BRIAN KAREM On Wednesday, the news was all about a big bag of wind destroying Florida and flooding the South, spreading destruction and threatening pestilence and death. Then there’s Hurricane Idalia. Also on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell froze and stood motionless in front of an assembly of reporters — for the second time this… Read More The dumbing of America, from Reagan to Trump and beyond
“We tolerated all the rules of repression and censorship as far as our conscience allowed. We stayed alone and wrote. But they did not tolerate the same and harassed us for thinking and writing… even if we don’t write, they will bother us. Because we still think. Because we know the truth and adhere to… Read More Iranian liberal Majid Tavakoli set to be sent back to prison
NB: An important comment. For the Adani group to focus on George Soros is a bit of antisemitic propaganda, similar to the language used by Trump Republicans, who also attack Soros regularly. Soros’ Open Society foundation is only one among 21 donors, which include governments. Readers should check the OCCRP portal. Cries of ‘anti-national’ do… Read More क्या है अदाणी-OCCRP की कहानी | The Adani-OCCRP Saga. Ravish Kumar
First posted October 11, 2012 Paper presented to the International Conference: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Course Of His Life In The Context Of Greater Time 5-6 December 2008; Moscow NB: This is a brilliant and thought-provoking essay on the historic, literary and philosophical significance of the writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, one of the foremost witnesses of the history of… Read More Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Historian of Decline and Prophet of Revival. By Madhavan Palat
First posted November 21, 2020 By Gary Kramer Alexander Nanau’s extraordinary documentary “Collective” unfolds in the aftermath of a 2015 tragedy in the Bucharest nightclub Colectiv that gives this film its title. While 27 people died in the fire, more than 100 were injured and sent to area hospitals. However, an additional 37 of the 100-plus victims died as a… Read More ‘Collective’ is an exposé of killer corruption & how journalism and the people fought back
The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed colorful new portraits of the iconic Ring Nebula. Smithsonian Magazine The new images capture the complex details of the planetary nebula, an enormous cloud of cosmic gas and dust that’s home to the remnants of a dying star. The two images were taken in different wavelengths of infrared… Read More Ring Nebula in unprecedented detail
First posted July 13, 2012 NB: A pithy analysis of the impact of totalitarian rule by a Chinese intellectual. Yang Guang (given name Wu Jun), was born in Hubei Province in 1965 & graduated from Huhan University. From 1986 to 1989, he worked as a mathematics teacher before enrolling as a graduate student at Beijing Normal University.… Read More The Crises of Party Culture: by Yang Guang
Disaster and intrigue in China after the cultural revolution Rana Mitter On 12 May 2008, a devastating earthquake ripped apart Wenchuan county in Sichuan province, southwest China. Military and civilian rescuers arrived swiftly at the scene, saving countless lives. Although more than 68,000 people died, the number of fatalities could have been much higher. An… Read More The Death of Mao by James Palmer: Review
To confront the growing threat of vexatious lawsuits intended to harass and silence independent media worldwide, Reporters Shield launches today as a new membership program defending investigative journalism against such lawsuits, known as “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or SLAPPs. Corrupt and criminal figures file SLAPPs to threaten, intimidate, and financially burden journalists. Fighting them entails paying… Read More ‘Reporters Shield’ Launched on World Press Freedom Day
Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi and Simon Goodley in London A billionaire Indian family with close ties to the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, secretly invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the Indian stock market, buying its own shares, newly disclosed documents suggest. According to offshore financial records seen by the Guardian, associates of the Adani family may have… Read More Adani family secretly invested in own shares, documents suggest / Adani’s reject allegations
