The Social Cost of Capitalism

Few, if any, corporations absorb the full cost of their operations. Corporations shove many of their costs onto the environment, the public sector, and distant third parties. For example, currently 3 million gallons of toxic waste water from a Colorado mine has escaped and is working its way down two rivers into Utah and Lake

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Race war erupts as Coloureds refuse black teachers

“It’s a full-blown colour war.” This was all Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi could say to describe the crisis paralysing Roodepoort Primary School. On Tuesday, the row over his appointment of Nomathemba Molefe as principal spilt over into a fist fight between angry parents from the mostly coloured community and a black official from the

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SA schools to introduce Mandarin next year

South African state schools will introduce Mandarin lessons next year in a bid to bolster cultural relations with China, its largest trading partner, a government official said on Wednesday. Basic Education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga told AFP that South Africa hopes to teach Mandarin to “as many people as far as practically possible”. Mhlanga said that

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Ferguson teen shot by police had a gun

St. Louis County police have released surveillance footage allegedly showing Tyrone Harris, a black teen, with a gun. Police said Harris fired the weapon at plainclothes officers before they shot back, leaving him critically wounded in Ferguson on Sunday. The 13-second video comes from a surveillance camera owned by Solo Insurance Services. It opens with

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Report suggests Russia and NATO are preparing for war

Russia and NATO are actively preparing for war with one another amid the greatest build up of military tension in Europe since the end of the Cold War, a new report says. Rival exercises by the Russian armed forces and Nato have led to several near-miss incidents that could result in confrontation between the two

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Pressure builds on Hillary to explain emails

As pressure builds on Hillary Clinton to explain her official use of personal email while serving as secretary of state, she faced new complications Tuesday. It was disclosed her top aides are being drawn into a burgeoning federal inquiry and that two emails on her private account have been classified as “Top Secret.” The inspector

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Heavily armed whites arrive in Ferguson

Armed to teeth with semi-automatic assault rifles and handguns, members of the Oath Keepers militia, formed of former and current law enforcement and military officers, have blended into the crowd of Ferguson protesters, saying “We’re on your side.” At least four members of the ‘Oath Keepers’ arrived in Ferguson on early Tuesday and began patrolling

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Breathable booze thrill Britons

Britons, it seems, are thrilled about the new entry in the capital’s already saturated drinking scene: breathable booze. The pop-up bar, Alcoholic Architecture, uses a humidifier to pump a gin and tonic vapor into an enclosed space. Patrons absorb their alcohol from the “Cloud” by breathing in the vapors and by soaking it in through

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Can Africa accommodate 3 billion more people?

The world’s population will increase from today’s 7.3 billion people to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion at century’s end, John R. Wilmoth, the director of the United Nations (UN) Population Division, told a session focused on demographic forecasting at the 2015 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM 2015) today in Seattle. The UN projection suggests

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Hiroshima: Killing on an industrial scale

It has been 70 years since the United States became the only nation in history that deployed two nuclear weapons against civilian populations. On August 6, 1945, a B-29 known as the Enola Gay took off from Tinian island, north of Guam. After flying six hours to the main Japanese island of Honshu, pilot Paul

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Saudi king blames Mossad for 9/11

The former ambassador to Saudi Arabia said in an interview this week that following 9/11, Saudi King Salman had insisted to him that the Mossad was responsible for the attacks. “One of my first calls was with then-governor of Riyadh… Prince Salman, who is now the king. His response was very emphatic [that] this could

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Japan allows eleven asylum seekers

Last year Japan granted nearly twice as many people asylum as in 2013. The increase was not by any means spectacular. In 2013 the country approved six applications for asylum, and in 2014 the number rose to eleven. Japan, the third largest economy in the world, has long been known for its strict asylum policy.

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Another wall goes up in Europe

Nearly three decades after US President Ronald Reagan issued his much-celebrated challenge to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, some Eastern European countries have once again begun floating the idea of building up walls in Europe, this time to keep people out. Latvia is the latest country to jump on the

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Opinion: South Africa is sleepwalking into disaster

The worm has turned and virtually every South African political commentator whose legacy was to encourage a one man one vote ANC takeover in South Africa is now tearing into the government and its alliance partners. The country is on its economic knees and those in charge seem blithely unaware of the destruction they have

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