Noam Chomsky says Trump and allies are "criminally insane"

The renowned linguist and controversial political critic said President Donald Trump is choosing to race toward the catastrophes of climate change.

  • Chomsky said climate change and nuclear war are the two main existential threats facing humanity.
  • The Republican Party and Trump are not only failing to address climate change, but also are choosing to make it worse, according to Chomsky.
  • Polling data show that American Republicans seem to be growing slightly more skeptical about climate change and climate science.
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Map shows U.S. effort to feed Europe after WWI

This 100-year-old map, originally made for American consumption, highlights the famines that swept across Europe after WWI.

Image: University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries
  • Exactly a century ago, a massive U.S. relief effort kept Europe, including communist Russia, from starving to death.
  • This map shows the areas worst affected by famine, but ignores the food emergency in Germany.
  • Drawn up between the Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles, it also shows a few intriguing countries and borders, never seen since.
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Steven Mnuchin withdraws from Saudi conference over missing journalist

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has cancelled an upcoming trip to an economic conference in Saudi Arabia amid the controversy involving missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
  • Saudi Arabia's economic conference has been dubbed "Davos in the Desert".
  • Mnuchin joins a growing list of officials and industry executives who've dropped out of the event.
  • It's turning into a PR nightmare for the nation, particularly for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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foreign policy global issues middle east politics

Where the water wars of the future will be fought

A new report warns about the increasing likelihood of international conflicts over water.

Abd al-Ibrahim, whose home was destroyed during fighting, as he rests on his trip to supply water to his family at the house they are squatting in the northern Syrian city of Raqa. October 15, 2018. (Photo credit: DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images)
  • A study finds that serious conflicts over water are going to arise around the globe.
  • The 5 hotspots identified by the paper include areas of the Nile, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Indus, Tigris-Euphrates, and Colorado rivers.
  • It's still possible to change course if we are prepared to address the effects of climate change.
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How diplomacy saves American lives

Diplomacy is not always pretty and much of the work of diplomats is misrepresented and politicized but it is absolutely essential to keep the world at peace.

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  • Diplomacy doesn't always look pretty or neat, but it is absolutely an antidote to and an alternative to military intervention.
  • There are some fundamental misunderstandings about what diplomats do around the world that have been exploited by politicians of both parties.
  • One of the consequences of sidelining diplomacy is you see a lot more of the work that was once the domain of diplomats coming out of the Pentagon and the CIA, with negotiations dictated by the industrial military complex.
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