Spain: Emerging from the Labyrinth / I grew up in Spain amid a collective amnesia about Franco. It is time we faced up to our dark past

María Ramírez Franco’s Crypt: Spanish Culture and Memory Since 1936 – by Jeremy Treglown Reviewed by Jeremy Adelman On August 19, 1936, militiamen loyal to General Francisco Franco murdered Spain’s famous poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca. Afterward, one of the killers, the Falangist Juan Trecastro, burst into a local bar and said, “We’ve just… Read More Spain: Emerging from the Labyrinth / I grew up in Spain amid a collective amnesia about Franco. It is time we faced up to our dark past

Red Fort terror attack pokes holes in India’s security narrative

The Red Fort attack has punctured the Modi government’s claims of national security dominance, of instituting peace and progress after the revocation of Article 370 and counter-terrorism preparedness Bharat Bhushan It took the Union government 48 hours to describe the Red Fort bomb attack as ‘terrorism’. For two days, the Narendra Modi government was dancing… Read More Red Fort terror attack pokes holes in India’s security narrative

Brutish, bullying, imperialistic: the Ugly American is back

Donald Trump is using US power to insert himself into other countries’ affairs, treating them as vassals Steven Greenhouse For decades, president after president has sought to rid the US of its image as a bullying, imperialistic nation. But with his blustering, often brutish behavior toward other countries, Donald Trump has rapidly revived that notion. Under Trump,… Read More Brutish, bullying, imperialistic: the Ugly American is back

Disappearing people, disappearing morals – how two years has changed Gaza and Israel

There can be no healing until the world stares into and acknowledges the void torn open by this conflict Orly Noy About two weeks after 7 October, I received a WhatsApp message from an acquaintance in Gaza. He asked me to check on his mother, who at that time was hospitalised in East Jerusalem. He had… Read More Disappearing people, disappearing morals – how two years has changed Gaza and Israel

A radical act of cinematic restraint: How to understand the ending of ‘A House of Dynamite’

Total destruction cannot produce narrative. You can’t tell a story about the end of all stories. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists In the final frames of Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear thriller A House of Dynamite, nothing explodes. The intercontinental ballistic missile has not made impact, the countdown is almost over, and the screen simply fades to black.… Read More A radical act of cinematic restraint: How to understand the ending of ‘A House of Dynamite’

Israel’s underground jail, where Palestinians are held without charge and never see daylight

Exclusive: Detainees at Rakefet include nurse deprived of natural light since January, and teenager held for nine months‘ NB: The moronic American War Secretary recently said that Zionism & Americanism are the front lines of Western civilisation and freedom in our world today: It would be more accurate to say these ‘isms’ are a sadistic death… Read More Israel’s underground jail, where Palestinians are held without charge and never see daylight

Life with Robert Fisk: I realised I would not be at peace until I wrote this book

In a new memoir, journalist Lara Marlowe recalls the life she shared with her former husband Lara Marlowe When the British journalist Robert Fisk died of a stroke at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin on October 30th, 2020, we had been divorced for 11 years and separated much longer. In the year since Robert’s death,… Read More Life with Robert Fisk: I realised I would not be at peace until I wrote this book

The Disaster Correspondent: Why I stopped explaining the Middle East to Americans

NB: The phrase ‘the fundamental racism of their editorial line’, sums up what it feels to be the perennial object of dehumanisation by the Western establishments and a sizeable part of their populations. Lina Mounzer has said something very important here, and it has lessons not only for the West and Israel, but also for… Read More The Disaster Correspondent: Why I stopped explaining the Middle East to Americans