Thousands of Belgians both north and south of the Flemish-French language divide joined a weekend singalong to fight climate change, with organisers claiming more than 60,000 people took part.
The weekend "Sing for the Climate" event aimed to film as many people as possible singing the same song in scores of towns and villages -- titled "Do it Now" and based on the melody of Italian classic "Bella Ciao".
Organisers aim to put footage together in a clip ahead of the next UN climate change conference in Doha.
"We want to remind national and international politicians of their responsibility and show them that we are many," the organisers said on their website.
In an effort to fight increased cyber-surveillance by authorities, more hackers and security experts are sharing their tips to online security with the public.
According to Russia Today, there has been an increase in "cryptoparties," gatherings where newcomers can learn how to shield their online usage from detection, through programs like the Tor Project, which developers say protects internet users from "traffic analysis," a process used to deduce who someone is communicating with on public networks.
Also among the programs being used is CryptoCat. The difference between this program and online messaging services like Facebook chat and Google Talk, said its' creator, Nadim Kobeissi, is that the messages users send in the latter aren't private -- they go back to their respective hosts, and can easily be intercepted by either them or government forces.
"CryptoCat does the same thing," said Kobeissi, a former hacker. "It tries to establish a similar web IM service that's just as easy to use, but at the same time, there's a transparent layer of encryption."
The added encryption leaves messages looking like gibberish to outside observers.
SC Magazine reported that the parties began in Australia and rapidly spread around the world. One of the first U.S. events reportedly drew more than 100 people to its afterparty alone.
One online activist, who identified herself by her online handle, "Asher Wolf," told the magazine the concept spread rapidly via a dedicated Wiki page.
"When I woke up in the morning, they were all there," she said.
RT's report on "cryptoparties," published Friday on YouTube, can be seen below.
Veteran newsman Ted Koppel appeared as a special contributor to NBC's "Rock Center" on Thursday to launch an apparent war on what he believes is "partisan ranting" masquerading as news coverage at Fox News, MSNBC and other partisan media. But, first he sat down for an interview Bill O’Reilly and told him to his face that he’s hurting the country.
His conclusions: Fox News and MSNBC seem to only market "fear"; the partisan divide has actually become impossible to bridge; and it's now up to the American people to reject it or suffer the consequences.
But just before the "Rock Center" special report aired, Koppel sat down with Fox News' own Bill O’Reilly, and the two immediately squared off over whose brand of journalism is more righteous.
But that’s not going to be easy, New York Times media columnist David Carr told Koppel during his NBC segment -- especially when Fox News alone turns in over $1 billion a year.
O'Reilly opened his interview by claiming Fox news does "eight hours of hard news" all day, whereas he believes MSNBC does not. "We're a news agency," he insisted.
"I don't think anyone is going to be confused as to the ideological belief of most of the people who appear on Fox," Koppel said.
O'Reilly went on to describe all of the old television news hosts as "left wing guys," but he stopped at Koppel and the late ABC News host Peter Jennings. "I think you were just in a daze all the time," O'Reilly said. "I was at ABC News. I heard the scuttlebutt about you. You weren't a big interferer. And Jennings wasn't either. Jennings didn't like all that ideology, he didn't, that's why I didn't bring his name up."
"You know, I'd rather you criticize me," Koppel said, "because your compliments are more damaging and more devastating than your criticism."
He went on, saying: "Ideological coverage of the news, be it of the right or be it of the left, has created a political reality for the country that is bad for America. I think it's made it difficult if not impossible for decent men and women in Congress, on Capitol Hill, to reach across the aisle and find compromise. If we can't do that, we're going to be -- and I think we have been for the last few years -- in a terrible situation in this country where, politically, we can't make deals anymore."
The theme is not a new one for Koppel, but his two television spots represent a more significant effort to point out what he thinks is really wrong with American journalism. Speaking at Washington State University last year, Koppel cautioned that there must be a firm line between news, entertainment and opinion.
"I think we've sort of taken things too far," he said in a speech after receiving the 2011 Edward R. Murrow award for excellence in journalism. "Much too far. Now the soft material is outweighing the hard news, and that's, I think, very dangerous to our Republic."
This video is from "The O'Reilly Factor," broadcast Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012.
