Last Friday, National Security Council senior Asian affairs director Evan Medeiros said John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter would meet their Japanese counterparts in New York on Monday.

They’d “announce some historic changes to the way US-Japan alliance operates” …

Legislative changes now sweeping across Asia threaten to displace millions of peasant families, undermine local food systems and increase violent conflicts over land. Already, just six percent of Asia’s farm owners hold around 66% of its farmland: the continent is …

I am on a journey through Vietnam with a group of American Vietnam War veterans who now live in Vietnam and work to address some of the profound human problems still caused by a war that ended 40 years ago. …

Scientists in India and the UK recently joined together to express solidarity with ex-employees and local residents exposed to toxic levels of mercury in Kodaikanal, India. Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) is a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever and is …

Debate over the nature and impact of civilian casualties from U.S. aerial attacks continues. “Are we creating more terrorists than we’re killing?,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once asked of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.¹ The rise of Al Qaeda …

This article initially published in June 2012 sheds light on Washington’s Pivot to Asia Strategy

On May 30 2012 the two officials most in charge of the U.S.’s formidible global military machine, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the …

Introduction to McDonald “The wired seas of Asia”.

While most recently mainstream discussion of peace and security in Asia has focussed on the rise of China and its consequences, a little noticed arms race that has been underway since the …

by Narmada Bachao Andolan

Ardent on their demand of full rehabilitation, the adivasi oustees of Narmada valley from Maharashtra state are continuing their sit-in before the Divisional Commissioner, Nasik. It’s the third day of their Dharna before the Commissioner. The …

Under a climate criminal Coalition Government Australia is lurching towards an environmental and human catastrophe represented by the huge, Government-approved Adani Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin of Queensland.

Pollutants from burning Australian coal exported from the proposed Adani …

China is ready to counterbalance the dominance of the dollar in the International Monetary System through the yuan. In 2009, Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, called for a transformation in the global reserve system; the …

On the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in Brisbane, US President Barack H. Obama delivered a keynote speech to diplomats, policymakers, faculty members, and students at the University of Queensland on the United States of America’s foreign …

Published in February 2015

It was another difficult week for Israel.

In Britain, 700 artists, including many household names, pledged a cultural boycott of Israel, and a leader of the Board of Deputies, the representative body of UK Jews, quit, …

As reports from individuals like Chieko Shiina, a supporter of the Fukushima Collaborateive Clinic talk about exploding rates of thyroid cancer in children, as well as an epidemic of leukemia, heart attacks, and other health problems, the Abe-led government and …

The latest US maritime strategic document, “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower: Forward, Engaged, Ready,” released yesterday, makes clear that Washington is pressing ahead with its “pivot to Asia” and military build-up against China. In doing so, the US …

It’s no secret by now that the US is dead set on containing China, yet it’s shying away from engaging in a direct confrontation with it. Instead, the US is managing a dual policy of creating chaos along China’s western …

NY Times, Apr 15, 2015 (emphasis added): [Regulators] approved an emergency closure of commercial sardine fishing off Oregon, Washington and California… Earlier this week, the council shut down the next sardine season… [R]evised estimates of sardine …

Polio is something I have more than a passing acquaintance with. Two days before my fifth birthday a medical doctor in Minneapolis diagnosed me with polio. I only learned decades later that it was not polio, poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis …

Not only Nepal but the entire Himalayan region is under threat. Genetically Engineered seeds are weapons of mass culling. The Nepalese Government’s foolishness in inviting USAID and Monsanto for ‘agricultural development’ through genetically engineered maize will destroy the quality of …

After more than 30 years I recently spent a week in the Philippines, giving a few arranged talks at universities, meeting with NGOs, and old friends who shared their understanding of this fascinating fast growing country of approximately 105 million …

Before being voted out of office last year, India’s Congress-led United Progressive Alliance administration sanctioned open-field trials of GM food crops in India and Monsanto’s share prices rocketed. This decision prompted Rajesh Krishnan of the Coalition for a GM …

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2007 had supposedly asked ex-Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd “how do you get tough on your banker?” This was over concerns about China’s growing power and hold on US finances and …

“I found the Woolworths campaign to be vulgar, but to be honest I didn’t find it more distasteful and vulgar than a lot of other things which are going on in terms of commercialisation of Anzac and the use of …

Much speculation abounds regarding China’s gold holdings.  They officially claim 1,054 tons as of April 2009.  We suspected they might “re” announce their holdings again last year at this time as it was five years after their last announcement and …

The Houthi rebellion in Yemen that was already in existence more than five years ago had recently turned into a full-blown conflict that escalated into an international crisis in the first week of April of 2015 when Houthi rebels in …

We seem to have finally arrived at some sort of moment of truth regarding Greece and their inclusion in the EU.  The speculation is they will be out of money by April 9th, this Thursday, unable to make a less …

