World News Review » Why America Can't Stop Russia's Hybrid Warfare 23/06/15 02:00 from The National Interest

World News Review


» South Carolina governor calls for Confederate flag's removal
22/06/15 22:08 from Yahoo! News - Latest News & Headlines
CHARLESTON/COLUMBIA, S.C. (Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Monday called on lawmakers to take down the Confederate battle flag at the state capitol grounds, a week after a white gunman allegedly shot dead nine black wor...
» Plane in California Crash Registered to 'Titanic' Composer
22/06/15 22:07 from ABC News: ABCNews
Plane in California crash that killed pilot is registered to Oscar-winning 'Titanic' composer
» U.S.-China Talks Held Under Cloud of Suspicion
22/06/15 22:06 from WSJ.com: World News
Annual meetings between the U.S. and China on security and economic issues began under a cloud of mistrust and acrimony.
» Iran Negotiators Willing to Breach Deadline on Nuclear Talks
22/06/15 22:05 from WSJ.com: World News
Iranian and Western officials for the first time publicly said they were willing to go past a June 30 deadline for sealing a final nuclear deal, insisting they could still unblock remaining obstacles in coming days.
» SC Governor: Removing Confederate Flag Will Defy Race Hatred
22/06/15 22:03 from ABC News: ABCNews
SC Gov calls for removing Confederate flag; says church slayings changed what it stands for
» Obama Hosts Annual Iftar Dinner for Muslims at White House
22/06/15 22:03 from ABC News: ABCNews
Obama hosts annual iftar dinner at White House for Muslims' holy month of Ramadan
» Risk of Extreme Weather From Climate Change to Rise Over Next Century, Report Says
22/06/15 22:02 from NYT > International
More people will be exposed to floods, droughts, heat waves and other effects of climate change in the coming decades, according to a British medical journal.
» Warrant Shows Deadly Struggle Before La. Officer's Death
22/06/15 22:00 from ABC News: ABCNews
'Let me go before you kill yourself!:' Warrant shows struggle before New Orleans officer dies
» AP NewsBreak: Official: NYC to Hire Almost 1,300 New Cops
22/06/15 21:59 from ABC News: ABCNews
AP NewsBreak: NYC set to hire nearly 1,300 more police officers in budget deal, official says
» President speaking more freely about race since re-election
22/06/15 21:59 from CNN.com
Racism without racists | Obama to deliver eulogy | S.C. governor: Flag should go | Walmart takes a stand
» For Displaced Iraqis, Going Home Is a Struggle
22/06/15 21:59 from WSJ.com: World News
Lingering animosity between Shiites and Sunnis, community feuding that cuts across sectarian lines and tribal codes of honor and revenge pose formidable obstacles to resettlement of displaced Iraqis.
» Exiled Yanukovych Accepts Some Responsibility For Maidan Killings
22/06/15 21:56 from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Ukraine's former president Viktor Yanukovych said June 22 he accepts some responsibility for the killings that led to his overthrow in February 2014.
» Why America Can't Stop Russia's Hybrid Warfare
23/06/15 02:00 from The National Interest
Paul J. Saunders Security, Americas, Eurasia In important respects, America's inability to counter Russia's hybrid tactics may have less to do with Moscow’s approach than our own. Hybrid warfare—the term applied to Russia’s particular ap...
» Kazakhstan's Nuclear Fuel Bank: A New Nonproliferation Tool
23/06/15 02:00 from The National Interest
Philipp C. Bleek Global Governance, Eurasia A fuel bank will not be a nonproliferation panacea, but it will have a significant impact on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. With attention riveted on negotiations to constrain Iran’s n...
» Why Iran's Past Nuclear Actions Matter
23/06/15 02:00 from The National Interest
Ilan Berman Security, Middle East Is America giving too much ground to Iran? It would be fair to say that the past year-and-a-half of nuclear talks with Iran has not been America’s finest negotiating hour. But even by the comparatively l...
» India's Myanmar Raid Won't Deter Pakistani Terrorism
23/06/15 02:00 from The National Interest
David J. Karl Security, Asia India won't be able to deter terrorists from Pakistan—who want to attack India no matter what—because no militant group is fully controlled by Pakistan. Consider the complexity of South Asia’s security dynami...
» The Ultimate Nightmare: North Korea Could Sell Saudi Arabia Nuclear Weapons
23/06/15 02:00 from The National Interest
Zachary Keck Security, Asia, Middle East Pakistan won't sell Saudi Arabia a nuclear bomb, but North Korea might. One of the gravest concerns about Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon is that it will set off a nuclear arms race in the region,...
» Report: Feds ignored GM flaws
22/06/15 21:56 from CNN.com
A scathing new government report says federal investigators ignored clues, warnings and complaints for more than a decade, when they repeatedly failed to investigate faulty General Motors automobile ignition switches.
» Venezuela Vote, in Doubt, Is Now Set
22/06/15 21:46 from WSJ.com: World News
Venezuela will hold parliamentary elections Dec. 6, the country’s National Electoral Council announced, ending months of speculation that the vote may be postponed.
» Japan's Nikkei hits 15-year high
22/06/15 21:44 from BBC News - World
Japanese shares hit a 15-year high, following the global rally elsewhere on hopes that Greece will reach a deal with its creditors to avoid a default.
» A blueprint for defeating ISIS
22/06/15 21:40 from CNN.com
ISIS has been forced from one of its stronghold outposts, a key access point to its self-declared capital, where it was entrenched for two years. And the defeat along a vital stretch of terrain could be a potential blueprint for more mil...
» One Dead as Druse Attack Israeli Ambulance in Golan Heights
22/06/15 21:40 from NYT > International
It was the second time in 24 hours that Druse protesters stopped Israeli ambulances, amid mounting anger in their communities over the rebel assaults on Druse villages on the Syrian side.
» Biden not ruling out 2016 bid
22/06/15 21:38 from CNN.com
As Vice President Joe Biden slowly returns to official duties in Washington following his son's death, a decision on mounting a third presidential bid looms in the not-so-distant future.
» President speaking more freely about race since re-election
22/06/15 21:37 from CNN.com
Obama to deliver eulogy | S.C. governor: Flag should go | Walmart takes a stand | Evolution of the flag
» U.S.-China Talks Held Under Cloud of Suspicion
22/06/15 21:37 from WSJ.com: World News
Annual meetings between the U.S. and China on security and economic issues began under a cloud of mistrust and acrimony.
» Japan remembers Battle of Okinawa
22/06/15 21:34 from BBC News - World
Japan is to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa - one of the bloodiest episodes in the Pacific during World War Two.
» Cancer strategy could save thousands
22/06/15 21:33 from BBC News - World
About 5,000 lives could be saved each year in England if GPs follow new guidelines on cancer diagnosis, the health watchdog NICE says.
» Taliban attack Afghanistan's parliament, seize second district in north
22/06/15 21:31 from Reuters: Top News
KABUL (Reuters) - A Taliban suicide bomber and six gunmen attacked the Afghan parliament on Monday as lawmakers met to consider a new defense minister, and another district in the volatile north fell to the militants as they intensified ...
» As South Sudan Crisis Worsens, ‘There Is No More Country’
22/06/15 21:25 from NYT > International
In the world’s newest nation, the fighting, atrocities and hunger have increased, with no end in sight to the warring leaders’ power struggle.
» U.S. says airstrike killed Islamic State fighter sought in Benghazi attack
22/06/15 21:25 from Los Angeles Times - World News
A U.S. airstrike in Iraq killed an Islamic State fighter suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Amer...
» Obama, Biden to travel to Charleston
22/06/15 21:23 from Home - CBSNews.com
The president and vice president go to South Carolina Friday to attend the funeral of Clementa Pinckney
» Why Obama's N-word shocked
22/06/15 21:23 from CNN.com
He said what?
» Toxic moonshine kills 99
22/06/15 21:22 from CNN.com
Toxic moonshine has killed 99 people and seriously sickened scores of others of drinkers from a Mumbai slum, Indian police say.
» US Says Drone Killed an ISIS Operative - New York Times
22/06/15 21:22 from Google News - Top Stories
Washington Times US Says Drone Killed an ISIS Operative New York Times WASHINGTON — An American drone strike last week killed a midlevel operative with the Islamic State who had been a conduit for the militant group's outreach to ext...
» U.S. Says Drone Killed an ISIS Operative
22/06/15 21:21 from NYT > International
The Pentagon said that a “person of interest” in the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, died in coordinated airstrikes in Mosul, Iraq, on June 15.
» EPA: Climate change could kill 
22/06/15 21:20 from CNN.com
» Apple retreats from Taylor Swift
22/06/15 21:17 from CNN.com
» EU Extends Sanctions on Russia
22/06/15 21:16 from WSJ.com: World News
EU foreign ministers extended broad economic sanctions on Russia until the end of January 2016, giving the bloc time to gauge if the Kremlin will fully implement its side of February’s Minsk cease-fire and peace plan.
» The things she says
22/06/15 21:15 from CNN.com
» Optimism for an Agreement on Greek Debt, but Not for Long-Term Stability
22/06/15 21:14 from NYT > International
Fears remain that any easing of the Greek crisis when all 28 European Union leaders meet on Thursday and Friday will be short-term.
» U.S. Pledges Equipment, Manpower to NATO Rapid-Response Force
22/06/15 21:14 from WSJ.com: World News
The Pentagon is committing new military capabilities to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization task force that would stand up to Russian aggression, including surveillance functions, special-operations forces, artillery and air- and sea-ba...
» UK people-smugglers jailed in France
22/06/15 21:14 from BBC News - World
Up to 100 Britons are thought to have been jailed in France in the last year for trying to smuggle migrants through Calais.
» Supreme Court Strikes Down New Deal-Era Raisin Price-Support Program - Wall Street Journal
22/06/15 21:11 from Google News - Top Stories
Wall Street Journal Supreme Court Strikes Down New Deal-Era Raisin Price-Support Program Wall Street Journal WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a raisin price-support program that dates back to the New Deal, ruling it unc...
» Goldschmidt 'Couldn't Care Less' About Lack of Attention
22/06/15 21:10 from ABC News: ABCNews
Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt having great season, 'couldn't care less' about lack of attention
» 'Smart' Skin Patch Could Improve Diabetes Care
22/06/15 21:09 from Voice of America
Researchers have developed a “smart insulin patch” that could improve diabetes care. The skin patch, a thin square no bigger than a small coin, would also do away with painful injections.     Almost 400 million people around the world li...
» Australia Attempts to Verify Terrorist's Death in Iraq
22/06/15 21:09 from ABC News: ABCNews
Australian terrorist's reported death in Iraq raises potential for his family's repatriation
» Wal-Mart Removing Confederate Flag Items From Stores, Online
22/06/15 21:07 from ABC News: ABCNews
Wal-Mart removing Confederate flag items from stores, website
» Mississippi House Leader Calls for Removal of Confederate Symbol from Flag
22/06/15 21:06 from ABC News: ABCNews
Mississippi and Tennessee debate Confederate symbols as SC considers removing battle flag
» Presidential debates face legal action
22/06/15 21:04 from FT.com - World
Rules in US bar independents from being heard on TV, says group
» 10 Things to Know for Tuesday
22/06/15 21:04 from ABC News: ABCNews
10 Things to Know for Tuesday
» As Quick as a Taylor Swift Tweet, Apple Had to Change Its Tune - New York Times
22/06/15 21:03 from Google News - Top Stories
New York Times As Quick as a Taylor Swift Tweet, Apple Had to Change Its Tune New York Times In an age of depressed record sales, her albums sell by the millions. Her tours fill arenas around the world. And a complimentary tweet to her n...
