'France can change': PM Manuel Valls vows to push on with labour reforms

The French government will not back down in the face of strike action against its contested overhaul of labour laws and intends to prove to the world that reforming the country is not impossible, Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, has said.

Valls is increasingly concerned that images of striking oil refinery workers around burning tyres, rail disruptions and petrol panic-buying have tarnished France’s image abroad, put visitors off coming to the showpiece Euro 2016 football tournament and threatened to damage a fragile tourism industry still reeling from November’s Paris terror attacks.

The Legacy of the Obama Administration: An Interview With Noam Chomsky

Anyone looking attentively at contemporary developments in the United States will surely notice that the country is undergoing a profound crisis of purpose and institutional legitimacy under a neoliberal regime in overdrive. And this is occurring less than eight years after the election of Barack Obama, whose political campaign raised hopes for a shift away from the neoconservative fallacies and imperial crimes that characterized the administration of George W. Bush.

New Report Knocks Down Pro-Pipelines 'Fantasies'

Politicians who advocate for more bitumen pipelines and LNG exports are making a "have your cake and eat it too argument" because there is no way Canada can meet its climate change commitments under such a scenario says David Hughes, one of the nation's top energy experts.

Even building just one LNG terminal coupled with modest oil sands growth would increase oil and gas emissions from 26 per cent of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions in 2014 to 45 per cent by 2030.

The perils of proportional representation

If the Liberals keep their promise and introduce some type of electoral reform before the next election — and if that reform includes proportional representation — Canadians had better get used to the idea of occasionally having no national government for months on end.

That’s what happened in Spain, where no group of parties has been able to form a governing coalition since elections were last held on December 20. A desperate King Felipe VI has dissolved parliament and called for a new election on June 26.

Gun Lobbyist Warns Gun Owners Could Resort To ‘Bullet Box’ If They Don’t Like Election Results

Gun lobbyist Larry Pratt took to the airwaves over the weekend to make some incendiary remarks about the coming election.

Pratt, executive director emeritus of Gun Owners of America, said that if his supporters don’t like the results of the ballot box and how it changes the Supreme Court in the coming years, they could always “resort to the bullet box.” He also warned that “it may not be pretty.”

Bill Clinton Gave a Six-Figure Speech to a Controversial Vulture Fund as His Wife Ran for President

On May 12, 2015, the private equity firm Apollo Global Management announced it was unloading the remainder of its stake in Noranda Aluminum. Apollo had gained control of the Tennessee-based company in a 2007 leveraged buyout and had subsequently followed a familiar playbook in the cutthroat world of corporate takeovers: It saddled Noranda with the debt it had used to buy the company and then extracted large dividends. As Noranda struggled to stay solvent, Apollo eventually cashed out of the firm. In early 2016, the debt-riddled aluminum company declared bankruptcy, shut down its largest smelting plant in Missouri, and laid off hundreds of employees.

Pro-austerity organization finds austerity increases inequality

In the June issue of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) publication Finance and Development, Jonathan D. Ostry, Deputy Head of the IMF Research Department, and two co-authors examine two main tenets of the neoliberal doctrine, and find them wanting.

Does it make sense to pay down debt? When the evidence is assessed it turns out this fiscal consolidation -- code language for austerity -- increases inequality.

Power Bills Rising, 'My Clients Are Panicking'

Advocates who work closely with people surviving on low incomes have testified to the British Columbia Utilities Commission that it is increasingly common for their clients to struggle to pay the rising cost of electricity, often with severe consequences.

"My clients are aware of the recent and upcoming rate increases, and they are panicking," said Stacey Tyers, the manager of counselling support services at the Terrace and District Community Services Society.

Throughout 12 years of anti-poverty work Tyers has seen clients with trouble paying their electricity bills, she said. "It is definitely getting worse though," said Tyers, who also is a Terrace city councillor. "We are now seeing a much larger number of people with BC Hydro issues."

Dear Mr. Holder: Here’s Why Edward Snowden Can’t Get a Fair Trial in Your National Security State

Former US Attorney General Eric Holder said in an interview that what NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden did was illegal but added “We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate we engaged in and by the changes that we made . . .”

But nobody in the Obama administration still in office ever said that Snowden did a public service. He certainly did, since the NSA and other intelligence organizations had gone rogue. In essence, they unilaterally abrogated the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution. PBS Frontline alleged that the NSA did not even read Obama into their warrantless surveillance of millions of Americans until 2010! In a system like that, the president isn’t really the president– the Deep State does as it pleases.

Inside The Trump University ‘Playbook’

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday unsealed nearly 400 pages of documents related to a lawsuit over the for-profit Trump University, revealing the aggressive and predatory practices that Trump U. salespeople were encouraged to use on potential participants of the real estate seminar, which has been accused of being a scam.