Siva Vaidhyanathan: Facebook has just suffered its most devastating PR catastrophe yet / Jonathan Freedland: Is Facebook the tobacco industry of the 21st century?

In recent days, Frances Haugen, a former member of Facebook’s “civic integrity team”, has launched a deft and professional public assault on the company. Unlike previous Facebook whistle-blowers, like former Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang, Haugen managed to capture the interest and attention of policy leaders and journalists around the world. We have to ask why Haugen… Read More Siva Vaidhyanathan: Facebook has just suffered its most devastating PR catastrophe yet / Jonathan Freedland: Is Facebook the tobacco industry of the 21st century?

Dilip

P. B. Mehta: What the attacks against minorities in Kashmir reveal

India’s security environment is precarious, its political future fragile, and its human sympathies dead. It will require a great act of statesmanship to overcome these challenges. The targeted terror attacks against minorities in Kashmir mark a dangerous but not entirely unanticipated turn. It is important to be clear that these are targeted killings. Sikhs and Hindus… Read More P. B. Mehta: What the attacks against minorities in Kashmir reveal

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George Monbiot: Trashing the planet and hiding the money isn’t a perversion of capitalism. It is capitalism

Whenever there’s a leak of documents from the remote islands and obscure jurisdictions where rich people hide their money, such as this week’s release of the Pandora papers, we ask ourselves how such things could happen. How did we end up with a global system that enables great wealth to be transferred offshore, untaxed and hidden… Read More George Monbiot: Trashing the planet and hiding the money isn’t a perversion of capitalism. It is capitalism

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Ashwani Kumar: Lakhimpur Kheri Tells Us It's Time to Rescue a Democracy in Retreat / Bharat Bhushan – Lakhimpur: A threat to both BJP and farmers' leaders

This is a moment of reckoning for a nation scarred. The unspeakable tragedy in Lakhimpur Kheri has wounded the nation’s sensitivity to its core. The 30-second video vividly depicting the gruesome murder of innocent citizens by a bunch of goons sheltered by ‘netas‘ drunk on power has once again exposed the fault-lines of our politics and a… Read More Ashwani Kumar: Lakhimpur Kheri Tells Us It's Time to Rescue a Democracy in Retreat / Bharat Bhushan – Lakhimpur: A threat to both BJP and farmers' leaders

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Pandora Papers: Suspect foreign money flows into booming American tax havens on promise of eternal secrecy

NB: What is capitalism without cronies and corruption? Will the free-market cult followers consider why capital is free, but human beings are not? DS Suspect foreign money flows into booming American tax havens By Will Fitzgibbon, Salwan Georges and Debbie Cenziper Across from a Holiday Inn, in a red-brick building with a welcome sign that… Read More Pandora Papers: Suspect foreign money flows into booming American tax havens on promise of eternal secrecy

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Prominent Kashmiri Pandit businessman shot dead in Srinagar

NB: Another heinous crime committed in communal hatred. The cold-blooded murder of defenceless people to make a political point is pure fascism. DS Makhan Lal Bindroo, owner of a prominent Srinagar pharmacy, was shot dead by suspected militants on Tuesday, inside his business premises at Iqbal Park here, police said. Bindroo, 68, was shot by… Read More Prominent Kashmiri Pandit businessman shot dead in Srinagar

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‘Moral bankruptcy’: whistleblower offers scathing assessment of Facebook

Accumulate, accumulate! That is Moses and the prophets! – Karl Marx, Capital, volume 1, Chapter 24, Sec 3.    It might, as one senator put it, be remembered as “the big tobacco jaw-dropping moment of truth”. The truth-teller was former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen, appearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to testify that the online platform… Read More ‘Moral bankruptcy’: whistleblower offers scathing assessment of Facebook

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Priyanka Gandhi asks PM Modi to see video clip showing SUV mowing down farmers / Indian farmers to step up protests after 8 killed in clashes

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday cited a new video clip showing an SUV mowing down farmers and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to see it. “Have you seen this video Modi ji? This video shows the son of a member of your council of ministers running over farmers with his vehicles. Please see… Read More Priyanka Gandhi asks PM Modi to see video clip showing SUV mowing down farmers / Indian farmers to step up protests after 8 killed in clashes

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Anjan Basu: Remembering Eric Hobsbawm Who Made History Reading Delightful With His Wit

Consider the ‘Overture’ to Hobsbawm’s The Age of Empire, 1875-1914… where we are told how a young Viennese woman and a young male English immigrant of Polish-Russian origin happened to find themselves during 1913-14 in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. There they met by chance, fell in love, and were eventually married. The marriage, though, took place… Read More Anjan Basu: Remembering Eric Hobsbawm Who Made History Reading Delightful With His Wit

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