» Top Lawmaker: Remove Confederate Sign From Mississippi Flag
22/06/15 21:03 from ABC News: ABCNews
Mississippi and Tennessee debate Confederate symbols as SC considers removing battle flag
» Government in Ethiopia Is on Track to Win With 100% of Vote
22/06/15 21:02 from NYT > International
Ethiopia’s governing party and its allies are poised to control every seat in the nation’s Parliament, according to official results announced Monday.
» South Carolina governor calls for Confederate flag's removal
22/06/15 21:02 from Yahoo! News - Latest News & Headlines
CHARLESTON/COLUMBIA, S.C. (Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Monday called on lawmakers to take down the Confederate battle flag at the state capitol grounds, a week after a white gunman allegedly shot dead nine black wor...
» Here's Where the 2016 Candidates Stand on the Confederate Flag
22/06/15 21:01 from ABC News: ABCNews
The Confederate flag on the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol has become a flashpoint in the wake of the Charleston church massacre.
» Diddy Arrested Over Assault With Deadly Weapon
22/06/15 21:01 from Sky News | World News | First For Breaking News
The rapper, real name Sean Combs, is alleged to have attacked his son's football coach with a kettlebell.
» 'White rights' group leader cited by South Carolina shooter donated to ... - Reuters
22/06/15 21:00 from Google News - Top Stories
Reuters 'White rights' group leader cited by South Carolina shooter donated to ... Reuters WASHINGTON The head of a white supremacist group cited by the alleged killer of nine people at a black South Carolina church last week has...
» State, Federal Officials Euthanize Relocated Alaska Bears
22/06/15 21:00 from ABC News: ABCNews
Alaska state, federal game officials kill 4 of 5 bears moved from Anchorage to Kenai Peninsula
» Venezuela sets December poll date
22/06/15 21:00 from BBC News - World
Venezuela's election body sets the date of 6 December for legislative polls, following weeks of pressure from the opposition.
» Venezuela to Hold Parliamentary Election on Dec. 6
22/06/15 20:59 from Voice of America
Venezuela's parliamentary election will be held on Dec. 6, authorities announced on Monday, ending lengthy speculation over the date for a vote that surveys showed was likely to punish the ruling socialists. President Nicolas Maduro's ru...
» Everything you know about perception is wrong – and it’s the fault of Western philosophers, starting with Descartes. Or so John Searle would have you think
22/06/15 20:59 from Arts & Letters Daily
Everything you know about perception is wrong – and it’s the fault of Western philosophers, starting with Descartes. Or so John Searle would have you think
» Days of rage. What is the inner logic that leads idealistic souls of various ideological stripes to embrace violence for political ends?
22/06/15 20:59 from Arts & Letters Daily
Days of rage . What is the inner logic that leads idealistic souls of various ideological stripes to embrace violence for political ends?
» Pornography is old. But our ability to track how porn affects us is relatively new. The upshot: Porn has been unfairly maligned
22/06/15 20:59 from Arts & Letters Daily
Pornography is old . But our ability to track how porn affects us is relatively new. The upshot: Porn has been unfairly maligned
» Obama, Charleston and the N-Word - ABC News
22/06/15 20:58 from Google News - Top Stories
ABC News Obama, Charleston and the N-Word ABC News President Obama said n***** on the radio and now the country is all a buzz. What does this mean? Was it appropriate? What about the children? Well forgive me for not seeing the usage of ...
» Largest U.S. retailer removing Confederate flag products
22/06/15 20:56 from CNN.com
S.C. governor: Remove flag from state Capitol | 2016 candidates fall into line | Evolution of Confederate flag
» Women's World Cup: Game tied, 0-0, at halftime - Washington Post (blog)
22/06/15 20:56 from world - Google News
The Guardian Women's World Cup: Game tied, 0-0, at halftime Washington Post (blog) The first half ended in a scoreless tie for the U.S. and Colombia, a result that has to bolster the confidence of Las Cafeteras, who came into the tou...
» Supreme court says government seizure of raisins is unconstitutional - Fox News
22/06/15 20:56 from Google News - Top Stories
Fox News Supreme court says government seizure of raisins is unconstitutional Fox News Sept. 24, 2013: Farm workers pick paper trays of dried raisins off the ground and heap them onto a trailer in the final step of raisin harvest near Fr...
» Diddy Arrested on Campus of UCLA, Where Son Plays Football
22/06/15 20:54 from ABC News: ABCNews
Music mogul Diddy arrested on campus of UCLA, where son is on football team
» Australian 'severed head' militants reportedly killed in Iraq
22/06/15 20:54 from Reuters: Top News
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia is close to confirming the reported death in Iraq of two home-grown militants who shot to infamy last year after being photographed holding the severed heads of Syrian soldiers, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop ...
» Tigers' Cabrera Overtakes Royals' Hosmer in All-Star Vote
22/06/15 20:54 from ABC News: ABCNews
Tigers' Cabrera overtakes Hosmer in All-Star vote, leaving 7 Royals on track to start
» U.S. Expects More Sea Encounters With China, Navy Commander Says - Bloomberg
22/06/15 20:52 from Google News - World
Bloomberg U.S. Expects More Sea Encounters With China, Navy Commander Says Bloomberg The U.S. expects more encounters at sea with Chinese navy vessels, according to the captain of a U.S. coastal combat ship that has patrolled the dispute...
» EU governments extend Russian sanctions through January 2016 - USA TODAY
22/06/15 20:51 from Google News - World
RT EU governments extend Russian sanctions through January 2016 USA TODAY The EU is keeping the pressure firmly on the Russian economy as turbulence continues in Eastern Ukraine. Sanctions have now been extended until the end of January,...
» Chile Authorities Declare, Then Lift Environmental Emergency
22/06/15 20:50 from ABC News: ABCNews
Chile authorities lift environmental emergency declared in Santiago due to high smog levels
» Endangered Wildlife List Swells in 2015, From Lions to Orchids
22/06/15 20:50 from Voice of America
The number of animals and plants at risk of extinction rose in 2015 despite government pledges to improve protection, with species under threat ranging from lions in West Africa to orchids in Asia, a study shows. The Red List of Endanger...
» Obama's fast-track trade bill poised to clear final Senate hurdles - Los Angeles Times
22/06/15 20:50 from Google News - Top Stories
Los Angeles Times Obama's fast-track trade bill poised to clear final Senate hurdles Los Angeles Times President Obama's fast-track trade bill is poised to clear a procedural hurdle Tuesday in the Senate, all but ensuring it will...
» 'Win an Inn' Essayists Say Contest Was Stacked Against Them
22/06/15 20:49 from ABC News: ABCNews
'Win an Inn' essayists say contest was stacked against them; Maine state police investigating
» SC Governor: Removing Confederate Flag Will Defy Race Hatred
22/06/15 20:49 from ABC News: ABCNews
SC Gov calls for removing Confederate flag; says church slayings changed what it stands for
» Mississippi House Speaker: Confederate Emblem Is Offensive, Should Be Removed From State Flag
22/06/15 20:49 from ABC News: ABCNews
Mississippi House speaker: Confederate emblem is offensive, should be removed from state flag
» U.N. Cites Possible War Crimes in Gaza Conflict
22/06/15 20:48 from WSJ.com: World News
Both Israel and Palestinian militant groups may have committed war crimes during last summer’s conflict in Gaza, a United Nations panel reported.
» Reversing Course, Pakistan Says Save the Children Can Stay
22/06/15 20:48 from NYT > International
Pressure from Western allies will allow the aid agency to continue its operations, though on a smaller scale and with tighter restrictions.
» Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan says he has cancer of lymph nodes
22/06/15 20:44 from AP Top Headlines At 7:05 a.m. EDT
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday he has "very advanced" and "very aggressive" cancer of the lymph nodes, but he said he will fight for a full recovery and continue to work as the state's chief elected official...
» Walmart: No more items with Confederate flags - USA TODAY
22/06/15 20:44 from Google News - Top Stories
USA TODAY Walmart: No more items with Confederate flags USA TODAY Walmart said in a statement Monday that it is removing "all items" promoting the Confederate flag for sale from its stores and its website. The move came the sam...
» Cat trapped 64 days in a moving carton
22/06/15 20:42 from CNN.com
Proving cats really do have nine lives, this feline traveled by truck, boat and train while trapped in a moving box. KTVA reports.
» Unicef Report Describes Grim Trends for the Poorest Children
22/06/15 20:42 from NYT > International
The United Nations Children’s Fund said improvements in national averages had obscured worsening trends among the world’s poorest children.
» Poor Children Still at Risk Despite Progress, Unicef Warns
22/06/15 20:42 from NYT > International
The United Nations Children’s Fund said improvements in national averages had obscured worsening trends among the world’s poorest children.
» UNHRC report: Less biased, but no less lethal - Jerusalem Post Israel News
22/06/15 20:42 from Google News - World
Jerusalem Post Israel News UNHRC report: Less biased, but no less lethal Jerusalem Post Israel News While seriously problematic from the Israeli legal perspective, the UN Human Rights Council's report on the 2014 Gaza war, made publi...
» S Carolina urges rebel flag removal
22/06/15 20:40 from BBC News - World
The South Carolina governor calls for the removal of a Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds, after a church shooting believed to be racially motivated.
» Rare deep sea creature spotted
22/06/15 20:39 from CNN.com
Ocean explorers studying ocean vents near the Galapagos Islands spotted a rare squid worm never-before-seen in the region. For more visit Nautiluslive.org.
» Secret ocean on mystery moon?
22/06/15 20:39 from CNN.com
NASA announced plans to send a spacecraft to Jupiter to explore one of its moons, Europa, for signs of life.
» White supremacist campaign donations: How did Republicans not know? (+video) - Christian Science Monitor
22/06/15 20:39 from Google News - Top Stories
Christian Science Monitor White supremacist campaign donations: How did Republicans not know? (+video) Christian Science Monitor Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Rick Santorum all got donations from Earl Holt III, head of a white supremacist gro...
» Cat goes for unexpected ride on plane
22/06/15 20:38 from CNN.com
Watch this cat fly as it stows away on the wing of a plane. CNN's Jeanne Moos explains how the fur actually flew.
» Why Obama's N-word was shocking
22/06/15 20:38 from CNN.com
» Greek Proposals Lift Hopes of Deal
22/06/15 20:38 from WSJ.com: World News
Greece’s creditors suggested for the first time that a deal to avert the country’s bankruptcy was in sight after an 11th-hour proposal submitted by Athens on Monday made a significant concession on pension cuts.
» 'Family Feud' answer turns heads
22/06/15 20:36 from CNN.com
Actor Anthony Anderson's mother had a very interesting answer to a very strange question on ABC's "Celebrity Family Feud."
» Grenade attacks kill four people in Burundi as elections loom - Daily Times
22/06/15 20:35 from Google News - World
Daily Times Grenade attacks kill four people in Burundi as elections loom Daily Times BUJUMBURA: Grenade attacks in Burundi's capital Bujumbura and a northern town close to President Pierre Nkurunziza's home village killed four p...
» Walmart to Stop Selling Confederate Flag Merchandise
22/06/15 20:33 from ABC News: ABCNews
Walmart has decided to stop selling confederate flags.
» Taliban attacks Afghan parliament, seizes key northern district - Los Angeles Times
22/06/15 20:33 from Google News - World
Los Angeles Times Taliban attacks Afghan parliament, seizes key northern district Los Angeles Times Militants detonated a suicide bomb outside the Afghan parliament on Monday and attempted to storm the building before being struck down b...
