North America

U.S. Faces Government Shutdown in Obamacare Standoff By Democracy Now! The nation is on the eve of its first government shutdown in 17 years as the congressional standoff over the Affordable Care Act comes to a head. Just after midnight…

Under the successive presidencies of Vicente Fox (2000-2006) and Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), Mexico joined the ranks of the world’s 10 most dangerous countries for journalists and, more broadly, those involved in news and information. Eighty-eight were killed and a further…

In his latest article for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi reports that Wall Street firms are now making millions in profits off of public pension funds nationwide. “Essentially it is a wealth transfer from teachers, cops and firemen to billionaire hedge…

Five years ago this month, the firm TransCanada submitted a permit request to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would bring tar sands oil from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The project has sparked one of the…

By Samuel Oakford. NEW YORK, Sep 21 2013 (IPS) – Five years after the 2008 world financial crisis and two years after the Occupy movement it triggered, U.S. critics of the financial sector are coalescing around the idea of a…

‘A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful…

The Iranian government is reportedly seeking a sweeping agreement that would end crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions. The New York Times reports Iranian leaders decided on the strategy after President Obama’s recent letter to the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, promised…

[divide][clear] Reporters Without Borders is deeply troubled by a recent gag order placed on American investigative journalist Barrett Brown and his defense team, as he faces prosecution for charges related to his work. Brown, 32, who has written for The Guardian, Huffington Post and Vanity Fair, was investigating links…

By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan The likelihood of peace in Syria remains distant, as the civil war there rages on. But the grim prospect of a U.S. strike has been forestalled, if only temporarily, preventing a catastrophic deepening of…

President Obama is calling on Congress to revisit gun control legislation in the aftermath of Monday’s shooting rampage at a naval base in Washington, D.C., that left 13 people dead, including the gunman. Speaking to the Spanish-language television network Telemundo,…