Trump starts NATO summit by slamming U.S. allies

CBS This Morning

Published on Jul 11, 2018

A high-stakes NATO summit is just getting underway, with President Trump criticizing U.S. allies in the military alliance. This meeting begins Mr. Trump’s four-city European trip that will end with his highly anticipated summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Weijia Jiang

International Alert | Peace is within our power

International Alert was founded in 1986 to help people find peaceful solutions to conflict.

At that time, the number of conflicts between countries was decreasing, but there was an alarming increase in the number of conflicts within countries. Both types of conflict were undermining development and leading to gross violations of human rights. Identifying and highlighting individual abuses of human rights was not enough; a different approach was desperately needed. It was out of this urgency that International Alert was born.

In 1985 the Standing International Forum on Ethnic Conflict, Development and Human Rights (SIFEC) was founded with the purpose of addressing the issue of conflict and to alert governments and the world to developing crises. The following year, SIFEC merged with another organisation, International Alert on Genocide and Massacres, to become the charity we know today.

In 1986 we named our first Board of Trustees as well as Secretary General, Martin Ennals. Martin was the former Secretary General of Amnesty International and founder of Article 19, and a pioneer of the human rights movement. He served as our Secretary General – and for a time our only full-time member of staff – from 1986–1990. It is thanks in no small part to his energy, inspiration and vision that we have become the organisation that we are today.

Building on our early work in Sri Lanka, Uganda and the Philippines, we now help people find peaceful solutions to conflict in over 30 countries around the world and are one of the world’s leading peacebuilding organisations.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years.

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Trump’s national security leaders say Russia is a threat

CBC News: The National
Published on Aug 2, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump’s group of national security leaders held a public briefing today to confirm that Russia is a threat to the U.S. It’s a departure from the mild response from Trump, who has sent mixed messages about Russia’s influence in the U.S.

Is Donald Trump’s Stupidity a National Security Threat?

Thom Hartmann Program
Published on Sep 21, 2018

Donald Trump in response to the devastating impact of hurricane Florence amounts to “water is wet” and hurricanes are bad. Is Donald Trump’s stupidity a national security threat or is focusing on Donald Trump’s intelligence leading us away from actual material criticism of the administration and what it reveals about our country?

Trump Reportedly Asked Spain to Build 3,000-Mile Wall Across Sahara Desert

Sep 21, 2018

Spain’s foreign minister has revealed President Trump recently urged Spain to build a wall across the Sahara desert in Africa to stop the flow of asylum seekers from Africa. Spain—which does not control any land in the Sahara desert—pushed back on the idea. Trump then reportedly said, “The Sahara border can’t be bigger than our border with Mexico.” In fact, the Sahara stretches for about 3,000 miles from Mauritania and occupied Western Sahara on the Atlantic to Sudan in the east. The U.S.-Mexico border is roughly 2,000 miles long. The second-longest wall in the world already exists in Africa. Morocco built a 1,700-mile wall or berm in occupied Western Sahara, dividing Sahrawis who remain under occupation from those who fled into exile. To see Democracy Now’s special documentary, “Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara—A Rare Look Inside Africa’s Last Colony,” click here.

One Year After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico Remains in Crisis

Sep 21, 2018

On Thursday, the White House marked the first anniversary of Hurricane Maria slamming into Puerto Rico by issuing a press release claiming the Trump administration has helped lead a historic recovery effort in Puerto Rico. But for many people in Puerto Rico, the recovery has barely begun, and much of the blame has been focused on FEMA. Earlier this month it was revealed that more than 2,000 Puerto Ricans applied for funeral assistance after the storm—FEMA approved just 75 of the applications. Residents say FEMA has also refused to help them after they lost nearly everything in the storm.

Trump Admin Diverts $266 Million from Social Programs to Pay for Detaining Children

Sep 21, 2018

The Department of Health and Human Services is diverting up to $266 million from other programs to help pay for detaining the skyrocketing number of imprisoned children. Targeted programs include the National Cancer Institute, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, Head Start, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other refugee support programs.