» Tarantino, Lauper, Others Chosen for Hollywood Walk of Fame
22/06/15 20:33 from Voice of America
Quentin Tarantino, Tracy Morgan, Steve Carell, LL Cool J, Kathy Bates, Bruno Mars and Cyndi Lauper are among the famous names to be added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year.   The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced its selectio...
» EU Launches Operation to Deter People Smugglers
22/06/15 20:31 from WSJ.com: World News
The EU has launched a naval operation to deter people smugglers working off the coast of Libya, although it will only implement the first phase of the mission—intelligence gathering—for now because of political constraints.
» Mitch McConnell Aims To Ram Obamatrade Through Senate With No
22/06/15 20:31 from Breitbart News Network
Mitch McConnell Aims To Ram Obamatrade Through Senate With No Amendments, Closed Debate Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to run his predecessor’s playbook to block any amendments to the version of TPA that passed the House: t...
» I get beer cans thrown at me
22/06/15 20:30 from CNN.com
With the U.S. Supreme Court set to rule this month on the issue of same-sex marriage, CNN Opinion approached gay rights activists and leaders in other countries to get their view of the situation in their own societies.
» Why Apple caved to Taylor Swift
22/06/15 20:30 from CNN.com
» A Southerner's message: This is not who we are
22/06/15 20:30 from CNN.com
Along with every other human being capable of empathy I was profoundly saddened to learn of the massacre in Charleston of nine African-American churchgoers at the hands of one white male driven, apparently, by racial hatred.
» The vile word that never goes away
22/06/15 20:30 from CNN.com
Warning: This article contains offensive language.
» Greece offers new proposals to avert default, creditors see hope
22/06/15 20:29 from Reuters: Top News
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greece took a step back from the abyss on Monday with the presentation of new budget proposals that euro zone leaders welcomed as a basis for a possible agreement in the coming days to unlock frozen aid and avert a l...
» Taliban attacks Afghan parliament, seizes key northern district
22/06/15 20:29 from Los Angeles Times - World News
Militants detonated a suicide bomb outside the Afghan parliament on Monday and attempted to storm the building before being struck down by security forces in a gun battle that left two civilians dead and at least 40 people wounded.
» Sexist ‘ditch the witch’ posters should have ended Abbott’s career, Julia Gillard says in Killing Season – video
22/06/15 20:28 from World news: World news + Video | guardian.co.uk
Julia Gillard says she has no idea how Tony Abbott's decision to stand in front of 'ditch the witch' and 'Bob Brown's bitch' posters was not a career-ending moment for the then opposition leader, saying 'sexism is no better than racism'....
» Is your pet going to make you ill?
22/06/15 20:27 from CNN.com
» Leaders echo hopes for Greek deal
22/06/15 20:24 from BBC News - World
Eurozone leaders echo hopes that a deal to stop Greece defaulting on its debt can be struck within days, while cautioning that more work remains.
» Taliban Attack Afghan Parliament
22/06/15 20:23 from WSJ.com: World News
Afghan security forces repelled a Taliban attack on Afghanistan’s parliament building that left 31 civilians wounded. Police killed seven attackers.
» Greta: AP's not just about the facts after all
22/06/15 20:23 from Latest News
Greta's 'Off the Record', 6/22/15
» Home sales rising with mortgage rates
22/06/15 20:23 from Latest News
Homebuyers are jumping in the market
» US Says IS Suspect in Benghazi Attack Killed in Airstrike
22/06/15 20:22 from ABC News: ABCNews
Pentagon: Islamic State operative suspected in 2012 Benghazi attack killed in US airstrike
» Missouri Group Cited in Shooting Suspect's Alleged Manifesto
22/06/15 20:22 from ABC News: ABCNews
Group cited in church shooting suspect's alleged manifesto called 'crudely white supremacist'
» NYC: Settlement in Principle in Muslim Surveillance Lawsuit
22/06/15 20:19 from ABC News: ABCNews
NYC says it has reached settlement in principle in lawsuit over police surveillance of Muslims
» Are 3-year-olds superheroes?
22/06/15 20:19 from CNN.com
If you want to learn the building blocks of empathy and a sense of justice, just look to the nearest 3-year-old.
» Afghan UN Envoy Says Extremists Have United in New Offensive
22/06/15 20:16 from ABC News: ABCNews
Afghani envoy: New offensive compounded by Taliban, foreign fighters and Islamic State group
» Greek PM Alexis Tsipras pictured at G8 demonstration in 2001
22/06/15 20:16 from World news breaking world news latest world news from the US Europe Asia Australia Africa
Images have emerged of the Greek prime minister attending a violent G8 protest in Italy when he was 26
» Chambers Bay Makes Quite the 1st Impression at US Open
22/06/15 20:16 from ABC News: ABCNews
Chambers Bay leaves strong 1st impression hosting US Open, but question of what's next remains
» South Carolina governor calls for Confederate flag's removal - Reuters
22/06/15 20:15 from Google News - Top Stories
Reuters South Carolina governor calls for Confederate flag's removal Reuters CHARLESTON/COLUMBIA, S.C. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Monday called on lawmakers to take down the Confederate battle flag at the state capitol gr...
» White supremacist leader donated to Republicans - Irish Examiner
22/06/15 20:13 from Google News - Top Stories
Irish Examiner White supremacist leader donated to Republicans Irish Examiner The head of a white supremacist group, cited by the suspected gunman who killed nine people at a black South Carolina church last week, has given thousands of ...
» EU moves to stop human traffickers - Irish Examiner
22/06/15 20:13 from Google News - World
Irish Examiner EU moves to stop human traffickers Irish Examiner The European Union has launched a naval operation to try to stop human traffickers from bringing migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe. More than 100,000 migrants hav...
» U.N. Report on Gaza Finds Evidence of War Crimes by Israel and by Palestinian Militants
22/06/15 20:12 from NYT > International
The report said “impunity prevails across the board” regarding the actions of Israeli forces in Gaza, but also cited the “inherently indiscriminate nature” of rockets fired at Israeli civilians.
» 14 brands of bottled water recalled over E. coli concerns - USA TODAY
22/06/15 20:12 from Google News - Top Stories
AL.com 14 brands of bottled water recalled over E. coli concerns USA TODAY Niagara Bottling is voluntarily recalling several brands of bottled water after one of its sources was contaminated with E. coli. The voluntary recall is for all ...
» Gaza war crimes claims in UN report - Irish Examiner
22/06/15 20:11 from Google News - World
Irish Examiner Gaza war crimes claims in UN report Irish Examiner UN investigators said Israel and Palestinian militant groups abused international humanitarian law during the 2014 Gaza conflict, and this may be tantamount to war crimes....
» White House: Action needed now to slow climate change
22/06/15 20:10 from AP Top Headlines At 7:05 a.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Failure to act on climate change could cause an estimated 57,000 deaths a year in the United States from poor air quality by 2100, the Obama administration argued in a report released Monday that warns of dire effects ...
» Islamic State Australian recruits Elomar, Sharrouf 'killed in battle' - The Australian
22/06/15 20:10 from Google News - World
The Australian Islamic State Australian recruits Elomar, Sharrouf 'killed in battle' The Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the return of Khaled Sharrouf's family to Australia will only be considered after his deat...
» Chaos in Kabul: Explosions Rock Afghan Parliament
22/06/15 20:09 from World news
Seven militants who targeted the Afghan parliament were killed early Monday after the building was rocked by a series of explosions, officials said.
» P. Diddy arrested after fight with UCLA football coach - Fox News
22/06/15 20:09 from Google News - Top Stories
Fox News P. Diddy arrested after fight with UCLA football coach Fox News July 26, 2013: Sean "Diddy" Combs of the new network Revolt TV addresses reporters at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pi...
» Japan's Limited 'Productivity Revolution'
22/06/15 20:08 from WSJ.com: World News
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government called for a “productivity revolution” among small companies, part of his latest blueprint for structural change in Japan, but the plan didn’t include any sweeping steps.
» Obama uses 'N-word' in interview
22/06/15 20:07 from BBC News - World
US President Barack Obama says in an interview that the United States has yet to overcome its issues with racism.
» Iran-Backed Anti-ISIS Leader: 'We Expect More' From U.S.
22/06/15 20:07 from World news
U.S. airstrikes targeting ISIS around Ramadi are proving "not very effective," according to the head of the Shiite militias surrounding the city.
» Iran Negotiators Willing to Breach Deadline on Nuclear Talks
22/06/15 20:05 from WSJ.com: World News
Iranian and Western officials for the first time publicly said they were willing to go past a June 30 deadline for sealing a final nuclear deal, insisting they could still unblock remaining obstacles in coming days.
» Mystery Surrounds Death Of Ex-White House Chef
22/06/15 20:05 from Sky News | World News | First For Breaking News
Walter Scheib, who worked under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush, went missing after hiking in New Mexico.
» A history of relations: Germany and the Queen
22/06/15 20:05 from Deutsche Welle: DW-WORLD.DE - Top Stories
The two nations get along now, but things used to be different: Germans and Britons harbored clichés about each other for a long time. Back in 1965, the Queen was already above it all. Now, she's visiting again.
» Risk of Extreme Weather From Climate Change to Rise Over Next Century ... - New York Times
22/06/15 20:04 from Google News - World
New York Times Risk of Extreme Weather From Climate Change to Rise Over Next Century ... New York Times WASHINGTON — More people will be exposed to floods, droughts, heat waves and other extreme weather associated with climate change ove...
» Unrest Reported at Congo Camp for Ex-militiamen
22/06/15 20:03 from Voice of America
A riot has been reported at a military camp holding more than 800 ex-militiamen in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  They are demanding to be freed and sent back to their home areas, but the government says the situation is under contro...
» Taliban Strike Afghan Parliament as Lawmakers Meet - New York Times
22/06/15 20:03 from Google News - World
New York Times Taliban Strike Afghan Parliament as Lawmakers Meet New York Times KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban attacked the Afghan Parliament on Monday just as lawmakers were convening for their third attempt to confirm a defense mini...
» Risk of Extreme Weather From Climate Change to Rise Over Next Century, Report Says
22/06/15 20:03 from NYT > International
More people will be exposed to floods, droughts, heat waves and other effects of climate change in the coming decades, according to a British medical journal.
» P Diddy arrested over assault at son's American football game
22/06/15 20:03 from World news breaking world news latest world news from the US Europe Asia Australia Africa
Rapper arrested for assault with a deadly weapon after incident involving coach at son's university American football game
» Charleston attack drags GOP 2016 field into uncomfortable places - MSNBC
22/06/15 20:03 from Google News - Top Stories
MSNBC Charleston attack drags GOP 2016 field into uncomfortable places MSNBC The aftermath of the Charleston church shooting rippled across the presidential landscape on Monday, when Republican contenders struggled to address such unexpe...
» A mile of pizza?! Chefs break world record - USA TODAY
22/06/15 20:02 from world - Google News
