It was all so long ago, in a world seemingly without challengers. Do you even remember when we Americans lived on a planet with a recumbent Russia, a barely rising China, and no obvious foes except what later came to be known as an “axis of evil,” three countries then incapable of endangering this one?… Read More Tom Engelhardt: Biden's indirect admission highlights the steady decline of American empire
The moment when, after many years of hard work and a long voyage you stand in the centre of your room, house, half-acre, square mile, island, country, knowing at last how you got there, and say, I own this, is the same moment when the trees unloose their soft arms from around you, the… Read More Margaret Atwood: The Moment
Germany is a wealthy nation. Its business and political leaders accept the reality of climate change and have made at least modest progress to prepare for and mitigate its effects. How then to respond to such events as a family moving to the roof of their house to escape the flood—only to have a surge… Read More JOHN BUELL: Living on a Newly Unrecognizable Planet
Use of high-tech surveillance is on the rise: in a moment when controlling the spread of COVID-19 is paramount, a global regime of technologically enabled exclusion has been bolstered. But what might be the long-term implications of accepting being tracked before we even move? ‘Draw me a border, if you please’. What image comes to mind?… Read More Marie-Eve Loiselle & Ayelet Shachar: Borders, bodies and see-all technologies / Nasim Ahmed: Calls to hold Israel and NSO Group Accountable for hacking scandal, as UAE role bulks large
As general secretary, Xi has returned the CCP to the center of Chinese life. Citizens celebrate the party’s much-edited history en masseat packed Red tourism sites, its founder Mao Zedong enjoys a new reverence, and once-dormant grassroots party cells have been revitalized. Since 2015, Xi has embarked on a widespread program of military reforms and modernization. But as… Read More Xi Jinping set out to save the Communist Party. But critics say he made himself its biggest threat
Even if it was a legitimate intelligence gathering operation, the Pegasus expose has effectively derailed it. By now potential targets would have taken appropriate preventive measures. So millions of dollars spent have been effectively flushed down the drain. However, the loss to the Indian Republic and the present government is much greater. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has… Read More Bharat Bhushan – Pegasus impact: Loss to Indian Republic and government is much greater
The events of recent weeks have once again highlighted the gross inequalities and the legacy of apartheid geography that remain South African realities. They also revealed that the poison of ethnic nationalism continues to course through parts of the body politic. As a result, there are many lessons to be learned, some of which, although vital,… Read More Terry Bell: The dangers of returning to a ‘normal’ South Africa
Whipping the Indian media into obedience has been an important project of Narendra Modi’s government. Inconvenient journalists have lost jobs, been threatened by tax inspectors, charged with ‘anti-national’ activities and silenced in all sorts of other ways. But, the Income Tax raids on the offices of Dainik Bhaskar last week sets a scary new bar.… Read More Tavleen Singh: History shows, raiding newspapers never works
Too many Indians are happy to dismiss news of the gathering darkness, shrug at falsehood and bigotry, and be narcoticised into believing all is well. On the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government sent tax raiders, escorted by police with automatic weapons, to the offices of a feisty news channel, Bharat Samachar, and India’s… Read More Samar Halarnkar: The lights begin to wink out in India’s democracy
The government of Belarus has launched a broad crackdown on civil society, launching raids and arrests on dozens of organisations in what has been described as a “black week” for the country’s NGOs. The raids, which began last week, have touched all corners of civil society, from groups that campaign for political prisoners’ rights to those that… Read More Belarus NGOs condemn government crackdown after ‘black week’ of raids
