despite billions of dollars in aid and training missions and joint exercises conducted by America’s most elite troops, West African nations find themselves chronically imperiled by a plethora of insurgent groups and members of their own armed forces, many of whom were trained by these same U.S. special forces.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has a set a November 19 deadline for people to comment on its proposed relaxation in standards for nuclear power plants, an alarming change in U.S. federal policy that is based on a theory that low doses of radioactivity are good for people. The NRC is supporting changes being pushed by the nuclear industry and “a group of pro-nuclear fanatics,” according to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader of the British Labor party, in a stunning first-round victory that dwarfed even the mandate for Tony Blair in 1994. The election of the anti-war activist and rank and file Member of Parliament means the Labor party now has one of the most leftwing, anti-establishment leaders in its 115-year history. Minutes after his victory, Corbyn said the message is that people are “fed up with the injustice and the inequality” of Britain.

As the partisan Congressional Republican attack on Planned Parenthood heated up this week, a new study released Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute found, "unequivocally that for women in many areas of the country, losing Planned Parenthood would mean losing their chosen provider—and the only safety-net provider around." Safety-net providers provide care and services in low-income, medically underserved, immigrant, and communities of color.

Tanya (Hyonhye) Ko, a Korean-born Los Angeles poet, reveals the complications of immigration to the US from the point of view of a child, now an adult, who must sort out fiction from fact.

On Wednesday night 26,000 union members participated in a phone call with Bernie Sanders.

Scientists have discovered a new human-like species in a burial chamber deep in a cave system in South Africa.

To ask if the rogue Republican’s surge is good for Democrats is the wrong question. The most important question that should be asked about the Trump candidacy is: What is wrong with America that this racist, misogynist, money-cheating clown should be the frontrunner for the presidential nomination of one of its two major parties?