USA TODAY A mile of pizza?! Chefs break world record USA TODAY Sixty chefs just joined the mile-pizza club. Italian pizza makers spent all night at Milan's world fair, Expo 2014, Saturday, creating a cheesy, sauce-y, record-breaking ...
» Reports: Oil From Santa Barbara Spill Washed up in LA County
22/06/15 20:00 from ABC News: ABCNews
Tests show that tar balls from Santa Barbara oil spill washed up on Los Angeles County beach
» Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Says He Has Cancer of Lymph Nodes - ABC News
22/06/15 19:59 from Google News - Top Stories
ABC News Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Says He Has Cancer of Lymph Nodes ABC News Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday he has "very advanced" and "very aggressive" cancer of the lymph nodes, but he said he will fight for...
» 4 Colombian Soldiers Die When Helicopter Lands in Minefield
22/06/15 19:59 from ABC News: ABCNews
4 Colombian soldiers killed when Black Hawk helicopter lands in minefield planted by rebels
» Lucy Bronze fires England past Norway and into World Cup quarter-finals - The Guardian
22/06/15 19:59 from world - Google News
The Guardian Lucy Bronze fires England past Norway and into World Cup quarter-finals The Guardian Inspired use of substitutes allied to a stunning winning goal from Lucy Bronze ensured England finally won their first knockout game at a W...
» On comedian Maron's podcast, Obama delves into race talk after Charleston - Washington Post
22/06/15 19:57 from Google News - Top Stories
E! Online On comedian Maron's podcast, Obama delves into race talk after Charleston Washington Post The garage of a Los Angeles comedian with a popular podcast series is a long way from the Oval Office, but President Obama stopped by...
» Nigeria suicide blasts blamed on girls - Stuff.co.nz
22/06/15 19:56 from Google News - World
Irish Examiner Nigeria suicide blasts blamed on girls Stuff.co.nz At least 20 people have been killed in a suicide bombings carried out by two girls in northeastern Nigeria, witnesses say. The head of a local vigilante group said on Mond...
» Trade Bill Faces Hour of Truth in Senate - Wall Street Journal
22/06/15 19:55 from Google News - Top Stories
Wall Street Journal Trade Bill Faces Hour of Truth in Senate Wall Street Journal WASHINGTON—The fate of President Barack Obama's trade agenda is in the hands of a half-dozen or so Senate Democrats as the chamber heads toward a pivota...
» US air strike in Iraq kills Isil operative linked to Benghazi attack
22/06/15 19:55 from World news breaking world news latest world news from the US Europe Asia Australia Africa
Tariq bin al-Tahar bin al-Falih al-'Awni al-Harzi was considered a person of interest in the militant attack on the US mission
» Rapper Sean Combs arrested for assault with deadly weapon at UCLA
22/06/15 19:53 from Reuters: Top News
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon at the University of California Los Angeles on Monday, college law enforcement authorities said.
» Rwandan spy chief arrested in London
22/06/15 19:52 from BBC News - World
Rwanda's intelligence chief Karenzi Karake, who is wanted in Spain for war crimes, has been arrested in London, BBC Newsnight has learned.
» Diddy Arrested After Fight Involving Kettlebell, Police Say
22/06/15 19:52 from ABC News: ABCNews
P Diddy was arrested Monday, UCLA police sad.
» Kurdish forces capture Isil military base near Raqqa
22/06/15 19:50 from World news breaking world news latest world news from the US Europe Asia Australia Africa
The Kurds' rapid advance into Raqqa province has defied expectations of a protracted battle between YPG and Isil fighters
» Hope for Greek economy rises after Athens offers new belt-tightening
22/06/15 19:50 from Los Angeles Times - World News
Greek officials broke a stalemate in negotiations with European creditors on Monday by offering more budget cuts and pension reform, spurring hopes -- once again -- that the Balkan nation's membership in the euro currency alliance may su...
» Kurdish forces capture Isil military base near Raqqa - Telegraph.co.uk
22/06/15 19:50 from Google News - World
Telegraph.co.uk Kurdish forces capture Isil military base near Raqqa Telegraph.co.uk Kurdish forces in Syria came within 50km of the Islamic State (Isil) stronghold of Raqqa on Monday, after capturing a military base belonging to the reg...
» US and China hold "candid" security and economy talks
22/06/15 19:48 from Deutsche Welle: DW-WORLD.DE - Top Stories
The United States and China have held "candid" talks at the start of three days of cabinet-level meetings. A senior State Department official said that the security talks were at the highest level of diplomatic exchange.
» Karl-Anthony Towns Says There Is 'No Promise' From T-Wolves
22/06/15 19:47 from ABC News: ABCNews
Potential top pick Karl-Anthony Towns tells AP he has 'no promise' from Timberwolves
» Iraqi Families Return to Fragile Stability in Tikrit After Liberation From ISIS
22/06/15 19:46 from NYT > International
The Islamic State was driven from Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein and the largest city the terrorist group has lost in either Iraq or Syria.
» China may be trying to hide submarines in South China Sea - The Seattle Times
22/06/15 19:46 from World - Google News
The Indian Express China may be trying to hide submarines in South China Sea The Seattle Times U.S. officials and many of China's neighbors are alarmed by China's construction of artificial islands and military facilities in the ...
» Obama's troubled trade agenda may get new life
22/06/15 19:46 from CNN.com
President Barack Obama's beleaguered trade agenda, which appeared near death in recent weeks, faces key votes on Capitol Hill starting on Tuesday.
» Walmart to stop selling Confederate flag items
22/06/15 19:46 from CNN.com
Walmart, the country's largest retailer, will remove all Confederate flag merchandise from its stores, the company told CNN Monday.
» How to baffle a Republican
22/06/15 19:46 from CNN.com
» Maryland Governor Plans for Cancer Treatment, Staying on Job
22/06/15 19:45 from ABC News: ABCNews
Things to know as Maryland Gov. Hogan prepares for cancer treatment, plans to stay on job
» US says IS suspect in Benghazi attack killed in airstrike - Washington Post
22/06/15 19:45 from Google News - Top Stories
610kvnu US says IS suspect in Benghazi attack killed in airstrike Washington Post WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says an Islamic State operative suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, ha...
» Reports Australian Isis fighters have been killed hard to verify, says Julie Bishop – video
22/06/15 19:45 from World news: World news + Video | guardian.co.uk
The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, says it is extremely difficult to verify reports that two of Australia's most wanted Islamic State fighters, Khaled Sharrouf and Mohammed Elomar, have been killed in either Iraq or Syria. 'Both men hav...
» For Iraqi Displaced, Going Home Is a Struggle
22/06/15 19:44 from WSJ.com: World News
Lingering animosity between Shiites and Sunnis, community feuding that cuts across sectarian lines and tribal codes of honor and revenge pose formidable obstacles to resettlement of displaced Iraqis.
» First Draft | Senior Republicans Follow Nikki Haley's Lead on Confederate Battle ... - New York Times
22/06/15 19:44 from Google News - Top Stories
New York Times First Draft | Senior Republicans Follow Nikki Haley's Lead on Confederate Battle ... New York Times Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina held a news conference Monday at the Capitol in Columbia.Credit Joe Raedle/Getty Im...
» Baltimore police face October trial for Freddie Gray death
22/06/15 19:44 from Yahoo! News - Latest News & Headlines
Six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of a black man will go on trial on Oct. 13 in a case that sparked rioting and protests, a spokeswoman for prosecutors said on Monday. The trial is set for Maryland's Circuit Court f...
» Doctors Warn Against Dangers of Skinny Jeans: Don't Squat
22/06/15 19:43 from ABC News: ABCNews
Doctors warn against dangers of skinny jeans after woman becomes fashion victim: Don't squat
» Colorado teen's death blamed of hidden form of plague - CTV News
22/06/15 19:42 from Google News - Top Stories
CTV News Colorado teen's death blamed of hidden form of plague CTV News DENVER -- When a Colorado teen came down with a high fever and muscle aches, his family thought he had the flu. But he was dead within days and the rare cause wa...
» AP Top News at 7:39 p.m. EDT
22/06/15 19:42 from TheUnion local.com | TheUnion.com
AP Top News at 7:39 p.m. EDT Latest on church shooting: RNC head talks Confederate flag 7 p.m. The chairman of the Republican National Committee joined Gov. Nikki Haley in calling for the Confederate flag to be removed from the grounds o...
» Bosnia Asks Swiss to Hand Over Wartime Defender of Srebrenica
22/06/15 19:40 from Voice of America
Bosnia asked Switzerland on Monday to hand over the wartime Muslim defender of Srebrenica and not extradite him to Serbia, in a row that threatens to overshadow the 20th anniversary of the massacre. Naser Oric, a hero to many Bosnian Mus...
» Pentagon: Islamic State operative suspected in 2012 Benghazi attack killed in ... - Fox News
22/06/15 19:40 from Google News - Top Stories
Talk Radio News Service Pentagon: Islamic State operative suspected in 2012 Benghazi attack killed in ... Fox News WASHINGTON – The Pentagon says an Islamic State operative suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomat...
» Obama Says US Racism 'Not Cured,' Makes Point With Epithet
22/06/15 19:39 from ABC News: ABCNews
Obama says US making progress but 'not cured' of racism, utters racial epithet to make point
» Obama in first presidential podcast: U.S. not cured of racism
22/06/15 19:39 from Yahoo! News - Latest News & Headlines
The president uses the N-word to make case that the U.S. hasn't overcome its racist past.
» Trump: 'Last person I'd want negotiating for me is Obama'
22/06/15 19:39 from Latest News
Trump on race relations, trade pact
» Benghazi committee makes more Hillary emails public
22/06/15 19:38 from Latest News
Gowdy on newly-released Hillary emails
» DNA the key to tracking down escaped killers?
22/06/15 19:38 from Latest News
DNA turning point in manhunt?
» SUV Crashes Through Nevada Home, Killing 2 Young Children
22/06/15 19:36 from ABC News: ABCNews
SUV crashes through Nevada home, killing 2 children; driver cooperating with investigation
» Mali hostages, held since late 2011, plead for release in video
22/06/15 19:34 from Reuters: International
DAKAR (Reuters) - Two hostages kidnapped by al Qaeda militants in north Mali more than three years ago asked their governments to help secure their release in a rare video of them seen by Reuters on Monday.
» Syrian Kurds seize military base from 'Islamic State' in Raqqa province
22/06/15 19:32 from Deutsche Welle: DW-WORLD.DE - Top Stories
Kurdish-led forces have said they have captured a military base from 'Islamic State' (IS) in Syria's Raqqa province. The terrorist group had held the base since capturing it from Syrian military last September.
» Hotter Temps, More Medical Calls at Electric Daisy Carnival
22/06/15 19:30 from ABC News: ABCNews
Electric Daisy Carnival sees spike in medical calls with temps 10 degrees warmer this year
» Leaders echo hopes of Greek deal
22/06/15 19:29 from BBC News - World
Eurozone leaders echo hopes that a deal to stop Greece defaulting on its debt can be struck within days, while cautioning that more work remains.
» Illinois Park Ride Closed Indefinitely After Being Stuck
22/06/15 19:29 from ABC News: ABCNews
Ride at Great America theme park in Illinois closed indefinitely after becoming stuck
» Warrant Shows Deadly Struggle Before La. Officer's Death
22/06/15 19:29 from ABC News: ABCNews
'Let me go before you kill yourself!:' Warrant shows struggle before New Orleans officer dies
» The Latest on Weather: Wind Gust of 95 Mph Recorded in Iowa
22/06/15 19:28 from ABC News: ABCNews
The Latest on severe weather: Wind gust of 95 mph recorded near Iowa town of Sheldon
» Live Coverage | FIFA Women's World Cup: USA v. Colombia – Live Coverage - New York Times
22/06/15 19:27 from world - Google News
Live Coverage | FIFA Women's World Cup: USA v. Colombia – Live Coverage New York Times Is Anybody Live-Blogging the Estonian Cup? While we await the second half, let's get caught up on some of the other crucial games from around ...