This video is from "Rock Center with Brian Williams," broadcast Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012.
The teachers' strike in Chicago will not stop for at least two more days, after a judge refused on Monday to hear the city's request for a temporary restraining order that would have forced teachers back into the classroom.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Cook County Circuit Court judge Peter Cook might address the issue at a Wednesday hearing, according to a city spokesperson.
Sunday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel had threatened to pursue an injunction to end the strike after the Chicago Teachers Union opted not to vote on a proposal that would have settled the strike.
In its complaint, the city argued that issues unrelated to wages, like classroom size and length of the school day, are not defined as strikable issues under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. The city also says the strike presents a "clear and present danger" to public safety by depriving students of critical services.
An associate professor at DePaul University told WGN-TV that the city might find it hard to prove its case in court.
"There is the legal right to strike in Illinois," said Andrea Kayne Kaufman, who teaches courses in human resources management and home, school and community relations at the university. "[To say] any strike harms children, I don't think that's going to be the theory that's successful here."
WGN-TV's report on Monday's developments can be seen below.
Fox News host Steve Doocy on Monday likened the latest Occupy Wall Street protests to the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Libya that resulted in the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
During a segment on Fox & Friends, Doocy asked Fox News contributor (and conservative comedian) Steven Crowder to comment on protests in New York City that mark the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street.
"But a new report from the AP says the group is in total disarray, it's completely fallen apart," Doocy told Crowder. "Would you agree with that assessment? You know what, they just don't know what they're doing these days?"
"Here's the thing, the movement is entirely based on selfish motives," Crowder explained. "So, it has to implode under its own weight. I talked with Tucker Carlson about this yesterday. You know, the tea party -- because it's the most comparable movement in the last decade -- is inextricably tied to conservatism. It's attached to an ism. The ism of life, freedom, pursuit of happiness, constitutionally limited government. The Occupy movement is based on wanting more free crap. It's like herding cats, and that's why you see the biggest mark the Occupy movement has made, Steve, really over the last year has been a mark of crime."
"Sure," Doocy agreed. "And we're looking at some of the video next to our faces right now and that almost looks like what happened last week in Libya and in Cairo, and we're talking about the Occupy forces moving out. In the last year, 7,000 arrests in 119 different cities."
"The tea party leveraged their ideology into really political influence of keeping conservative candidates accountable to the platform they publicly professed," Crowder insisted. "Occupiers were able to do none of that because -- Steve, you can say it with me -- they just want more free crap. We'll make it a sing-song for them. Exactly, they can follow the dancing crack pipe."
Watch this video from Fox News' Fox & Friends via Media Mattters, broadcast Sept. 17, 2012.
As Chicago teachers prepared to vote on a tentative agreement to end their weeklong strike, a British journalist appearing on Up With Chris Hayes Sunday said the issues at hand -- not only teachers' pay but evaluation standards, working conditions and government investment -- are not just in play in their city.
"This conversation is taking place all over America and actually pretty much all over the western world," said Gary Younge, a columnist for The Guardian. "There's a similar conversation going on in my home country of Britain, which is, a withdrawal of education as a public good, something that is free at the point of service, which is good for the public. Instead, [we're seeing] the introduction of for-profit privatization and rote testing, particularly for poor kids. The rich kids get their art, they get their libraries, they get all of that."
During the discussion, guest host Sam Seder referred to a blog post by one of the teachers taking part in the strike, Xian Barrett, written as a letter toward Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard.
"When you make me cram 30-50 kids in my classroom with no air conditioning so that temperatures hit 96 degrees, that hurts our kids," Barrett wrote. "When you lock down our schools with metal detectors and arrest brothers for play fighting in the halls, that hurts our kids. When you take 18-25 days out of the school year for high stakes testing that is not even scientifically applicable for many of our students, that hurts our kids."
The discussion was aired Sunday on MSNBC, and can be seen below.
Rae Abileah of CODEPINK was arrested on Sunday as she attempted to throw ladies undergarments at a Bank of America branch in New York City.
As Abileah held up a pink bra and condemned Bank of America for allegedly helping to finance the Spectra Pipeline, police officers rushed through the crowd and pulled her into the street.
