The great Amazon land grab: how Brazil’s government is turning public land private

Imagine that several state legislators decide that Yellowstone National Park is too big. Also imagine that, working with federal politicians, they change the law to downsize the park by a million acres, which they sell in a private auction. Outrageous? Yes. Unheard of? No. It happens routinely and with increasing frequency in the Brazilian Amazon. The most… Read More The great Amazon land grab: how Brazil’s government is turning public land private

Dilip

Cory Doctorow: The Mafia hires good accountants

The Mafia hires good accountants (permalink)    High-profile leaks like the Pandora Papers and financial collapses like Carillion have shone a spotlight on the role that “the professions” play in enabling international finance crimes, which include both money-laundering and the underlying (ghastly, violent) crimes that produce the money to be laundered. For example, the Sackler… Read More Cory Doctorow: The Mafia hires good accountants

Dilip

Shobhit Mahajan: Peddling of anti-scientific beliefs by academia must worry us

The IITs have been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. This time it is not about the fat pay packets their students have got in the institute placements, but about ghosts and steppe people invading, or rather not invading, Bharatvarsh. First, the ghosts. The director of an IIT posted a video on… Read More Shobhit Mahajan: Peddling of anti-scientific beliefs by academia must worry us

Dilip

‘Nobody can say anything’: China cracks down on dissent ahead of Olympics

A chill is blowing through Chinese civil society as activists, journalists and academics report receiving police warnings and censorship of their social media platforms in recent weeks as Beijing prepares to host the Winter Olympics beginning on Friday. In mid-January, the Beijing-based human rights activist Hu Jia said in a tweet that China’s state security… Read More ‘Nobody can say anything’: China cracks down on dissent ahead of Olympics

Dilip

‘We’ll keep reporting, whatever the risk from the junta,’ say Myanmar’s journalists

The noise of the exploding artillery shell startled me awake in the middle of a July night. Dazed, I stumbled out of bed and tried to check on the other journalists with whom I share a dormitory. As we ran outside, another shell flew overhead.  It was five months after the military takeover in Myanmar and three… Read More ‘We’ll keep reporting, whatever the risk from the junta,’ say Myanmar’s journalists

Dilip

Owen Jones: Johnson’s hypocrisy and lies are emblematic of the British establishment

Johnson is no grotesque interloper: his behaviour and attitudes are emblematic of the British establishment. If our ruling institutions have a shared culture, it’s entitlement and shamelessness, a conviction that wrongdoing should meet consequences only if you are poor and powerless. When Johnson solemnly lectured the nation to abide by the rules while presiding over… Read More Owen Jones: Johnson’s hypocrisy and lies are emblematic of the British establishment

Dilip

Silent strike empties streets in Myanmar on anniversary of coup

Streets were deserted and shops abandoned across many of Myanmar’s towns and cities on Monday, as the public defied threats by the military junta and stayed at home in a “silent strike” on the first anniversary of the country’s coup. Images posted on social media showed usually congested roads with no traffic and stores shuttered.… Read More Silent strike empties streets in Myanmar on anniversary of coup

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