Like many times in the past, the claims of the Syrian government that they ended the fighting in advance of a cease-fire have been proven wrong. The opposition Local Coordinating Committees report that civilians have been targeted in recent days, including ones displaced from their homes. Idlib province has been shelled, with small villages and [...]

Over the next several weeks, these bank accountability leaders told me they will step up their direct efforts against the banks and also the Administration.

Is war determined by our genetic makeup? Is war an innate part of humans and subsequently of the human condition? Well respected science writer John Horgan says no, and in turning the matter into one of science rather than morality demonstrates that war is more often avoided than engaged in.

Protests have only grown in the Trayvon Martin case, both online and offline. Change.org now has nearly a million signatures on their petition to prosecute George Zimmerman for murder. Hundreds turned out in New York City yesterday for what they labeled the Million Hoodie March. And another protest will send mass amounts of Skittles to the Sanford, Florida police chief, Bill Lee, who released Zimmerman without charges after questioning in the case. Martin had just purchased Skittles and ice tea from a 7-Eleven and was returning to his home when he was confronted by Zimmerman.

There are reports that Saudi Arabia has sent military equipment to aid the rebels in the Free Syrian Army, according to an anonymous diplomat for the Arab nation. But who the “good guys” in this fight, considering the push by neoconservatives to arm these same Syrian rebels, or intervene militarily on their behalf. It turns out that human rights groups are now accusing the Syrian opposition of a litany of abuses.

The Syrian uprising began one year ago. The Assad regime marked it in two ways. First, with a Potemkin rally in Damascus, with tens of thousands of pro-regime demonstrators coming out (read: forced to come out) in support. They called it the “Global March for Syria.”

The second marking of the uprising was by armies marching on Syrian cities.

The Obama Administration recently announced the G8 summit would be moved from Chicago to the secluded Camp David. For most of Chicago, the announcement was confounding. The city had been preparing for months and now, just over two months before the summit was to take place, Mayor Rahm Emanuel lost the privilege to host the summit and show off the city to some major world leaders. But you can understand why they did this.

As expected, Vladimir Putin declared victory in the Presidential election in Russia. It would mark the third go-around as President for Putin, after a stint as Prime Minister. Since his first Presidential run in 2000, Putin has remade Russia in his image, centralizing power, crushing dissent (particularly in the media), and basically instituting a kleptocracy.

In Syria, where the death toll in the Arab uprising has reached beyond 7,500, security forces are mounting a final assault on the city of Homs. Over 100 died in shelling on Homs today, according to human rights groups, and the rebel fighters in the Baba Amr district have dwindled to about 400. At least three journalists continue to be trapped in Homs. A mass grave has also been found near Homs, with dozens of bodies.

Cory Robin and I go way back. We were in a political discussion together where the hot topic was the WTO protests in Seattle—the “Occupy” movement of 1998. Since then, I’ve always been a deep admirer of his essays; if he’s saved his emails from the intervening fifteen years, I’m sure he’d find a bunch from me praising his various pieces from the London Review of Books when they came out. I was thrilled to learn he was collecting his pieces into a book. I was even more thrilled when I read it and saw how he was able to link them together into a coherent argument which—well, read my blurb on the book…