Ours is the age of the intellectual organisation of political hatreds: Julien Benda, The Treason of the Intellectuals; 1928 Once crime was as solitary as a cry of protest; now it is as universal as science. Yesterday it was put on trial; today it determines the law: Albert Camus, The Rebel, 1956 A BJP minister’s… Read More India’s subdivision of criminality (how one massacre deserves another)
Ocean temperatures have hit record highs this year, growing so hot in some places that taking a dip in the sea feels like stepping into a hot tub. For kelp farmers, who grow an underwater crop with a life cycle highly dependent on temperature, that spells trouble for their harvests – and their nascent industry’s future. “Over the… Read More Can kelp survive rising marine heat?
Underlying longer-term weaknesses in the economy are bound up with Beijing’s repressive political system George Magnus At a Politburo meeting last month, China’s leaders referred to the economic recovery this year as “torturous”. You won’t often hear such candour coming from a Chinese Communist party institution, let alone such an elevated body. They were referring… Read More China’s recent economic woes suggest there is something seriously amiss
Almost 10 years back on a lazy summer afternoon sitting in the veranda of our ancestral home in suburban Kolkata, my late grandfather in a casual conversation said something which has stuck to me till date: “While others can talk about it and be nostalgic, only people of Bengal and Punjab could feel the actual… Read More Suman Nath’s ‘Democracy And Social Cleavage In India’ Indicts Both TMC And BJP For Communalism In West Bengal
Professor Neerja Mattoo writes: “Though Shahid was not based in Kashmir after he left to do his Masters in English from Delhi University, Kashmir stayed close to his heart. His regular visits to the land of his birth kept him in touch with his friends and the developments here. The events of the nineties, the… Read More University Of Kashmir Removes Works Of Agha Shahid Ali, Basharat Peer From MA English And BA Courses
The transfer of more than 1 million barrels of oil from an ageing tanker moored off the coast of war-torn Yemen has been completed, avoiding an environmental disaster, the UN has said. In a statement on Friday, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for UN secretary general António Guterres, said the operation had prevented a “monumental environmental and… Read More Yemen: UN removes 1m barrels of oil from tanker to avert environmental catastrophe
Babasaheb’s universalist vision of the community based on maitri enriches the political imagination everywhere Chandan Gowda During a stay at Shravasti, the Buddha asked the bhikkus, “Suppose a man is preparing to dig the earth. Does the earth resent him?” “No,” the bhikkus replied. “Suppose a man wishes to paint pictures in the air using lac and… Read More Ambedkar’s Ideal Of Maitri
the high-profile assassination on Wednesday of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio could be a turning point for the country Tara John Ecuadorians have found themselves in the middle of a bloody turf war as rival criminal organizations mete out brutal and often public shows of violence, battling to control drug trafficking routes that cross the Andean nation. Reports of dismemberments,… Read More How corruption and gang warfare transformed Ecuador
If there’s been one topline tech story this week that feels synecdochal of the United States’ entire tech-politik zeitgeist, it’s got to be Zoom’s latest privacy fiasco. The video conference software-maker caught heat this week over a Terms of Service (ToS) change allowing it to harvest private user meeting data for artificial intelligence training. And, yes, once… Read More Not so private room: Zoom’s AI privacy fiasco
Bloomberg The auditor of billionaire Gautam Adani’s ports business is planning to resign, people familiar with the matter said, a move that may heighten concerns about accounting quality at the Indian conglomerate targeted by short seller Hindenburg Research. Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP has communicated to Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. its resignation… Read More Adani Ports auditor Deloitte to resign after flagging concerns
After the truth-shower 