Gov. Cuomo Decrees Boycott & Blacklist to Silence Global BDS Movement for Palestinian Rights

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signs a first-in-the-nation Executive Order directing the divestment of public funds supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel during a breakfast meeting at the Harvard Club. Afterwards, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stirred the immediate ire of human rights campaigners around the world on Sunday by signing an executive order calling for the creation of a "blacklist" that would track groups and individuals who support Palestinian rights through the international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement known as BDS.

Liberal Jews plan a summer of opposing Donald Trump

Jewish liberals are ready to sow a summer of Donald Trump discontent in ways that aim both to bludgeon and entertain. Bend the Arc, an advocacy group, is convening its first national conference here next week aimed in part at finding a strategy to keep the billionaire real estate magnate, who has secured the Republican nomination, from becoming president.

Trump uses energy speech to outline general election pitch

" Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump unveiled an "America first" energy plan he said would unleash unfettered production of oil, coal, natural gas and other energy sources to push the United States toward energy independence. But the speech, delivered at the annual Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, North Dakota, went far beyond energy, as Trump laid out, in his most detail to date, a populist general election pitch against likely rival Hillary Clinton.

Vietnam activist – stopped’ from meeting Barack Obama

Hanoi, May 24: A Vietnamese activist today said he had been stopped by authorities from meeting Barack Obama as the US leader prepares to engage with rights campaigners in the tightly controlled communist nation. Obama is currently visiting Vietnam and is expected to meet civil society leaders, including some of the country's long-harassed critics, today morning.

How Will Cleveland Rock the GOP Convention?

Cleveland managed to avoid the kind of violent confrontations between police and protesters seen in Missouri and Baltimore after police killed black residents, but will it be able to keep the peace when officers and activists flood downtown for the Republican National Convention? City officials have been coy about their plans for handling convention protests, saying only they are prepared for "challenges" and are working to free up jail cells, while activists have warily eyed the city's acquisition of riot gear.

GOP congressmen, NY attorney general in climate dispute

Republican members of Congress have accused New York's Democratic attorney general and his counterparts in 16 other jurisdictions of chilling free speech over climate change through their legal and political campaign to curb fossil fuel burning. Thirteen of the 21 GOP members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology said in a letter Wednesday that Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the others have been pushed by environmental activists "to use their prosecutorial powers to stifle scientific discourse."

Shell faces possible Dutch lawsuit over Nigerian activist’s execution

The widow of a Nigerian activist is planning to sue Royal Dutch Shell in the Dutch courts alleging the oil company was complicit in the execution of her husband by the Nigerian military in 1995, court documents filed in the United States last week show. Esther Kiobel has filed an application in New York to secure documents from Shell's U.S. lawyers, which she could use in the Dutch action.