by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

by Elika Ansari, Underground Reporter

(UR) Southeast Asia — August 9th, 2016 marked the 12th International Day of the World’s Indigenous People — a day pronounced by the U.N. to promote the rights of the indigenous peoples of the world, while also celebrating their contributions to environmental protection.

Meanwhile over a hundred indigenous men and women garbed in traditional dress marched in Baguio city, Philippines, in protest of the dangers they continue to face, including through extrajudicial killings and illicit land grabs by corporate and governmental forces.

by Claire Bernish , The Free Thought Project

Monday’s bombing by the Saudi-led coalition of yet another Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) hospital in Yemen, which killed 11 people and wounded at least 19 more, earned a rare admonition of the Saudis by the U.S. State Department.

“Of course, we condemn the attack,” State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau uncharacteristically asserted.

by Christina Sarich, Underground Reporter

(UR) India — Monsanto is losing millions on failed GM cotton. The company illegally pushed a form of Bt cotton into India and Africa more than a decade ago, but farmers are now pushing back by planting their own indigenous seed.

Monsanto is accused of writing laws and then breaking them to enter the market in India, but after more than 300,000 farmer deaths between 1995 and 2013, many of them attributed to Monsanto, the company is finally paying for their misdeeds. The corporation’s greed is linked to farmer suicides throughout Maharashtra, considered the ‘Cotton Belt’ in India.

The Indian government is now actively promoting the use of indigenous seed, and has called Monsanto out for profiteering illegally on Bt cotton seed.

by Claire Bernish, Underground Reporter

United States — After two years with nary a mention from the mainstream press, the corporate windfall otherwise known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) finally earned some, albeit still inadequate, attention.

Considering a New York Times poll from June 2015, which found an alarming 78 percent of respondents had no substantial knowledge of the looming agreement — 30 percent said they hadn’t heard or read much about it, while 48 percent had zero knowledge of it whatsoever — the dearth in coverage by mainstream media allowed the TPP to go virtually unnoticed by the public it directly affects.

From August 1, 2013 through January 31, 2015, Media Matters for America tracked how often the TPP earned a mention from the Big Three major cable news outlets: CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. During that lengthy period, CNN andFox acknowledged the TPP just one time each — and while MSNBC appeared more on the ball, with 73 mentions, the now-canceled The Ed Show was responsible for 71 of those.