The New York Times: Complacency and Missteps Deepen a Covid-19 Crisis in India

The new wave will hurt global efforts and vaccine supplies, experts say. Researchers are scrambling to assess whether new coronavirus variants are playing a role in India.  When the coronavirus first struck India last year, the country enforced one of the world’s strictest national lockdowns. The warning was clear:  A fast spread in a population of… Read More The New York Times: Complacency and Missteps Deepen a Covid-19 Crisis in India

Dilip

George Monbiot: In 2008, we bailed out the banks. In 2021, we need to bail out the planet

COVID-19 is not a random event. It is a symptom of a global economic system that is destroying the living planet and killing off our magnificent wildlife. COVID-19 might be the first pandemic many of us have experienced. But unless we change course, it will almost certainly not be the last. So before we spend… Read More George Monbiot: In 2008, we bailed out the banks. In 2021, we need to bail out the planet

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Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why? By Nick Estes

Bill Gates’ achievement, according to the report, is that he’s largest private owner of farmland in the US. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland – which is traditional Yakama territory – for $171m helped him get that title. In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling… Read More Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why? By Nick Estes

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Third of Antarctic ice shelves ‘will collapse amid 4C global heating’

More than a third of the vast floating platforms of ice surrounding Antarctica could be at risk of collapsing and releasing “unimaginable amounts” of water into the sea if global temperatures reach 4C above pre-industrial levels, UK scientists say. Researchers from the University of Reading said that limiting the temperature rise to 2C could halve the area at… Read More Third of Antarctic ice shelves ‘will collapse amid 4C global heating’

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In Memoriam. Premen Addy PhD; June 26, 1938 – January 15, 2020

First posted February 19, 2020 NB: Premen Addy passed away on January 15, 2020, coincidentally exactly a year after the death of my old friend and comrade Rabindra Ray. He was my kaka – my late father E.J. Simeon‘s maternal cousin. His father, Kiron Chandra Addy, was my granduncle, whom my father had nicknamed ‘Mejo’. He was… Read More In Memoriam. Premen Addy PhD; June 26, 1938 – January 15, 2020

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YANN PHILIPPIN – Sale of French Rafale jet fighters to India: how a state scandal was buried

In 2016 France and India signed a 7.8-billion-euro deal for the purchase of 36 Rafale jet fighters made by French defence group Dassault. Mediapart can reveal that, alongside this controversial deal, Dassault also agreed to pay one million euros to a middleman who is now under investigation in India in connection with another defence deal.… Read More YANN PHILIPPIN – Sale of French Rafale jet fighters to India: how a state scandal was buried

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From colonialism to Covid: Viet Thanh Nguyen on the rise of anti-Asian violence

American exceptionalism pretends that it has nothing to do with European-style colonialism. But the US is a colonising country. The difference is that Americans call their colonialism “the American Dream”. American mythology casts white settler violence as “regenerative”, versus the “degenerative” violence of Native peoples, enslaved black people, and their descendants. In this mythology, a black… Read More From colonialism to Covid: Viet Thanh Nguyen on the rise of anti-Asian violence

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