» Nikki Haley says Confederate symbol should go
22/06/15 19:26 from CNN.com
FIRST ON CNN: Walmart to stop selling flag | Inside flag battle | Flagmakers face dilemma
» Chilean Authorities Declare Environmental Emergency
22/06/15 19:25 from Voice of America
Authorities in Chile's largest city shut down hundreds of businesses and ordered hundreds of thousands of cars off the streets on Monday as a gray carpet of air pollution forced declaration of an environmental emergency in the city hosti...
» Taliban fighters converge on key city - Washington Post
22/06/15 19:25 from Google News - World
Belfast Telegraph Taliban fighters converge on key city Washington Post KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — Taliban forces were less than four miles from this strategic northern city Monday after seizing control of two key districts over the weekend, ...
» 2016 Republicans dump 'white nationalist' cash after church attack - MSNBC
22/06/15 19:24 from Top Stories - Google News
MSNBC 2016 Republicans dump 'white nationalist' cash after church attack MSNBC Republican presidential candidates are returning donations tied to a white supremacist group purportedly cited by Dylann Storm Roof, the man authoriti...
» Rick Santorum, Rand Paul to donate funds from hate group leader - The Week Magazine
22/06/15 19:22 from Google News - Top Stories
Fox News Latino Rick Santorum, Rand Paul to donate funds from hate group leader The Week Magazine Two of the GOP presidential candidates who received donations from the head of a white supremacist group cited in the manifesto believed to...
» Finding Peace short film: I fled Khmer Rouge for peace in Dandenong – video
22/06/15 19:21 from World news: World news + Video | guardian.co.uk
Youhorn Chea lived through the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, before finding peace in Dandenong. Originally a civil engineer who worked in the capital, Phnom Penh, when the Khmer Rouge seized power, he and millions of ...
» Indonesia unwavering; drug dealers will be killed - Hamilton Spectator
22/06/15 19:21 from Google News - World
Hamilton Spectator Indonesia unwavering; drug dealers will be killed Hamilton Spectator Q. I'm a single male, 28, and made a new friend of the same age in a... Latest Living Stories SEE MORE · Hand-y peach pies make great picn...
» Concerns Rise Over Ebola Crisis' Effect on Sierra Leone's Justice System
22/06/15 19:20 from Voice of America
As Ebola cases have decreased in Sierra Leone, there is concern about how the crisis has affected the justice system.  Longer jail times and what some say are unfair arrests have occurred.  A state of emergency, which includes certain re...
» U.S. and China open annual dialogue with 'candid, to-the-point' talks
22/06/15 19:19 from Reuters: International
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and China held "candid and to-the-point" talks at the start of three days of cabinet-level meetings aimed at managing the highly complex relationship between the world's two biggest economies, a s...
» Severe storms, possible tornado and hail forecast for Tuesday evening ... - Newsday
22/06/15 19:16 from Google News - Top Stories
Newsday Severe storms, possible tornado and hail forecast for Tuesday evening ... Newsday A warm, sunny day is predicted for Long Island on Monday, but forecasters are warning of the possibility of severe thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon....
» New questions over Gruber's involvement in ObamaCare
22/06/15 19:16 from Latest News
E-mails show high level of involvement
» How did Charleston shooter become radicalized? - CNN
22/06/15 19:16 from Top Stories - Google News
New York Times How did Charleston shooter become radicalized? CNN CNN's Martin Savidge takes a look at the radicalization of Dylann Roof, the gunman in the Charleston church shooting. <div id="ad_bnr_btf_02" class="...
» Bloodshed in El Salvador reaching levels of 1980s civil war
22/06/15 19:14 from AP Top Headlines At 7:05 a.m. EDT
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) -- Word on the street is that only the girlfriends of gang members are allowed to be redheads or blondes. So in this violent place, women are scurrying to salons to give up their blond hair and highlights, ...
» Eurozone Leaders Optimistic Over New Greek Economic Proposals
22/06/15 19:14 from Voice of America
New proposals from Greece are improving the chances that the debt-ridden country can reach a deal with its creditors and avoid possible default on its loans at the end of the month. European Union President Donald Tusk said late Monday t...
» S.C. senators, governor to call for removal of Confederate flag
22/06/15 19:11 from Home - CBSNews.com
Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina and Gov. Nikki Haley will make their positions public at a press conference Monday afternoon
» S.C. sens. and gov. to call for removal of Confederate flag
22/06/15 19:11 from Home - CBSNews.com
Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina and Gov. Nikki Haley will make their positions public at a press conference Monday afternoon
» Haley: "Time to move" Confederate flag
22/06/15 19:11 from Home - CBSNews.com
"150 years after the Civil War, the time has come," said Gov. Nikki Haley; South Carolina's two U.S. senators join her in the policy change
» S.C. Gov. Haley: "Time to move" Confederate flag
22/06/15 19:11 from Home - CBSNews.com
"150 years after the Civil War, the time has come," said Gov. Nikki Haley; South Carolina's two U.S. senators join her in the policy change
» Diddy Arrested After Fight, Police Say
22/06/15 19:11 from ABC News: ABCNews
P Diddy was arrested Monday, UCLA police sad.
» Norway women 1-2 England women
22/06/15 19:10 from BBC News - World
England reach the quarter-finals of the Women's World Cup at the expense of Norway thanks to a stunning strike from Lucy Bronze.
» VIDEO: EU reform: The view from Poland
22/06/15 19:09 from BBC News - World
David Cameron is expected to lay out his demands for EU reform this week. Katya Adler asks how his plans will be received in Poland.
» Women's World Cup 2015: USA v Colombia – live! - The Guardian
22/06/15 19:09 from world - Google News
The Guardian Women's World Cup 2015: USA v Colombia – live! The Guardian But for all that reputation, the Americans don't have much to show for it in the World Cup so far. With the exception of a strong 3-1 win over Australia to ...
» Why do Italian soccer fans and other foreigners fly the Confederate
22/06/15 19:07 from - The Washington Post
Why do Italian soccer fans and other foreigners fly the Confederate flag? Find Out What Your Name Would Be if You Were Born Today (7068732 views) Inside Obama's Stealth Startup Black and White Issue Oahu poised to enforce restriction The...
» First Take: Removing SC's Confederate flag — a 50-year project - USA TODAY
22/06/15 19:05 from Google News - Top Stories
ABC News First Take: Removing SC's Confederate flag — a 50-year project USA TODAY For a half-century, anger over South Carolina's Confederate battle flag has flared up like a lingering fever. Now state leaders want to put it in p...
» Scout Leader Dies on Father's Day Hike With Troop, 2 Sons
22/06/15 19:04 from ABC News: ABCNews
Scout leader dies on Father's Day hike in New Hampshire with troop, 2 sons
» Key Suspect in Benghazi Attack Killed in US Airstrike in Iraq
22/06/15 19:03 from ABC News: ABCNews
Ali Awni Al-Harzi targeted as ISIS battlefield commander in Iraq.
» Gay Mentor, Belief in Dignity at Roots of Kennedy's Views
22/06/15 19:03 from ABC News: ABCNews
Gay mentor, belief in dignity at roots of Justice Kennedy's views on gay rights
» NATO Working With South Dakota Telemedicine Hub
22/06/15 19:02 from ABC News: ABCNews
NATO leaders working with South Dakota telemedicine hub on emergency response
» At Home With Our Iranian Nuclear Partners - Wall Street Journal
22/06/15 19:02 from Google News - World
Wall Street Journal At Home With Our Iranian Nuclear Partners Wall Street Journal The world recently has played down criticism of Iran on human rights in hopes of securing an elusive nuclear deal, which may or may not actually affect its...
» ‘Climate change is a medical emergency’
22/06/15 19:02 from FT.com - World
Review says gains in global development could be undermined
» Trial in NC Voter ID Case Pending After Legislative Moves
22/06/15 19:01 from ABC News: ABCNews
Trial next month over NC voter ID lawsuit may stall after legislative changes last week
» Europe Cautiously Optimistic of Greek Debt Deal This Week
22/06/15 19:00 from ABC News: ABCNews
Euro leaders cautiously optimistic about Greek debt deal later this week
» Netanyahu: UN report on Gaza war 'biased" - Chicago Tribune
22/06/15 19:00 from Google News - Top Stories
Chicago Tribune Netanyahu: UN report on Gaza war 'biased" Chicago Tribune Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a United Nations report that says both Israel and Palestinian groups may have committed war crimes ...
» EU extends sanctions against Russia - Irish Times
22/06/15 19:00 from Google News - World
Irish Times EU extends sanctions against Russia Irish Times The European Union approved an extension of economic sanctions against Russia on Monday in protest against the Kremlin's aggressive policies in Ukraine. Russia responded by ...
» Leonard Pitts Jr.: Pope Francis urges consensus on climate change - San Jose Mercury News
22/06/15 19:00 from Google News - Top Stories
San Jose Mercury News Leonard Pitts Jr.: Pope Francis urges consensus on climate change San Jose Mercury News There is something I have never understood about the argument over global warming. That argument was, of course, renewed last w...
» War has left Syria ‘on brink of economic collapse’
22/06/15 19:00 from The Independent - World RSS Feed
Syria is heading towards economic collapse after four years of war, a report by a leading British think-tank says.
» ​Poll: Obamacare and the Supreme Court
22/06/15 18:59 from Home - CBSNews.com
CBS News and the New York Times polled Americans on Obamacare, days before the Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling that could have a big impact on the law
» Historic Iran talks in final act - Jerusalem Post Israel News
22/06/15 18:59 from Google News - World
Jerusalem Post Israel News Historic Iran talks in final act Jerusalem Post Israel News US willing to extend talks by a few days, but by no more; Iran parliament passes critical bill limiting possible concessions; Political and technical ...
» Yanukovych regrets Ukraine bloodshed
22/06/15 18:58 from BBC News - World
Ukraine's ex-president Viktor Yanukovych tells the BBC he accepts some responsibility for the killings that led to his overthrow.
» Tuesday's gossip column
22/06/15 18:57 from BBC News - World
Manchester United are ready to spend £150m, New York City in talks with Andrea Pirlo, Man City want Jack Wilshere, plus more.
» Venezuela sets date for election that could give major boost to opposition
22/06/15 18:57 from World: World News, International News, Foreign Reporting - The Washington Post
Venezuela will hold parliamentary elections on Dec. 6, officials in Caracas said Monday, setting a date for a contest that will offer the country’s long-suffering opposition a chance to make its most substantial gains in more than a deca...
» College World Series 2015 live stream, Vanderbilt vs. Virginia time, TV, radio - AL.com
22/06/15 18:55 from world - Google News
AL.com College World Series 2015 live stream, Vanderbilt vs. Virginia time, TV, radio AL.com College World Series 2015 live stream, Vanderbilt vs. Virginia time, TV, radio. Carson Fulmer. Vanderbilt ace Carson Fulmer is scheduled to star...
» California Prepares for Major Fire Season
22/06/15 18:54 from Voice of America
California is bracing for a major fire season as a severe drought afflicting the west coast state continues for a fourth year in a row. As VOA's Mike O'Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, firefighters are getting ready while local officia...
» Zinke to donate funds from white supremacist - Chron.com
22/06/15 18:52 from Google News - Top Stories
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Does too much porn numb sexual pleasure? – Maria Konnikova – Aeon

