Portside

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation issued a stunning announcement on Tuesday, saying that it supports a two-year moratorium on attaching high-stakes to teacher evaluations or student promotion on tests associated with the new Common Core State Standards.

The unions have for years been telling the government, let’s address this, and offering an alternative plan. But workers’ attempts to have fruitful dialogue with the administration are not having any results.

You have to learn how to take the steps that will earn you the right to organize in the 21st century.

The results of a virus escape are so potentially dire that it would be important to know that running the risk is worthwhile.

The U.S. Department of Labor said this week that it’s examining two worker deaths at warehouses operated by the world’s largest online retailer.

TTIP does away with “barriers” that impede the intercontinental flow of goods. This will make it easier for companies to base their production facilities on “cost” grounds, especially social ones. Workers’ entitlement to be involved will still stop at the border. TTIP will therefore mean a weakening of workers’ rights, despite guarantees under the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

In the looming second Iran-Iraq War, the US will be de facto allied with Iran against the would-be al-Qaeda affiliate (ISIS was rejected by core al-Qaeda for viciously attacking other militant vigilante Sunni fundamentalists in turf wars in Syria). In fact, since ISIS is allegedly bankrolled by private Salafi businessmen in Kuwait and elsewhere in the Oil Gulf, the US is on the opposite side of all its former allies of the 1980s.

The environment in Rwanda under the current government is unsafe for anyone or any party perceived to be in opposition to the regime. Defense lawyer Beth S. Lyons reports on what happens when the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) rules against Rwanda's current President Paul Kagame.

Kids' books are missing the diversity of modern America. In children's books, it can be easier to find talking pandas than characters of color. Only 6 percent of children's books published in 2012 featured diverse characters.