The high-pressure gas pipeline, which is being built by Spectra Energy, will bring "fracked" gas from New Jersey to New York City. Protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street oppose the pipeline because of environmental and health concerns.
CODEPINK said police arrested Abileah for blocking a sidewalk on the corner of Washington place and W 14th St.
The discontent around Mexico's presidential election results continued late Saturday night, as protests sprang up at the country's Independence Day festivities in the nation's capital and various other cities.
In Mexico City, outgoing President Felipe Calderón's delivery of the traditional Grito de la Independencia, demonstrators shined laser pointers toward him and chanted "Fraud!" during the playing of the national anthem. They also chanted "Mexico without PRI," a reference to the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the country's next president, Enrique Peña Nieto.
Peña Nieto, the former governor of the state of Mexico, was confirmed as the country's next president in July following a heavily-disputed national election that included a recounting of more than half of the ballots used in the election.
The Mexican television network Terra reported that demonstrators also carried banners saying, "Put Peña and Calderón on trial" and "failed state."
The network also reported that protesters in other states, including Hidalgo and Puebla, said authorities apprehended and attacked them during their demonstrations.
"They did not respect our right to freedom of expression," one Puebla demonstrator told the newsmagazine Proceso. "The soldiers came solely to repress us. They did not ask us to leave peacefully. Instead they drove us out by force, with clubs, with their fists, kicking us."
Puebla state officials told the magazine they had not only asked the protesters three times to leave the celebration in the state capitol, but had gotten statements from them saying they were not hurt. Protesters in Puebla said they would file a complaint with the country's National Human Rights Council. Videoalso surfaced online of an alleged attack by paid PRI "hit men" (sic) against demonstrators in Tijuana Friday.
Calling itself "Yo Soy 132" (I Am 132), the movement against Peña Nieto's incoming administration began as a May 11 protest at his appearance at a Mexico City university, where 131 students denounced his actions as governor in 2006 sanctioning force against a demonstration in the city of San Salvador Atenco, and blaming him for both the deaths of two protesters and the alleged rape of 26 women committed by authorities.
Watch video of the Mexico City protest below, as uploaded by "AsambleaYoSoy132" Saturday.
Princeton professor Cornel West said Thursday that President Barack Obama had not done enough to help the poor, but he was still a better choice than Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
"I mean, we would say that the mendacity and mediocrity of Romney is such that it’s fairly clear that Obama will win," he said on Democracy Now. "The problem is, is that Obama himself, though better than Romney, is still very much part of a system that has failed poor and working people."
Figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Wednesday showed that 46.2 million people, roughly one in six Americans, were living in poverty. The data also showed that income for middle-class families had declined, while the top 10 percent of households saw their incomes rise.
"It’s fairly clear capitalism is not working for poor and working people in America," West said. "And we have to bear witness to that. We have to tell that truth. Of course we’re very sensitive when it comes to the fear of a right-wing takeover of the White House with Romney, would be catastrophic."
"But as I have also noted, so far, Obama has been disastrous. So the question is, how do we acknowledge that this suffering is real, keep track of not just the statistics, but the precious humanity of the folk who are catching hell?"
West and TV host Tavis Smiley are hoping to make the poor in America a campaign issue with their new Poverty Tour 2.0.
Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by Democracy Now, below:
Union delegate Darryl Reed explained Monday that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) began their strike on Monday to prevent teachers from being unjustly fired.
"We've been saying all along that the [Chicago Public School system] did not think that we were this strong, did not think that we were serious, did not think we would be this successful," he told Labor Beat outside Chicago's Kenwood Academy. "They bragged earlier that we would never reach the 75 percent mark to authorize a strike. They're really just realizing now how determined and how strong we are, and how determined we are to fight for better schools for our children."
The 26,000-member union went on strike over teacher evaluations and the process for rehiring teachers. Under the Chicago Public School system's plan, test scores would account for 40 percent of a teachers' evaluation. The CTU claims test scores are heavily skewed by socioeconomic conditions, putting teachers in poorer neighbors at an unfair disadvantage. The CTU also wants teachers laid off at public schools to get priority for rehiring at taxpayer-funded charter schools, while the city has advocated for providing the charter schools with more autonomy.
