WORLD’S ON FIRE. TAKING IT TO THE STREETS

Not only are forest fires burning up across the globe – in Indonesia, Brazil, Portugal, Alaska, California, to name a few – the streets are on fire, too.    As reported throughout the year in the Trends Journal and Trends in The News video podcasts, it’s “Off With Their Heads 2.0.” Poverty, violence, corruption… living under greedy governments run by...

BOLIVIA: WHEN IS “ENOUGH” ENOUGH?

In Bolivia, ranked by the World Bank Group as one of South America’s poorest nations, with substantial income inequality despite economic improvements under its current President, Evo Morales, the citizens have joined the growing wave of street protests. The trigger that ignited anger among thousands of Bolivians was alleged vote-rigging in the recent presidential election. After the first round of...

GETTING HOT IN CHILE 

Santiago, Chile and Beirut, Lebanon are almost halfway across the globe from each other, yet the flames of protest, which have lit up streets in both cities, have been ignited by identical issues: government corruption and the excessive gap between rich and poor. In Chile, the spark that ignited the flareup of the people was a rise in mass transit...

LEBANON ERUPTION

In Lebanon, last week, and still continuing, an estimated million people took to the streets to protest harsh austerity measures, which have deepened financial distress on all but the rich.  Throughout Beirut, anti-government graffiti such as “Down with the rule of the mafia” and protestors chanting “Thieves, thieves”… calling out politicians they say have stolen billions of dollars from them,...

HONG KONG: WEEK 21  

Protests were both peaceful and violent in Hong Kong over the weekend. Angry at aggressive police tactics, groups of protestors blocked roads, vandalized stores, and threw gas bombs. One video shows police backing up into a subway station to escape a group of angry protesters throwing rocks and other objects at them. The increased violence is seen as the result...

CATALONIA: GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH

Following up on Trends Journal coverage of the ongoing Catalan independence movement, which erupted again following Spain’s Supreme Court sentencing of nine Catalan politicians and activists earlier this month, protests heated up this past weekend with some 850,000 people demonstrating in Barcelona.   Despite the streets being filled with fervent supporters, organizers of the rally made it clear to the...

SYRIA: TANKS A LOT

Defense Secretary Mark Esper clarified that tanks and other “mechanized forces” were being sent to defend the oil and said the stated goal in Syria has always been “about defeating the ISIS Coalition.” TRENDPOST: Totally absent from media coverage and political rhetoric is the fact the U.S. has illegally invaded and is occupying parts of a sovereign nation that has...

WHAT’S A YEMEN?

As we go to press, the Saudi launched/American-backed war against Yemen, which has caused the worst humanitarian disaster in the world today, with some 14 million people starving, a devastating cholera outbreak, deepening economic depression, over 100,000 dead and millions wounded… is absent from western media coverage. Despite the tragedy of war, what most has been covered by the Presstitutes...

IRAQ: “MADE IN AMERICA” MISERY

Over the weekend, at least 74 protesters were killed and over 3,600 wounded as protestors demanded an end to government corruption; rising unemployment; and dire living conditions, such as limited access to electricity and clean water. Thanks to the United States’ invasion and destruction of Iraq in 2003, in a war based on lies by George W. Bush and supported...

ALGERIA: WHO’S SMILING NOW?

Last Sunday, hundreds of judges and prosecutors initiated a strike protesting the heavy-handed moves by the government to reduce the influence of around half of the country’s judiciary in an attempt to manipulate the upcoming presidential election. The National Magistrates’ Syndicate called the recent government move “a stranglehold by the executive over the power of the judiciary.” The unprecedented strike...