News pointing to global inequality and a lack of democracy has been dominating newspaper headlines in recent days. From the Panama Papers to controversies swirling in the US presidential primaries, a divided world is in crisis. As recent events illustrate, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
The 1% don’t just have more power; they live longer. A new report from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the rich live longer than the poor. As the New York Times put it, “the gap in life spans between rich and poor widened from 2001 to 2014.”
Revelations from the Panama Papers have reached the highest political offices, most recently setting off investigations against British PM David Cameron. They already led to protests ousting Iceland’s prime minister.
A startling, in-depth investigation from Bloomberg revealed that hacker Andrés Sepúlveda has been rigging prominent elections throughout Latin America in favor of right-wing candidates for nearly a decade. The report suggests Sepúlveda’s associates are planning to work in the US election following the primaries.
Bewilderment and anger is rising among US voters regarding how the power of superdelegates in the US primaries sidelines the importance of regular votes. Sanders supporters in Vermont are calling on superdelegates to shift their support from Clinton to Sanders considering Sanders’ clear popularity in VT. A petition launched by the VT social justice organization Rights and Democracy called on VT superdelegates to support Sanders, stating “Senator Sanders won 86.1% of the vote, receiving all 16 pledged delegates and winning every single town in Vermont. With this overwhelming and historic support, we request all Vermont super delegates cast their votes for Senator Sanders.”
As voters prepare to head to the polls in a crucial primary in New York on April 19th, Naomi Klein writes a devastating piece exposing how Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign is closely allied and complicit with the fossil-fuel industry profiting from climate change. Meanwhile, the climate clock is ticking. As Klein writes, “If the next president wastes any more time with these schemes, the climate clock will run out, plain and simple. If we’re to have any hope of avoiding catastrophe, action needs to be unprecedented in its speed and scope.”
Benjamin Dangl is the editor of TowardFreedom.com