Toward Ecosophy

I've made some harsh comments from time to time about the mainstream corporate media here in the United States, and for good reason -- in terms of bias, tendentiousness, and outright make-believe, it's comparable to the official press of the Soviet Union in that nation's inglorious heyday. I had another reminder of that over the last few days. Did you know, dear reader, that a major war is on the brink of breaking out in North Africa?  Libya is the fourth largest nation in Africa, and has the tenth largest oil reserves on the planet; since the bungled NATO intervention in 2011, it's been divided between two rival governments, the Government of National Accord in the west and the Libyan parliament in the east. Turkey backs the western government, Egypt and Syria back the eastern government, and both sides -- including significant Turkish and Egyptian military forces -- are moving toward open conflict over the towns of Sirte and al-Jafra, which are more or less in the middle. The stakes are huge -- ultimately, the balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean and control over a large share of the world's future petroleum supply, and most Americans are being left completely in the dark about this. 

For that matter, dear reader, did you know that India and China -- nuclear powers, both of them, with huge and well-equipped conventional armies as well -- came uncomfortably close to going to war over the last month? The two nations have a disputed border in Ladakh, in the Himalayas; Indian and Chinese military units got into a bloody clash on June 16, with 20 dead on the Indian side and an undisclosed number of Chinese casualties; in response, both nations rushed tanks and aircraft to the vicinity.  At the moment, cooler heads seem to have prevailed and negotiations are ongoing, but it's anyone's guess whether that will remain the case.  I know of some US news media that deigned to mention the clash, but the wider context, the events before and afterward, the reshaping of strategic balances as the world's two most populous nations move into an increasingly hostile relationship?  Very little if any of this got to the American public. 

These are just the most obvious examples. Someday, maybe, the US mainstream media will finally get tired of shrieking "Orange Man Bad!" all day, every day, and decide to get around to reporting some news again. In the meantime, though, it occurs to me that some of my readers might want to know some of the places online I like to go to learn a little of what's happening in the world. 

BBC News
Biases: The house organ of the Anglo-American establishment. 
Comments: A very mixed bag. Some of its reportage is fairly good, some of it reads like highbrow tabloid fodder. Its biases are right out there in the open -- for example, the only stories it ever carries about Trump are heavily negative -- but if you can adjust for that, it has value. 

Deutsche Welle English edition
Biases: The house organ of the global managerial class. 
Comments: This is the place to find out what our would-be lords and masters are thinking. The air of smug self-satisfaction is breathtaking. 

RT
Biases: pro-Russian and anti-NATO. 
Comments: Lively and snarky at its best, jingoistic at its worst, but always readable. It was the best place online to keep tabs on the war in Syria, and it's op-ed columns are not to be missed. 

Al-Masdar News
Biases: pro-Iran and pro-Syria
Comments: Up-to-date and clearly written military news from the Muslim world.  The place to go to find out who's shooting at who in the Middle East and North Africa. 

Australian Broadcasting Corporation world news
Biases: The house organ of the Australian establishment
Comments: The BBC could stand to learn a thing or two from its Australian equivalent; the biases are a good deal less heavy-handed and the range of stories is frankly more interesting. Good for finding out what the other side of the planet is doing. 

The Hindu international news
Biases: None relevant to Americans. (Indian politics is its own universe, and its partisan passions, fierce though they are, don't correspond to ours in any straightforward way.) 
Comments: A solid old-fashioned newspaper with up-to-date news and in-depth articles. If the staff of the New York Times ever decide to get back into the business of reporting news, they ought to go to Madras and intern with The Hindu for a while to find out how it's done. 

The South China Morning Post
Biases: pro-Peoples Republic of China
Comments: The Chinese equivalent of the BBC; its biases are just as visible but the writing's generally better. 

Those are the news resources that I tend to check first. Any other suggestions? I'm all ears.