First posted October 01, 2016 Debora Mackenzie Try, for a moment, to envisage a world without countries. Imagine a map not divided into neat, coloured patches, each with clear borders, governments, laws. Try to describe anything our society does – trade, travel, science, sport, maintaining peace and security – without mentioning countries. Try to describe… Read More End of nations: is there an alternative to countries?
Iranian security forces have shot dead at least two protesters, as demonstrations sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death swelled on the anniversary of a bloody 2019 crackdown. The protesters were responding to a call to commemorate those slain in the 2019 crackdown, giving new momentum to the demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Amini in mid-September this… Read More Iranian security forces shoot and kill demonstrators, as mass protests by workers, students and young people continue
By Katie Hunt Four years ago, Morris J. Alexie had to move out of the house his father built in Alaska in 1969 because it was sinking into the ground and water was beginning to seep into his home. “The bogs are showing up in between houses, all over our community. There are currently seven… Read More How the climate crisis is transforming the Arctic permafrost
NB: This fearless intellectual, who defied the mighty Chinese Communist Party even as he fought for the freedom of the human mind, died in hospital on July 13, 2017, denied the right even to proper treatment. Beneath the image is an extract from Simon Ley’s review of Liu Xiaobo’s book, No Enemies, No Hatred. It… Read More The Legacy of Liu Xiaobo
George Blecher The red tide never surged but the re-election of numerous brazen careerists and hardline crazies is bad news for the next two years and beyond, particularly since the Democrats have little idea about how to oppose this new breed of politician. ‘It could have been worse.’ That was the prevailing sentiment among left-liberal… Read More It could have been worse
Bharat Bhushan Last week, a 20-year-old man from Kapkot in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district consumed poison after failing the Agniveer entrance test. In the video recorded before his suicide, Kamlesh Goswami explained the reasons for his drastic decision. Despite an NCC certificate, scoring 100 per cent in physical fitness and passing the medical exam, he was… Read More Growing unemployment: Battle of two parallel realities
S.K. Arun Murthi I wrote a short critical article a few weeks ago on the ideas of some ancient Indian schools of thought. My critique was aimed at revealing how such ideas are pseudoscientific and pseudo-philosophical and, therefore, incompatible with that of modern science (I had written this article in the context of ISRO co-hosting the ‘Akash… Read More The Illogic and Inanity of the Religious Right in India
NB: November 14, 2022, will be Jawaharlal Nehru’s 133rd birthday. It is celebrated as Children’s Day. DS Jamuna Solanke In the Nathjogi nomadic community, no girl had ever passed Class 10. With fierce determination, Jamuna Solanke, from a hamlet in Maharashtra’s Buldana district, has broken that barrier. This is her story On the day my… Read More ‘I will become what I want to become’
By Owen Pinnell Far removed from the world leaders making climate pledges at COP, are people like Ali Hussein Julood, a young leukaemia survivor living on an Iraqi oil field co-managed by BP. When the BBC discovered BP was not declaring the field’s gas flaring, Ali helped us to reveal the truth about the poisonous… Read More Air pollution: Uncovering the dirty secret behind BP’s bumper profits
By KATHRYN JOYCE Amid conservatives’ disappointed hopes for a “red wave” in the midterm elections, one of the biggest losses appeared, at first, to be the ideological movement of Christian nationalism. In Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano — who rejects the label “Christian nationalist” but perhaps best exemplifies it, with his campaign full of prophets, shofars and… Read More ‘Christian nationalism’ in American politics: the Republican hotline to Jesus
After the truth-shower 