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I don’t remember how old I was when I had my first encounter with pornography, but I must have been around 10 – the experience is entwined with the sound of the AOL dial-up tone. It was something relatively benign – a close-up photo of some genitalia – and I wasn’t much shocked. I grew up in a family not given to sugarcoating the realities of the human condition and I’d known what to expect.
But what if I’d grown up a decade or so later, when the internet had graduated beyond the old-school chatrooms and into the ubiquitous juggernaut of today? My memory might have been decidedly different.
‘The widespread use of internet porn is one of the fastest-moving global experiments ever unconsciously conducted,’ the US science writer Gary Wilson told a TEDx audience in 2012. For the first time ever, Wilson explained, we can track how ever-growing exposure to pornography affects sexual practices, appetites and trends. Wilson – who is neither a scientist nor a professor – is the founder of Your Brain On Porn, a site that popularises anti-pornography research. In his talk, he reiterated the site’s main conclusions: when we have pornography freely available at our fingertips, the brain’s reward circuits go into overdrive as they’re exposed to what he terms ‘extreme versions of natural events’. Instead of one or two possible sexual partners, now there are dozens, hundreds, all readily accessible in a single click. Like any addiction, Wilson says, the result is a numbed response to pleasure, from lack of interest in real women to erectile dysfunction. Ubiquitous pornography undermines natural sexuality.
Wilson’s talk has had approximately 4.6 million views – and its popularity heralds a new movement in pornography consumption: NoFap. ‘Fap’ comes from Japanese manga porn, where it is a sound effect for masturbation. NoFap is a move away from masturbation, and the pornography that so often forms its backdrop. The rationale derives from a version of Wilson’s argument: when you are constantly bombarded with heightened sexual stimuli, your virility is undermined. Your ability to communicate with real sexual beings collapses. You become isolated – porn, after all, is a solitary pursuit – and your emotional wellbeing plummets. Refrain from those stimuli, and from acting on them, and you will find yourself rejuvenated and your sexual powers reawakened, your emotional equilibrium restored and your happiness rising. When Wilson’s talk was first released, the self-styled ‘Fapstronauts’ numbered approximately 7,000. Today, there are more than 150,000.
The NoFap, brain-on-porn arguments are the latest in a common, critical refrain: that, for one reason or another, pornography is bad for you. The more traditional critiques say that pornography is inherently degrading to women – or whoever happens to be the object of sexual activity – and fosters unrealistic expectations of sex. It decreases the quality of real relationships and the self-image of those involved – and increases negative sexual attitudes and actions. Porn-users compare real humans to the fantastical images, and either come out unimpressed and reluctant to have real sex, or, at worst, demanding the types of behaviours they see on screen, regardless of their desirability to their partner. One poll from the US Pew Research Center in 2007 quantified the feeling, finding that 70 per cent of Americans said pornography is harmful.
Do any of these criticisms hold water? It would be nice to know. Reliable statistics about pornography are notoriously difficult to obtain – many people underreport their own habits, and many porn companies are loath to share any sort of viewership statistics. But according to ongoing research by Chyng Sun, a professor of media studies at New York University (NYU), the numbers are high and rising quickly. She estimates that 36 per cent of internet content is pornography. One in four internet searches are about porn. There are 40 million (and growing) regular consumers of porn in the US; and around the world, at any given time, 1.7 million users are streaming porn. Of the almost 500 men Sun surveyed in one of her studies, only 1 per cent had never seen porn, and half had seen their first porn film before they’d turned 13. Cindy Gallop, the founder of the website Make Love Not Porn, told me recently that, in the past six months, the average age when children are first exposed to pornography dropped from eight to six. It wasn’t a deliberate seeking. Online pornography is now so widespread that it’s easier than ever to ‘stumble’ on it.
The actual effects of pornography on attitudes, behaviour, life and relationship satisfaction are difficult to study, and for many years most data have remained purely correlational or anecdotal. But early on, there emerged suggestive inklings that those who vocally opposed pornography’s spread might be motivated more by emotion than any tangible proof.
In 1969, Denmark became the first country to legalise pornography. In the years that followed, onlookers watched with interest and trepidation: what would happen to Danish society? As it turns out, nothing – or rather, nothing negative. When in 1991 Berl Kutchinsky, a criminologist at the University of Copenhagen who spent his career studying the public effects of pornography, analysed the data for more than 20 years following legalisation, he found that rates of sexual aggression had actually fallen. Pornography was proliferating, but the sexual climate seemed to be improving. The same thing happened, he found, in Sweden and West Germany, which followed Denmark’s legalisation campaign.
Kutchinsky concluded that the available country-level data ‘would seem to exclude, beyond any reasonable doubt, that this availability [of pornography] has had any detrimental effects in the form of increased sexual violence… the remarkable fact is that they decreased’ – a conclusion that has since been echoed by multiple studies of country-level data, from nations spanning North and South America, Europe and Asia. If anything, Kutchnisky wrote, pornography was being used precisely as it was originally intended: as an expression of a certain fantasy.
‘For someone with lower sex drive, porn evokes the same magnitude response as eating chocolate’
When it comes to porn, going beyond correlational evidence can be difficult. ‘Science is so scared of pornography and sexuality, and it’s so discriminated against, that there’s a ton of work that hasn’t been done,’ Nicole Prause, head of the Sexual Psychophysiology and Affective Neuroscience Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), recently told me. ‘Most of the information we currently have is not experimental or longitudinal. Lots of data talk about correlates and associations, but the literature is especially bad – it can’t be trusted – because no one is doing experiments, no one is showing cause and effect. That needs to change.’
Prause fell into sex research by mistake: she followed a boyfriend to Indiana and found herself next to the Kinsey Institute, which happened to have an opening for a researcher. Soon, she was hooked. Today, Prause has become one of the few researchers in the US to study pornography in the laboratory. A trained neuroscientist, she focuses much of her efforts on the brain. Using fMRI, PET and EEG, Prause looks at how we respond to pornography – and how those responses translate to attitudes and behaviour. She has found that, in many ways, pornography is no different to a scary movie or a bungee jump. We just view it differently because it happens to involve sex. ‘There is a general idea that porn is special or unique in the brain. But frankly, it doesn’t look that different from other rewards,’ she says. ‘Lots of other things are as powerful. For someone with lower sex drive, for instance, watching porn evokes the same magnitude response as eating chocolate, in similar brain areas.’
What’s more, it doesn’t seem to be the case that people become desensitised to pornography, in the sense that the more you watch it, the more extreme your viewing content needs to become. When Prause and the psychologist James Pfaus of Concordia University in Quebec recently measured sexual arousal in 280 men, they found that watching more pornography actually increased arousal to less explicit material – and increased the desire for sex with a partner. In other words, it made them more, not less responsive to ‘normal’ cues, and more, not less, desirous of real physical relationships. In a 2014 review, Prause likened pornography addiction – the notion that, like a drug, the more you watch, the more, and higher doses, you crave – to the emperor who has no clothes: everyone says it’s there, but there is no actual evidence to support it.
Prause has also studied the question of relationship satisfaction more directly: did watching pornography negatively impact the quality of sexual intimacy? Working with the psychologist Cameron Staley of Idaho State University in 2013, she asked 44 monogamous couples to watch pornography alone and together, to see how it would affect feelings about their relationship. After each viewing session, the couples reported on their arousal, sexual satisfaction, perception of themselves, and their partner’s attractiveness and sexual behaviour. Prause and Staley found that viewing pornography increased couples’ desire to be with their significant other, whether they’d seen the film alone or together. Pornography also increased their evaluation of their own sexual behaviour.
In the past decade, experimental approaches such as Prause’s have finally started to grow in number – and for the most part, their conclusions cast doubt on the perceived social wisdom of pornography’s detrimental impact. As part of the 2002 Swiss Multicenter Adolescent Survey on Health, more than 7,500 16- to 20-year-olds were asked about their exposure to online pornography (over three-quarters of the males and 36 per cent of the females had viewed internet porn in the past month) and then measured on a variety of behaviours and attitudes. The researchers found no association between viewing explicit material and then going on to behave in more sexually risky ways. A 2012 review of studies that, since 2005, have looked at the effects of internet porn on adolescents’ social development and attitudes found that the prevailing wisdom that pornography leads to unrealistic sexual beliefs, more permissive attitudes and more experimentation is not founded on replicable research. ‘The aggregate literature has failed to indicate conclusive results,’ the authors conclude in the journal Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity.
Likewise with sexually violent behaviours or negative attitudes toward women. In one series of experiments conducted by the sexologist Milton Diamond of the University of Hawaii, viewing pornography neither made men more violent nor more prone to having worse attitudes toward women. In a 2013 study of 4,600 15- to 25-year-olds in the Netherlands, the psychologist Gert Martin Hald looked to see whether pornography-viewing had an effect on a wide variety of sexual behaviours, such as likelihood of adventurous sex (threesomes, same-sex partners for self-stated heterosexuals, sex with someone you met online, etc), partner experience (one-night stands, age of first encounter, number of partners, etc), and transactional sex (being paid money or something else for sex, paying someone else for sex). He found that frequency of pornography-consumption did indeed have an effect – but, once you controlled for other things, such as socio-demographic factors, risk-seeking, and social relationships, it explained only an additional 0.3 to 4 per cent of the impact. We shouldn’t dismiss the effect, Hald says, but rather understand it in context: it is one of many factors, each of which contributes to behaviour, and its influence is not any greater (and often, less) than that of other predisposing elements.
The negative behaviours we blame on pornography might have emerged no matter what: porn is more symptom than cause
Indeed, in another study earlier this year, Hald and the psychologist Neil Malamuth of UCLA looked at the relationship between negative attitudes toward women and pornography use. They found that there was, in fact, a link – but only if a person was already low on a scale of so-called agreeableness. Those results came as no surprise: in 2012, they, along with the clinical psychologist Mary Koss of the University of Arizona, found that the only time pornography viewing was associated with attitudes that condoned any form of violence against women was in men already at high risk of sexual aggression. When they summarised the data that preceded their work, they wrote that negative effects ‘are evidence only for a subgroup of males users, namely those already predisposed to sexual aggression’. The negative behaviours we blame on pornography, in other words, might have emerged no matter what; porn is perhaps more symptom than cause.
It’s a message that new research is increasingly supporting. Earlier this year, a group from VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands attempted to disambiguate cause and effect in relationship satisfaction: did frequent pornography viewing cause people to drift apart – or was it the result of their having drifted apart already? For three years, the psychologist Linda Muusses and her colleagues tracked just under 200 newlywed couples, as part of a broader study on marriage and wellbeing. At regular intervals, both members of every couple were asked about their use of ‘explicit internet material’, as well as their happiness with the relationship and their sexual satisfaction. The happier men were in relationships, they found, the less pornography they watched. Conversely, more viewing predicted lower happiness a year later. It was a self-reinforcing cycle: get caught in a good one, with a satisfied relationship, and porn was a non-issue. But lose satisfaction, watch more porn, and realise your relationship is further disintegrating.
Muusses and her colleagues also noticed that higher levels of pornography use at the start of a relationship did not predict a less sexually satisfying experience later on, for men or women. ‘Our findings suggest that it is implausible that SEIM [sexually explicit internet material] causes husbands to contrast their sexual experiences and partner’s attractiveness with their SEIM experiences with long-lasting effects,’ the authors wrote.
Why, then, does the disconnect persist between theory, opinion and social sentiment, on the one hand, and empirical research, on the other? Part of the problem stems from the difficulty of saying exactly what pornography actually is. The deeper I ventured into the world of pornography, online or not, speaking with producers, viewers, distributors, the stars themselves, the more I realised how misplaced the very premise of that framing was: there isn’t a monolithic ‘pornography’, just like there isn’t a monolithic ‘Hollywood film’. When we go to the cinema, there are dramas and comedies, horror and sci-fi, thrillers and romantic romps – movies to suit any mood, any taste, any occasion. The experience and effects of each differ. We don’t emerge from Selma in the same frame of mind as we do from When Harry Met Sally. But while we understand that implicitly when it comes to mainstream cinema, we don’t see pornography with the same level of nuance. ‘We cherry-pick the worst, most aggressive examples,’ said the media researcher Chyng Sun.
I heard the same refrain over and over, from every researcher and every member of the pornography industry I spoke with: pornography is to sex as Hollywood films are to real life. Pornography is fantasy, pure and simple. And just as any fantasy can be channelled in any direction, so too can pornography. There are bad fantasies – Sun’s ‘worst, most aggressive examples’, just as there are good fantasies, instances of pornography that should pass any feminist’s muster, both in terms of quality and the ethical standards of filming. As Coyote Amrich of Good Vibrations, an adult retailer in San Francisco (one of the oldest such retailers in the country) puts it: ‘Just like not everyone is a Bernie Madoff in finance, not every person involved in porn is this terrible person. Some are really great and have allowed incredible content and have been supportive of male and female performers, and help people make great careers.’
That short description goes to the heart of what makes pornography the kind of fantasy we can feel good about versus the kind we should actively question. It’s not a question of content but rather one of ethics, where the number-one criterion is the treatment of the actors. ‘Are the women enjoying themselves and having authentic pleasure as far as we can tell? Are the other people in the scene with them not saying debasing things to them or, if they are, is it clear that it’s wanted – yes, I wantyou to call me a slut, so call me a slut?’ Amrich explained. It matters little what acts are being performed or how; we shouldn’t be quick to dismiss something as bad just because we, personally, don’t think anyone could possibly enjoy it. What matters is that the people performing these acts enjoy their performance. As Jamie Martin, Amrich’s predecessor at Good Vibes, put it: ‘If it’s not hurting anyone, and someone is going to get off on it, why not?’
Amrich refuses to stock any films where the ethical treatment of actors isn’t completely clear, a stance I saw from multiple buyers, distributors and retailers. Increasingly, people insist that the product they host on their site or bring to their customers comes from a place of clear desire. Not all porn is created equal. ‘We need to move past the notion that a female performer is a victim. It’s antiquated,’ Amrich says. ‘It doesn’t acknowledge female power, pleasure, women taking control of sexuality. It only serves the idea that a woman who is sexual is being taken advantage of.’
Jiz Lee, recognised as one of the leading modern genderqueer adult performers, has been in the industry for more than 10 years, and says ethical pornography is a priority. The single biggest marker of such porn is that it costs the consumer something. ‘By paying for it, it’s a guarantee,’ Lee told me, taking a break from shooting with the director Shine Louise Houston. ‘Otherwise, it can be hard to tell if it was ethically shot. Paying helps insure it, and helps the company be in good standing.’ These days, they point out, the internet doesn’t just function as a way to distribute pornography; it’s a way of gauging quality and blacklisting those sites that don’t meet certain standards. ‘I won’t work for a company that has a poor record or is exploitative,’ Lee says. ‘And I will tell everybody else.’
In the absence of other options, pornography becomes a de facto way of educating yourself about sexuality
Ethical pornography is becoming increasingly less exceptional. The porn industry of today is a far cry from the ‘San Pornando Valley’ adult entertainment industry of the 1990s. There are more women in charge, more readily enforced standards, and more accountability.
But regardless of what pornography insiders say, for consumers, especially younger ones who are growing up with a ubiquitous internet, the view is quite different. Unlike Hollywood, where it’s clear to anyone that they are watching an idealised version of reality, with pornography, that realisation is often absent. For one simple reason: we don’t talk about sexual pleasure as children, adolescents or adults. It’s a taboo, guilt-ridden area. In the absence of other options, pornography becomes a de facto way of educating yourself about sexuality. As one 2014 study of low-income black and Hispanic youth put it, led by Emily Rothman of the Boston University School of Public Health, quoting an interview with a porn-watching adolescent: ‘Without porn, I wouldn’t know half the things I know now.’
The sex researcher Alice Dreger of Northwestern University in Chicago recently live-tweeted from a high-school sex-education class – her son’s. His teacher’s approach, it soon became clear, was absolute avoidance of any topics other than abstinence. Any attempt to broaden the conversation was stonewalled. And therein lies the problem. We see pornography as a socially destructive force, but there’s nothing inherently destructive about it. It becomes so only when it is the one thing adolescents see as they discover sex: they use it as a learning script. It’s not a problem of pornography as such, but rather, a problem of the absence of a competing script, something that contextualises porn as a fantastical, not real-life, experience.
The way to change that – and to change the negative effects such a misperception can have – isn’t to restrict or ban pornography. It’s to bring the discussion of sexual pleasure to the foreground, especially in sex-ed. ‘We need to supplement pornography with non-porn sexual education, so that porn becomes fantasy sex rather than a real-world template,’ Zhana Vrangalova, a psychologist at NYU who specialises in sexuality, told me. ‘We need to give people permission to enjoy sex. Until we do that, they will go to porn. Because you can’t kill curiosity.’
Already, certain movements are trying to do just that. Jessica Cooper helps run ScrewSmart, a sex-education collaborative in Philadelphia that aims to foster open dialogue about sexual pleasure. The group meets with students, hosts workshops, discusses porn and its role openly and honestly. ‘One of the biggest issues for sexuality in general is permission,’ Cooper told me. ‘People want permission to like things they like, want what they want. We are giving them permission to say yes. Your desires are valid, sexuality is important, what you want to do is not wrong. Porn does that, especially to women. They need to be told, I’m not an evil, weird creature for enjoying this.’
For some women, erotica is the mythical Viagra, a way of empowering them
Other programmes are starting with even younger children – an important step given the ever-earlier pornography exposure that might otherwise seep through unexplained. In Norway, Line Jansrud, the presenter of Newton, an educational show on state TV, gives herself a hickey with a vacuum cleaner, kisses a tomato and uses a lubricated dildo on an anatomically correct doll model. She wants to explain how real sex works, so that children and adolescents can distinguish Hollywood from real life. Her target audience: third-graders.
The effects of this social change reach far beyond sexual education as such. ‘We’re missing important therapeutic effects of using erotica because of taboos,’ Prause says. ‘Aroused states and orgasms do really nice things for the brain and body.’ Erotica can, for some women, be the mythical Viagra that has thus far gone missing, a way of empowering them and ‘putting their brain in that mode, helping it do what it’s been programmed to do’. There is certainly a desire for it, albeit largely unspoken in normal circumstances: when Prause’s group placed an ad for one of their recent studies, the response broke their phone lines. They had to take it offline. There is also evidence that the social effects of watching porn can spread beyond the individual: pornography has been shown to improve acceptance of homosexuality, birth control and extra-marital sex.
And porn has the potential to go even further. Sun doesn’t like pornography – but it’s not actual porn she doesn’t like. It’s the social norms and standards that led to the creation of certain stereotypes in the first place: not a result of pornography, but rather a reflection of the direction broader society has taken. ‘We live in a patriarchy, where women are fundamentally objectified. We shouldn’t be surprised to see it play out in pornography.’
We shouldn’t be worrying about whether pornography has negative repercussions on society. We should be worrying about the kind of society that would lead to the types of pornography we find distasteful in the first place – and work on fixing that society rather than blaming its inevitable result.

