Stephen Burgen Yolanda Díaz, the deputy prime minister and a lifelong member of the Communist party, is heading Sumar (Unite), a platform to the left of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, that plans to put up candidates at the general election due on 10 December. On Saturday, 2,000 people filled the Auditori in Barcelona to… Read More Yolanda Díaz is galvanising the left in Spain
The Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy Drives Record Military Spending By William J. Astore (Tomdispatch.com) – Imagine this scenario for a moment: a “great power” watches another major power fight a war in a nearby nation for 10 years before its army limps home defeated and, not so very long after, that country implodes. A little over a decade later, by… Read More Imperial Dominance Disguised as Democratic Deterrence
Catherine Bennett Early signs are that Prince Harry’s revelations may not, frustratingly for experts and republicans alike, seriously threaten the monarchy. Even if he’d wanted to, he probably picked the wrong moment, the public still being in an exceptionally forgiving mood. For all his divulging, to seriously “stain” or “trash”, as alleged, the royal brand,… Read More Prince Harry has left the zoo, so why is he being treated like a caged animal?
Rebecca Root The violence began when the military set out to quash what it said was a communist coup sparked by the deaths of six generals. This has since been identified as a government pretext to launch a large-scale pursuit of communists and sympathisers. About 500,000 people were murdered in six months and 1 million… Read More ‘Truth is one of our rights’: victims of Indonesia’s bloody past want more than regret from their president
SACRAMENTO — Heavy rain continued to drench California on Tuesday as an ongoing parade of storms left much of the state in disarray, with power outages, collapsed roadways, mud and landslides, and treacherous floodwaters widespread across nearly the length of the state. Authorities have attributed at least 17 fatalities to the onslaught of storms that… Read More California storm: floods, tornado warnings as death toll climbs
Philipp Lichterbeck Repairing the physical damage following the rampage of the Bolsonarist fanatics will likely cost millions, which will have to come from Brazil’s taxpayers. The harm done to Brazil’s democracy and to the country’s collective psyche, however, is far greater. A fanatical and violent minority went on a rampage in the capital, Brasilia, on camera. While the… Read More Brazil: A dangerous cocktail of violence and lies
Olga Shparaga The imprisoned Belarusian opposition politician Maria Kalesnikava has been in a critical condition since the end of November. In October she was awarded an honorary professorship at the University of Salzburg. The philosopher Olga Shparaga, a fellow member of the exiled Coordination Council, pays tribute to a feminist legend. ‘It is a great… Read More Risking all in the fight for democracy
…..the second result of junk politics is more insidious. It solidifies the cult of the self, the amoral belief that we have the right to do anything, to betray and destroy anyone, to get what we want. The cult of the self fosters a psychopathic cruelty, a culture built not on empathy, the common good… Read More Chris Hedges on America’s junk politics
Sonali Kolhatkar There is a common feeling that many of us have experienced in professional or academic environments, especially when we struggle against gender or racial bias. It’s called “imposter syndrome”—the feeling that one doesn’t deserve one’s position and that others will discover this lack of competence at any moment. I felt this way as… Read More Nepotism babies and the myth of American meritocracy
Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has toured the wreckage of his presidential palace after an extraordinary day of political violence in the capital, Brasília, saw thousands of far-right extremists run riot through the country’s democratic institutions in a failed attempt to overthrow his week-old government. The massed attack by supporters of the ex-president Jair Bolsonaro was a… Read More Brazil protests: Lula vows to punish ‘neo-fascists’ after Bolsonaro supporters storm congress
