One warm June weekend 61 years ago, a scruffily bearded Argentinian on his way from Cuba to Cairo stopped over in Madrid. With almost a day to kill between flights, he did what any tourist of the time would have done: explored the city, visited a bullring, had breakfast and did a little shopping. He… Read More Sam Jones: From Che Guevara to lockdown: photo book tells story of Madrid
Joe Biden will have to navigate a path for the most ambitious climate agenda ever adopted by a US president through not only stubborn Republican obstruction but also an emergent youth climate movement that is already formulating plans to hold him to account. A record turnout of young voters, a cohort riven by anxiety over… Read More Oliver Milman – A youth group helped Biden win. Now they want him to fix climate crisis
Neoliberalism has been neatly described… as the disenchantment of politics by economics. It sees politics as an ineffective or illegitimate means of social improvement. Decision-making should be transferred to “the market”, a euphemism for the power of money. Through buying and selling, we establish a natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Any attempt to interfere… Read More George Monbiot: The US was lucky to get Trump, Biden may pave the way for a more competent autocrat / Zeynep Tufekci: America’s Next Authoritarian Will Be More Competent
In 2016, the Republican candidate for president, Donald Trump, may have exaggerated somewhat when he declared: “The world is laughing at us. They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity.” No longer. As counting in the crisis-racked North American state entered its 10th day, around the world it had become the butt of many jokes. After decades of enduring… Read More Patrick Gathara's comments on a North American failed state
She was once the most publicly adored woman in the world, yet felt a deep lack of love in her private life. Now a new film about Audrey Hepburn, the first made with the consent of her family, reveals her extraordinary sadness and pain as she candidly discusses the traumas inflicted by her father, her marriages… Read More Nosheen Iqbal: 'The best-kept secret about Audrey Hepburn is that she was so sad’
When I first spoke with Joseph Tainter in early May, he and I and nearly everyone else had reason to be worried. A few days earlier, the official tally of Covid-19 infections in the United States had climbed above one million, unemployment claims had topped 30 million and the United Nations had warned that the… Read More Ben Ehrenreich: How Do You Know When Society Is About to Fall Apart? Meet the scholars who study civilizational collapse
Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, is one of the most widely celebrated festivals of the Indian subcontinent. Diwali, as celebrated in various parts of the country today, has regional variations and is often adapted to the traditions of the respective communities. For instance, Brahmanical Diwali celebration offers homage mainly to Goddess Lakshmi;… Read More Diwali: The Various Shades of the Festival of Lights. By Silpisikha Baruah
Whatever his political position of the moment, he reflected one thing above all: the underlying chaos and bad faith of a world of wealth, power, and ever-growing inequality, a world, as it happened, just waiting to go down. Now that he’s defeated, count on one thing: he’ll take as much of this country with him as… Read More Tom Engelhardt: State of Chaos // Nick Turse: A Convergence of Calamities
NB: It is good to know that our Supreme Court is watchful regarding the rights of individual citizens to protection against state harassment. Here are some cases that may not have come to their Lordships’ notice, including one of an 83 year old activist who has been jailed under the draconian provisions of the UAPA… Read More Supreme Court lays emphasis on protecting personal liberty
NB: A personal mini-memoir that is not only moving, but could make us think seriously about the significance of politics in private life; and the emotional investment involved in ideological thinking. It is important not only for Americans, but for people in different parts of the world whose inner lives have been transformed by their… Read More Richard L. Eldredge: To my family who chose Trump over me: Was it worth it?
After the truth-shower 