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,…

Amid the growing call for President Barack Obama to end the leasing of federal lands for fossil fuel development, a new report published Monday exposes the energy corporations profiting most from this public pillaging. The report (pdf), put forth by the Rainforest Action Network, compiles the top federal leaseholders—dubbed the “Filthy 15″—in each of three…

A social justice organization has accused the European Commission of “putting lipstick on a pig” with its plan for a new court system for a pending EU-US trade deal the group says still affords “corporations frightening new powers at the expense of our national democracies.” The proposed system, the Investment Court System, would replace the…

Twin explosions outside Ankara’s main train station on Saturday morning killed at least 86 people and wounded up to 190 in an attack targeting a peace rally in Turkey’s capital city. The peace rally and march was organized by unions, NGO’s and  the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)  to protest against the conflict between the…

Journalist, author, and leading voice on anti-black racism in America, Ta-Nehisi Coates, was revealed Tuesday to be one of 24 recipients of the 2015 MacArthur Genius awards. “Writing without shallow polemic and in a measured style, Coates addresses complex and challenging issues such as racial identity, systemic racial bias, and urban policing,” declared the foundation….