22 June 2015
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Venezuela to Hold Parliamentary Election on Dec. 6

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CARACAS—
Venezuela's parliamentary election will be held on Dec. 6, authorities announced on Monday, ending lengthy speculation over the date for a vote that surveys showed was likely to punish the ruling socialists.
President Nicolas Maduro's ruling Socialist Party currently enjoys a majority in the 167-seat National Assembly, but an economic crisis including widespread shortages and roaring inflation has hurt the government's popularity.
Pressure had been mounting on the National Electoral Council (CNE), with two jailed politicians and dozens of students staging partial hunger strikes to demand a date.
"The National Electoral Council does not act under pressure," its head, Tibisay Lucena, said during a televised speech, chiding hard-line opposition critics who claim the CNE is beholden to the government.
The date is a symbolic one for Venezuela. Maduro's charismatic predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, who founded the left-wing "Chavismo" movement, was first elected to the presidency on Dec. 6, 1998.
His "Chavista" supporters will hold primaries on Sunday to choose their candidates for the parliamentary election, a month after the opposition Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition did the same.
"Now we have the date of the battle for a new people's victory," Maduro tweeted, using the military language favored by Chavez during the multiple election wins of his 14-year rule.
The South American OPEC country's fragmented opposition is seen having its best chance in years to recapture the National Assembly amid a biting recession, severe crime and growing dissatisfaction with Maduro.
The opposition needs to lure disillusioned "Chavistas" and reignite the enthusiasm of their own power base. But they face a formidable state propaganda machine, electoral districting that is seen helping the socialists, and an image of being elitist.
"Finally we have a date for the elections!" tweeted opposition leader Henrique Capriles. "Now more than ever #UnityAndChange."
Supporters of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who has been consuming only liquids for the last 28 days, said he might end his protest, given that one of his demands - a date for the vote - has been met.
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Venezuela sets December election date

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The National Electoral Council in Venezuela says elections for the country's National Assembly will be held on 6 December.
Delays in setting a date had raised concerns the poll could be cancelled.
But the council's head, Tibisay Lucena, said that was never on the cards and denied the council had bowed to opposition demands.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) of President Nicolas Maduro currently holds a majority of seats.
But recent polls suggest that if the election were held now, the opposition coalition would win in a landslide.
Venezuela's rampant crime, the drop in oil revenues and chronic shortages of basic goods have hurt President Maduro's approval ratings.
Ms Lucena announced that the official campaign period would run from 13 November to 3 December.
The opposition coalition - the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) - had accused election officials of dragging their feet because of the governing party's poor showing in opinion polls.
One of the key demands of the imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, has been that the government set a date for the elections and that they are supervised by international observers.
Ms Lucena said the UNASUR group of counties, which is generally considered to be friendly towards the Venezuelan government, would be allowed to observe the polls.
It is not clear whether Mr Lopez, who has been on hunger strike since May, will now end his protest.
He has been in jail for more than a year, accused of inciting violence during anti-government protests last year in which more 40 people died.
The opposition alleged widespread fraud in the 2013 presidential election in which Mr Maduro claimed a narrow victory. Mr Maduro repeatedly denied the allegations.

Venezuela Vote, in Doubt, Is Now Set

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CARACAS—
Venezuela will hold a congressional vote on Dec. 6, officials said on Monday, ending months of speculation that it would be postponed by an unpopular government facing a tough electoral battle.
Polls indicate that President Nicolás Maduro’s ruling United Socialist Party is likely to suffer a major setback, with Venezuelans...

The Ultimate Nightmare: North Korea Could Sell Saudi Arabia Nuclear Weapons

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One of the gravest concerns about Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon is that it will set off a nuclear arms race in the region, whereas Iran’s acquisition of the bomb prompts its neighbors to follow suit. As President Obama warned in 2012, if Iran gets nuclear weapons, “It is almost certain that other players in the region would feel it necessary to get their own nuclear weapons.”
No country is seen as more likely to go nuclear in response to Iran doing so as Saudi Arabia, Iran’s long-standing rival in the region. Saudi officials have done little to tamp down such fears, instead indulging them repeatedly. Just last month, Prince Turki bin Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, told a South Korean conference: “Whatever the Iranians have, we will have, too.”
With a few exceptions, nearly everyone who fears that Saudi Arabia will acquire a nuclear weapon nonetheless concedes Riyadh wouldn’t build a bomb itself. Instead, the general consensus has long held that Saudi Arabia would purchase off-the-shelf nuclear weapons from Pakistan. Indeed, concerns about a secret Saudi-Pakistani nuclear pact date back to the 1970s and 1980s, and have become especially prevalent over the past decade and a half.
As I and others have long argued, this notion is far-fetched. While Saudi Arabia would want to buy a nuclear arsenal from Pakistan, Islamabad has no reason to sell nuclear weapons to Riyadh.
To begin with, Pakistan already worries that its arsenal is too small to survive an Indian or American counterforce strike. Moreover, selling Saudi Arabia nuclear weapons would result in unprecedented backlash from most of the international community, including both the United States and China, Pakistan’s major patrons. It would also enrage Iran, who is well positioned to retaliate against Pakistan in numerous ways, from supporting separatists in Balochistan to further cozying up to India.
Any remaining concerns about whether Pakistan would sell Saudi Arabia nuclear weapons were seeming put to rest back in April, when Islamabad refused to participate in the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. If Pakistan refused to send in even a symbolic contingent of troops to participate in the Saudi-led mission, it certainly wouldn’t give Riyadh its most valuable military assets.
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But while Saudi Arabia couldn’t purchase a nuclear weapon from Pakistan, it might have more luck with North Korea. In fact, there are a number of compelling reasons to believe North Korea might be amenable to such a request.
Most obviously, North Korea has a troubling history of proliferating nuclear technology, including to the Middle East. There have long been persistent (albeit largely unconfirmed) rumors that North Korea has provided Iran with nuclear technology, and Pyongyang also helped Syria build a nuclear reactor (which Israel destroyed in airstrikes in 2011). More generally, North Korea has a long track record of selling advanced military technology like ballistic missiles to numerous pariah nations.
Moreover, Saudi Arabia would be an extremely valuable patron for North Korea. Currently, Kim Jong-un is trying to improve the economy especially for North Korean elites in order to shore up support for his rule. This effort has been made extremely difficult by the more hardline stance China has taken against North Korea ever since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
Pyongyang has been scrambling to find suitable replacements for China, but so far it has had little luck. Russia appears to want to improve ties with North Korea, but its growing financial woes will limit its ability to provide North Korea with enough economic assistance to offset the loss of Chinese aid. Meanwhile, South Korea appears intent on limiting its economic relationship with North Korea absent significant concessions from Pyongyang on the latter’s nuclear program.
Saudi Arabia would face none of these constraints. Unlike South Korea, Saudi Arabia is not overtly threatened by North Korea’s nuclear program. And unlike Russia, it does not face enormous financial difficulties.
In fact, Saudi Arabia is awash in petrodollars, boasting the third largest foreign currency reserves in the world after only China and Japan. Although it has been using these to soften the impact of lower oil prices, it still has $708 billion in FX reserves, more than enough to provide significant support for North Korea.
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Why Iran's Past Nuclear Actions Matter