As a West Point graduate raised in the home state of history-rich Massachusetts, I was steeped in the glorious tradition of the Long Gray Line heralding this nation’s greatest military leaders. Knowing that since 1802 the US Military Academy has …

Anyone with a brain could have told you back in 2011 at the time of the Fukushima nuclear triple meltdown that Tokyo Electric (Tepco) was lying about the true condition of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant No. 1 (“Dai-ichi”). Four …

Germany, France and Italy follow Britain’s lead in announcing plans to join a new, $50 billion China-led development institution that could rival the World Bank. Despite pressure from Washington, major U.S. allies have agreed to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment …

This tiny and impoverished Southeast Asian state is ever more becoming the geopolitical fulcrum for the entire mainland region. Combining close political relations to Vietnam with historical ties to Thailand, Laos is literally in the middle of ASEAN’s two strongest …

Dozens of unidentified foreign troops reported disembarking in the port of Aden turned out to be Chinese soldiers maintaining security as an unknown party opened fire on a vessel evacuating foreign citizens, a Yemeni official told Sputnik.

“A Chinese …

A major bombshell has dropped concerning the failed cleanup efforts at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. The shuttered plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), has apparently been hiding for an entire year the fact …

As first reported by Forbes, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dropped a bomb in its October Fiscal Monitor Report.  The report paints a dire picture for high-debt nations that fail to aggressively “mobilize domestic revenue,” which is code for …

It is unclear that a nuclear deal between the U. S. and Iran will take place. However, if there is a deal, it is guaranteed that those who opposed it from the start will try to sabotage it. The Republicans …

It has been such a tough period for the pro-GMO lobby that it’s difficult to know where to begin. But let us start by looking at two pieces of recent research that strike at the very heart of the pro-GMO …

The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) denounced the World Bank (WB) on its “16th Conference on Land and Poverty” that brings together corporations, governments and some civil society groups. The conference [was] taking place at Washington D.C. from March 23 to …

Last Friday, the FBI announced another harrowing, 11th-hour capture of Americans plotting to join “ISIS” and launch attack within the United States. The case of two Illinois men, Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds and his cousin Jonas Edmonds, ostensibly …

The Southeast Asian nation of Thailand is currently wrestling with a particularly contentious issue involving international oil concessions. In essence, foreign oil monopolies, particularly Western corporations including Exxon, Chevron, and British Petroleum (BP) have been given access to Thailand’s oil …

Two Chinese nationals, Mo Hailong and Mo Yu, are accused of stealing genetically modified (GM) seed technology from biotech giants DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto, as reported by the Des Moines Register.

The siblings face prosecution in what defense attorneys …

Despite concerns voiced by its close ally the United States, Britain, a conventional Atlantic force, will become the first major Western economy to join a China proposed financing mechanism, which will explore investment opportunities in, mainly, Asia.

Downing Street …

This paper considers Africa’s place in China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road is a major component of the “Belt and Road” development framework announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in late 2013. While the People’s Republic …

On the heels of a diplomatic spat between Hanoi and Washington regarding Russia’s use of a former US air base in Vietnam to refuel nuclear-capable bombers on the way to conducting “provocative” runs in the Pacific, we get yet another, …

Scientists have raised concern over the rate of radioactive contamination of the Pacific, due to the Fukushima nuclear accident.

• Expert : Plutonium-241 from Fukushima nearly 70,000 times more than atomic bomb fallout in Japan.
• Officials : Molten fuel now ‘particle-like’,

Asian stocks fell on Thursday following weak US economic data and a sharp sell-off in US technology shares.

The Nasdaq index fell 2.4% – its biggest drop since April 2014 – to 4,876 on concerns that technology and biotech stocks …

The vigil guards comprise four uniformed officers each standing at a corner of the casket with his head bowed, back turned away and ceremonial sword inverted – led by a senior officer who stands at the head of the casket …

“If you can’t think because you can’t chew, try a banana.” – Singapore statesman Lee Kuan Yew, BBC, Jul 5, 2000 

You never hear the end of it. The “Singapore miracle”, the fabulous Asian city state, a model of development …

When Wired published its article, “The Plot to Free North Korea with Smuggled Episodes of ‘Friends,’” it probably hoped that its impressionable, politically ignorant audience would not pick up on the underlying facts and their implications, and simply …

A major recent event last week largely went unnoticed by both MSM and independent news sources alike. The British are apparently jumping ship away from the US dollar/petrodollar in an overt effort to align itself more closely with the BRICS …

A much-ignored huge news report from Reuters on Friday, February 27th, was headlined “Chinese diplomat tells West to consider Russia’s security concerns over Ukraine.”

China’s Ambassador to Belgium (which has the capital of the EU) said that the “nature …

On the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in Brisbane, US President Barack H. Obama delivered a keynote speech to diplomats, policymakers, faculty members, and students at the University of Queensland on the United States of America’s foreign …