JYOTI PUNWANI: How 5 Reliance Workers Fighting For A Better Deal Found Themselves In Jail On Terrorism Charges

Saidulu Singapanga’s most vivid memory of  the 1185 days he spent in custody,  since he was  arrested in February 2018 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, was when his wife and three children came to visit him in a police lock-up a few days after his arrest. It was the birthday of his daughters, aged… Read More JYOTI PUNWANI: How 5 Reliance Workers Fighting For A Better Deal Found Themselves In Jail On Terrorism Charges

Dilip

Book review: Pleasure Domes and Postal Routes – How the Mongols Changed the World

Two millennia ago, in his Records of the Grand Historian, the Chinese scholar Sima Qian concluded that no empire could be ruled from horseback, and later histories seemed to confirm the view that imperial authority must be vested in cities. The great fourteenth-century scholar Ibn Khaldun developed a now familiar theory that “the rulers of a… Read More Book review: Pleasure Domes and Postal Routes – How the Mongols Changed the World

Dilip

More livestock, more carbon dioxide, less ice: the Climate Crisis is Worsening despite Politicians’ “Commitments”

Back in 2019, more than 11,000 scientists declared a global climate emergency. They established a comprehensive set of vital signs that impact or reflect the planet’s health, such as forest loss, fossil fuel subsidies, glacier thickness, ocean acidity and surface temperature.  In a new paper published today, we show how these vital signs have changed since the original publication, including… Read More More livestock, more carbon dioxide, less ice: the Climate Crisis is Worsening despite Politicians’ “Commitments”

Dilip

‘Hopeless And Dissatisfied’: Growing Anger At Iranian Officials As Khuzestan Water Protests Spread

Analysts say economic desperation and growing frustration in Iranian society have led to angry demonstrations around the country that began with people protesting water shortages in the southwestern province of Khuzestan. “If the society wasn’t hopeless, it wouldn’t take to the streets. It wouldn’t react. Its dissatisfaction wouldn’t result in protests and it wouldn’t be… Read More ‘Hopeless And Dissatisfied’: Growing Anger At Iranian Officials As Khuzestan Water Protests Spread

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Homa Hoodfar & Mona Tajali: Taliban ‘has not changed,’ say women facing subjugation in Afghanistan / Geeta Pandey: The Indian girl killed for wearing jeans

The Taliban insurgents continue their deadly war to seize control of Afghanistan after the departure of United States and NATO forces. As they close in on major cities that were once government strongholds, like Badakhshan and Kandahar, many Afghans – and the world – fear a total takeover. Afghan women may have the most to fear… Read More Homa Hoodfar & Mona Tajali: Taliban ‘has not changed,’ say women facing subjugation in Afghanistan / Geeta Pandey: The Indian girl killed for wearing jeans

Dilip

Robert Bociaga – David and Goliath: Myanmar’s Armed Resistance at the Crossroads

Since the coup was launched on February 1, the country has been witnessing attacks on civilians by the military on an unprecedented scale. Tatmadaw soldiers are resorting to burning whole villages to terrorize the population, raping and torturing wherever they go. In response to that, People’s Defense Forces (PDF) were formed in many areas to… Read More Robert Bociaga – David and Goliath: Myanmar’s Armed Resistance at the Crossroads

Dilip

George Monbiot – Asymmetric force: Pegasus spyware is the latest tool autocrats are using to stay in power

Democracy depends on an equality of arms. If governments acquire political weapons unavailable to their opponents, they become harder to dislodge. They now possess so many that I begin to wonder how an efficient autocracy, once established, might ever again be overthrown. The Pegasus spyware, whose widespread use by governments the Guardian has helped reveal, is… Read More George Monbiot – Asymmetric force: Pegasus spyware is the latest tool autocrats are using to stay in power

Dilip

Indigenous Americans demand a reckoning with brutal colonial history

As statues of queens and conquistadors are tumbled amid protests across North and South America, Indigenous people are pushing for a region-wide reckoning with colonialism’s bitter legacy of massacre and cultural erasure. From the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego, Indigenous Americans have taken aim at the Catholic Church, national governments and other powerful institutions. In Canada, the horrifying… Read More Indigenous Americans demand a reckoning with brutal colonial history

Dilip

Tom Engelhardt: Biden's indirect admission highlights the steady decline of American empire

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

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