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It would be fair to say that the past year-and-a-half of nuclear talks with Iran has not been America’s finest negotiating hour. But even by the comparatively low standards of U.S. diplomacy to date, the collapse of the American position in recent days has been nothing short of breathtaking.
Roughly a week ago, the White House began walking back the dog on the issue of PMDs: the “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s nuclear effort that have been carried out so far by the regime in Tehran. That topic has been hotly debated for years, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, has identified nearly a dozen potential PMD activities—ranging from bomb designs to the development of nuclear detonators—that Iran needs to explain fully. So far, however, the Islamic Republic has done nothing of the sort, as the IAEA itself complained publiclyback in March.
Until very recently, this lapse was considered a very big deal. Just this spring, Secretary of State John Kerry was still insisting that Iran’s disclosure of its past military-related atomic activities was an ironclad requirement for any sort of agreement with Tehran. Now, however, America’s chief diplomat is singing a decidedly different tune.
“We’re not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another,”Kerry said in recent recorded comments to reporters. Rather, he now insists, the administration is comfortable with what it knows about Iran’s past nuclear practices, and now is simply concerned about future nuclear work. Moreover, according to Kerry, any concerns we may have on the matter are misplaced. “The possible military dimensions, frankly, gets distorted a little bit in some of the discussion,” he reassured his viewers.
But the reversal isn’t an incidental issue, no matter what the White House would have us believe. The question of Iran’s previous—and possibly current—military-related nuclear work goes to the heart of Western concerns over the intent of Iran’s effort: namely, that it represents a path to the “bomb.” Simply put, knowing as much as we can about how far Iran’s work in this arena has progressed, and which processes are still underway (or could be restarted in short order) is essential to truly understanding the distance Iran still has to travel in order to attain nuclear status.
The question is especially important given the likely gaps in oversight of the emerging deal. True, the United States and the other P5+1 powers have declared that Iran’s nuclear program needs to be subject to a comprehensive inspections and monitoring regime. But Iran’s leaders have ruled out that possibility, instead offering a much more modest model of “managed access,” under which inspectors will only gain access to specific, agreed-to facilities—and then only after a lengthy delay (during which Iran will no doubt clean up all offending nuclear work).
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Moreover, numerous Iranian officials have explicitly ruled out the possibility of Western inspectors being allowed into military sites. That in and of itself represents a colossal impediment to real oversight, because a third or more of Iran’s nuclear program is estimated to be co-located with the regime's military facilities.
Whether the P5+1 powers accept such a scaled-back model remains to be seen. France, for example, has preemptively declared that no deal is possible without Western access to Iranian military installations. But it’s not at all clear that the White House will back the French government on this issue. As a result, the smart money is on the deal that is ultimately concluded between Iran and the West containing less, rather than more, oversight of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities.
With just days to go until the declared June 30 deadline for an agreement, Western negotiators are under enormous pressure to conclude some sort of compromise with Iran. As a result, they appear more and more flexible on long-standing requirements that were once deemed essential to curbing Iran’s nuclear menace. All of which suggests that, at least as far as Iran is concerned, American diplomacy has been very good indeed.
Ilan Berman is Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC.
Image: U.S. State Department
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Why America Can't Stop Russia's Hybrid Warfare

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Hybrid warfare—the term applied to Russia’s particular approach to irregular warfare in Ukraine—is the threat du jour in international security affairs. Unfortunately, by focusing attention on Moscow’s purported deviousness and cunning, and conflating the annexation of Crimea with the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions, it avoids examining the real reasons for the Kremlin’s successes (and failures). Both deserve greater scrutiny.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea was shockingly effective—and bloodless—and it is appropriate that it should provoke thinking, analysis, debate and even constructing new models (or giving greater attention to existing ones) to explain it. Nevertheless, since we might see more such irregular warfare in the future, we should insist on greater precision and honesty in our conversations.
First, however successful Vladimir Putin’s little green men may have been in seizing Crimea, that particular approach is unlikely to be widely applicable. Crimea was unique, or at least very, very rare, in combining a substantial foreign (Russian) naval base and associated military presence, a major power with well-developed special operations capabilities, a very substantial local majority sympathetic to the government owning the base (including some of the host nation’s military personnel and local officials), and a parliament that had already voted more than once (before current events) to join that country. Where else is this true?
In fact, what worked in Crimea demonstrably failed in eastern Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin appears to have fundamentally miscalculated support for the separatists (and reactions even among some Russian-speakers elsewhere in Ukraine). The Kremlin did not swiftly and cheaply establish new Russian provinces (which was probably not Putin’s aim), relatively stable quasi-independent unrecognized regions under Russian protection like Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia (not too likely but a possible objective), or some other enduring arrangement winning long-term Russian influence in Ukraine (most probable). Instead, Russia’s leader has ensnared himself and his country in a costly, long-term insurgency/nation-building quagmire that is difficult to exit and could escalate to something much worse. Fomenting instability for political ends in far off lands is one thing, but doing it on your own border is something else entirely.
Second, why is it exactly that the United States and its NATO allies have had such difficulty responding to what Russia is doing? It is not only because Moscow developed seemingly novel tactics. On the contrary, a degree of self-examination—which can always be a little painful—suggests that in important respects the answer may have less to do with Moscow’s approach than our own. Three factors stand out.
One is that Russia’s seizure of Crimea happened very quickly. U.S. and European decision-making processes just don’t move at that speed, particularly when facing ambiguity. Once a Crimea-style operation has begun, it will be extremely difficult if not impossible for Western decision-makers to be sufficiently confident about the other side’s intent to take consequential action before it’s too late. While we can and should strive to improve our intelligence-collection (to get information more quickly and make better sense of it), this makes deterrence and long-term responses important and limits our options for immediate reaction.
Another factor is that widespread feelings of military (and moral) superiority over Russia and even invulnerability to conventional warfare essentially blinded decision-makers to Russia’s perspectives, capabilities and potential actions. In other words, Western leaders have had a hard time formulating a response because they weren’t even thinking in these terms before the spring of 2014. U.S. and European leaders were wholly unprepared for an angry Russia that dared to use force in a region they thought they owned militarily, politically and economically.
As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said last year, “we have underestimated, for a long time, the magnitude of the humiliation that Russians felt with the collapse of the Soviet Union because it also involved the collapse of the Russian empire.” This is primarily a result of consolidated conventional wisdom and political correctness in much Western discussion of Russia over an extended period—the same intellectual blinders that prevented hard questions from receiving serious attention in Washington prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
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A similar problem is that many Western analysts, politicians, commentators and even leaders have not been honest with themselves about their real commitment to Ukraine, much less wider public interest. Russia’s actions have exposed the fact that talk is cheap and that no small number of Ukraine’s Western supporters are cheapskates. It has also uncovered the degree to which elite-level aspirations for Ukraine moved far beyond what voters are prepared to back. A recent Pew Research Center survey illustrates this by demonstrating tepid Western support not only for Ukraine, but even for fighting to defend other NATO members.
More concretely, after years of statements about Ukraine’s importance, the European Union was unwilling to provide what now looks like quite limited economic support to former President Viktor Yanukovych as he balked at signing the Association Agreement that contributed to this whole mess. Likewise, some leading individuals in the U.S. Congress who repeatedly voiced strong support for Ukraine are now (correctly) unwilling to risk American or NATO military action after apparently assuming that they would never have to answer this question. And they cannot mobilize sufficient votes from their colleagues to provide Ukraine with financial assistance comparable to what the tiny and less strategically significant Georgia received after its 2008 war with Russia—another way in which aspirations became disconnected from reality.
This is dangerous behavior. America’s—and the West’s—ability to understand reality before making important policy choices is critical to our success in a complicated world where two rival major powers are dissatisfied with the Western-defined and U.S.-led international order.
Moreover, one could argue that leaders’ failure to understand reality was what brought down the Soviet Union—America’s previous challenger. Soviet central planning ignored economic realities and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev apparently did not foresee predictable outcomes when he permitted criticism and even protests while simultaneously demonstrating that he would not use force to contain them. We (and many Soviet citizens) may have welcomed the outcome in that case, but it is clearly not what leaders wanted or expected. If American leaders don’t take a serious look around at the world and examine some of their own assumptions, they might face increasingly expensive surprises themselves—perhaps next time in East Asia. As wealthy and powerful as it is, the United States can’t afford too many outcomes like that.
Paul J. Saunders is executive director of The Center for the National Interest and associate publisher of The National Interest. He served in the U.S. State Department from 2003 to 2005. Follow him on Twitter:@1796farewell.
Image: Wikimedia/Ліонкінг
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The House of Lords most bizzare food complaints as restaurants and bars lose £2m

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Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday May 27, 2015. See PA story POLITICS Speech. Photo credit should read: Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA Wire

EU meets on Russia sanctions, migrant crisis 

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EU foreign ministers are meeting in Luxembourg to decide on extending sanctions against Russia and on the formal launching of a navy operation against people-traffickers off the coast of Libya.
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Putin Discusses Ukraine in Call With Merkel, Hollande

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Putin discusses Ukraine crisis with Merkel and Hollande ahead of foreign ministers' meeting

Carter: No Desire for Conflict With Russia

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U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday there is neither a desire for a return to a Cold War nor for a new conflict with
Russia, and that economic sanctions are having an effect in countering Russian "aggression" in Ukraine. He spoke at a forum in Berlin where he was also meeting with German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen.  Both were due to travel later Monday to Muenster to meet with their counterparts from Norway and the Netherlands. Carter said that while the West is not looking to be enemies with Russia, it will defend itself if necessary.
"Ukraine is only one part of our larger concerns these days about Russia.  In response, we are taking a strong but balanced strategic approach, an approach that seeks to ensure Russia cannot force anyone to turn towards the past, all the while welcoming and encouraging Russia to turn back towards the future," Cartersaid. Carter will travel Tuesday to Estonia for meetings with the defense ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - all countries that were once under the influence of Moscow and
part of the Soviet Union. The talks all come ahead of a NATO meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels to discuss plans for dealing with Russia following its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean
peninsula and what is widely seen as its direct military support of pro-Russia separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.Carter intends to cover a U.S. proposal to send enough tanks and other military equipment to outfit a brigade for exercises and other training programs in Eastern Europe.  The defense chief has not officially approved the idea, and officials have not said exactly where the equipment would go, but there are indications that Poland, which borders Russia, could be one location. The defense ministers will also discuss increasing the alliance's involvement in the fight against Islamic State militants.  NATO leaders are expected to consider providing ministry-level advice and other training assistance in Iraq.

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Military: Two Ukrainian Servicemen Killed In Past 24 Hours

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The Ukrainian military says two of its servicemen have been killed and three wounded in fresh separatist attacks in the east.
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