Archive for War News Radio Online
Filibusted Presents: Climate Change
Posted by: | Comments
It’s hard to listen to the news without getting angry. War News Radio’s Caroline Batten and Elliana Bisgaard-Church have stopped trying. WNR proudly presents “Filibusted”, with all the news that makes us tear our hair out. This month’s topic? Climate change.
Yemen: Scarce Water, Security Threat?
Posted by: | Comments
The ten most water-stressed countries in the world – gosh, it sounds like a bad Buzzfeed article – are all in the Middle East or North Africa. Yemen, perhaps best known in the U.S. as the target of covert drone strikes, is in an especially dire position. War News Radio’s Amy DiPierro asks whether water – as much as terror – is a security threat to the world.
Swarthmore SPJP Simulates West Bank Checkpoint
Posted by: | Comments
This week, Swarthmore’s Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine (SPJP) erected a temporary wall in front of Parrish Hall.
This week, Swarthmore’s Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine (SPJP) erected a temporary wall in front of Parrish Hall, the College’s main administrative building, to simulate a checkpoint along the wall that separates Israel from the West Bank.
SPJP members acting as Israeli Defense Force (IDF) guards have manned the checkpoint at appointed times. Their hope, members said, is to give students a taste of what Palestinians face by interrupting students’ movement, questioning them, and doing random backpack searches.
SPJP member Razi Shaban said that punitive measures at Israeli checkpoints “breed militarism, radicalizing more than they pacify.”
The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories counts approximately 70 checkpoints both within and bordering the West Bank.
UPDATE: WNR Reporter Receives First Place in Region 1 Mark of Excellence Awards
Posted by: | Comments
War News Radio reporter Caroline Batten has received First Place in the Region 1 Mark of Excellence Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her piece“Viral Content: Free Speech, Hate Speech” on the controversial “Innocence of Muslims” video posted on YouTube last fall.
The Society of Professional Journalists is the pre-eminent membership organization for journalists, protecting the rights of the free press and providing ethical standards for high-quality reporting. Caroline is now a finalist for a National Mark of Excellence Award, which will be announced later this spring.
This Month on War News Radio: Forward Thinking
Posted by: | Comments
This month on War News Radio, “Forward Thinking”, we first discuss the future of Iraq in light of the ten year anniversary this past March. Then, we hear about a Philadelphia-based peace group protesting research on drone technology. Finally, we hear a Rwandan genocide survivor’s perspective on justice, forgiveness, and life in America.
UN Fails to Pass Arms Trade Treaty
Posted by: | Comments
By Sabrina Singh
On Thursday, Iran, North Korea, and Syria blocked the passing of the final draft of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a U.N. effort to set standards and regulations for the cross-border arms trade. Approval of all 193 nations of the United Nations would have been necessary for the treaty to pass.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that the draft had “loopholes” that did not ban sales of weapons to rebel groups. Syrian ambassador Bashar Ja’afari echoed Iran’s concerns, adding that “[Syria’s] national concerns were not taken into consideration.”
The ATT covers weapons systems that include tanks, combat aircraft and missiles. First negotiated in New York in July 2012, it failed to pass when the United States, Russia, and China, all large weapons exporters, rejected the treaty due to a lack of consensus on its details.
The bid for ATT was revived this year on March 18 when Mexico issued a U.N. statement signed by 120 countries in support of the treaty. “Our voice must be heard,” their statement read.
For signatories, the United States’ willingness to sign the treaty this year had been a cause for optimism. Like other members of the permanent five (P5) nations of the UN Security Council, the United States had balked at the prospect of signing and ratifying the ATT last year. Stewart M. Patrick, Senior Fellow at Council on Foreign Relations, writes that this unwillingness was in part because “the Obama administration did not want to hand Republicans a red meat issue in the run-up to the November elections.”
Pre-election season politics did not affect the United States’ stance this year, nor did the contentious issue of drone warfare, which was absent from this year’s draft treaty.
The global conventional arms trade is estimated to be worth $70 billion annually, 74% of which are produced by the P5 – United States, China, Russia, Britain and France – and Germany.
Human rights groups like Amnesty International have pressured the US government to support the treaty, but gun rights groups like National Rifle Association say the treaty, though it does not address domestic arms commerce, poses a threat to Second Amendment rights in the U.S. constitution.
To challenge the opposition from Iran, Syria, and North Korea, the treaty could be referred to the General Assembly for another vote as early as next week.
