Author: FASHIONISLANDBLOG

In the wake of Thursday’s revelation that the U.S. government, specifically the CIA, killed one American and one Italian hostage held by al-Qaeda in a drone attack in Pakistan earlier this year, will a renewed and possibly elevated debate on the Obama administration’s so-called “kill list” or assassination campaign finally break into the mainstream? In…

U.S. counterterrorism agencies have long been preoccupied with the threat posed by the recruiting successes of the Somali terrorist group al Shabaab in Western countries. The group has managed to lure hundreds of foreign fighters — including some 40 Americans — to Somalia through online propaganda videos and word-of-mouth in disaffected immigrant communities. In recent…

A Kansas district judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a state law from taking effect that would ban a common abortion procedure—a measure opponents have called “an unprecedented attack on women’s health.” Judge Larry Hendricks of the Shawnee County district court granted the injunction against Senate Bill 95 (SB95) while he considers a lawsuit filed by…

As threats of a debt default, potential ‘Greek exit,’ and stock market crash loom, both sides appear to be digging in their heels after negotiations between Greece and European lenders collapsed on Sunday. Greece’s leftist leader, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, slammed his creditors for their “insistence” on austerity, which he described as a “pillaging” of…

Federal data released Thursday shows that the infant mortality rate in the United States remains one of the worst in the developed world, at three times the rate of Japan, Norway, and Sweden and double that of Ireland. The report from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and…

Affirming what environmentalists have long charged, a new study finds that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, may be polluting the air, water, and wildlife in California—and scientists say state leaders are not doing enough to protect residents from the toxic side effects of the controversial drilling practice. The California Council on Science and Technology on Thursday…

Participants in Black Lives Matter protests have marked an all-too-common rite of passage for social justice movements in the U.S.—they’ve been systematically spied on by the federal government. According to exclusive reporting from The Intercept published Friday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been monitoring and collecting data on the two-year-old movement…

Israeli police on Sunday arrested several people in connection with the deadly arson attack on July 31 which killed an 18-month-old baby and his father and severely wounded his mother and brother in the West Bank neighborhood of Duma. Among those taken into custody were two well-known “ultranationalists,” Meir Ettinger and Eviatar Slonim, who were…

Military tensions and international worries are growing as North Korea and South Korea exchanged new threats on Friday just a day after a shots were fired across the demilitarized zone along the border that separates the two countries. Tweets about North Korea South Korea State media reported on Friday that North Korean leader Kim Jong…

A coalition of reproductive rights groups and healthcare providers on Thursday filed a formal request for the U.S. Supreme Court to permanently block enforcement of key provisions tucked into an extreme anti-choice law in Texas, stating: “This Court has the power to stop the sham.” If the case moves forward, the Dallas Morning News declared,…