"This strike is very important," Reed explained. "Why is this strike so important? Because there is a movement going on now, even after this is all over with, they still plan to close 100 schools and open 250 charter schools. This is mandatory basically -- for job security is what we're striking for and fair evaluation. If they're allowed to go through with the plan they have, they're going to get rid of a lot of teachers. A lot of teachers are going to lose their jobs, for no good cause."
The CTU has also pushed for limits on class sizes and more social workers for students.
Watch video, uploaded to YouTube on September 12 by Labor Beat, below:
Gloria Steinem, feminist author, activist and co-founder of the Women's Media Center, said Monday during an interview with progressive talk show host Thom Hartmann that she's rooting for Chicago's teachers, who this week embarked on their first major strike in 25 years.
"I have no role in this strike," she said. "...But it is so overwhelmingly clear that these teachers have been taking it on the chin for 25 years, working in schools without enough heat, with asbestos, without enough text books, with social workers -- do you know there's 1,000 students per social worker? It is outrageous what's been going on, and it is now especially outrageous that the mayor has the chutzpah to say that this is selfish on the part of the teachers. It is simply outrageous."
"It certainly is a war on unions," Steinem went on. "This is a kind of Arab Spring moment, with some Rosa Parks moments as part of it. This union, which is 87 percent female and almost half African American and Latina, I really don't think that even given the anti-union sentiment, that there would be this degree of hostility and contempt for a union of white guys with hardhats."
She added that privatizing schools "is part of an effort to turn schools into profit centers that prisons have been turned into in many states."
"For Mayor [Rahm] Emanuel to be so fervently and enthusiastically supported by Romney, it shows how far he has sunk from his supposed roots," she said.
This video is from "The Big Picture," broadcast by Russia Today on Monday, Sept. 10, 2012.
The Chicago Teachers Union went on strike Monday, shutting down the nation's third largest school system. The teachers insist the strike is about helping their students.
"We are out here just trying to make sure that everybody knows that the real reason we are here is for the students," a female teacher picketing outside Steinmetz High School told Labor Beat. "We want to make sure that our students are well taken care of. They need to have the best education possible. This is for them, it is not about us."
The unidentified teacher said the school had about 1800 students and a little over 100 teachers.
"I'm advocating for my students until the very end," she continued. "I am a teacher who is working for smaller classrooms, better and properly maintained facilities, we need to expand our libraries, we need to get more textbooks and up-to-date textbooks -- my economics textbook last year was 12-years-old. We need to make sure we have more nurses, we need to make sure we have more social workers -- our school has one social worker for 1800 students."
"We are trying to make sure our students are properly taken care of, so that they can have the education they deserve."
CTU president Karen Lewis said the 26,000-member union went on strike because the city insisted on implementing a new evaluation system and planned to cut some health benefits for teachers. The city also refused to install additional air-conditioning units in classrooms, limit class size, and hire more social workers, Lewis said.
But Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) has decried the action as a "strike of choice." Emanuel and Chicago aldermen claimed the city and the teachers' union had agreed on everything except the process for re-hiring laid off teachers and the new evaluation system.
"When you hear that they have agreed on the salary, the other two issues are not strikable issues," Alderman Latasha Thomas told the Chicago Sun-Times. "You’ve got collateral damage: the children. The children are pawns in this, and it was too close to strike."
Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by Labor Beat, below:
"People in favor of a Texas-funded Women's Health Program that excludes Planned Parenthood as a provider frequently claim that there are plenty of other places that Texas women enrolled in the WHP can get the same or better reproductive health care that they get at Planned Parenthood," Grimes said in the video.
She goes through a series of rejections, including one from a colonoscopy clinic, which was listed in the state's database of women's health care providers for some unknown reason.
"Nearly six hours of those kinds of conversations later, I found 13 clinics or doctors that take the Medicaid Women's Health Program. Thirteen. Not 181. Why? Because 92 of the state's listings are duplicates. Others are radiology associates and labs and pediatricians and even closed clinics. Others just plain don't take Medicaid. At all," Grimes said.
"Trying to get low-income, quality reproductive health care in Texas, in a major metropolitan area like Austin, without Planned Parenthood is like trying to get a pap smear at a colonoscopy clinic. And I know because I actually tried," she concluded.
Watch the video, uploaded to YouTube by RH Reality Check on Sept. 7.
