Surviving torture and brutality inside Israel’s prisons By Nasser Abu Srour 1. I woke to the breaking news on 7 October 2023. The television in our cell showed footage of the Hamas attacks and the fighting around Gaza. We watched for an hour before the cable was cut and the screen turned blue. Those were… Read More ‘Why don’t you just die?’
Ian Buruma on Berlin during World War II Bryn Stole n December 1944, amid the bombs and wartime wreckage of Berlin, acclaimed conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler led the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance of Brahms and Beethoven in a frigid variety theater—since Royal Air Force bombing raids had already wrecked most of the city’s grand concert… Read More Dancing on a Volcano
Nothing can stop Germany’s moral panic over antisemitism It would be hard to surpass the absurd spectacle of a Jewish philosopher being blocked from speaking at a German Holocaust memorial because he intended to say that the lessons of “never again” should be applied universally. And yet such perverse distortions of Germany’s ‘memory culture’ have… Read More Bad memories
Families turn to dirty fuels such as firewood, bringing fears over air pollution and fragility of energy transition…“When prices rise, it’s the poorest who are forced to switch back to biomass,” said Harjeet Singh, the director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation. “Biomass burning is a major source of fine particulate pollution. In dense urban areas,… Read More Public health at risk across Asia as price of gas for cooking soars
Source: Adam Tooze, Chartbook Source: Krishn Kaushik and Chris Kay in Mumbai and William Sandlund in Hong Kong from FT +++++++++++++++
Education is under attack across occupied Palestine. The situation is most severe in Gaza, where more than 600,000 school-age children are approaching the end of a third year without formal in-person education. Israeli attacks there have killed at least 792 teachers and 18,639 students, according to the UN, and damaged or destroyed nine out of 10… Read More ‘Go inside, he will kill you’: Israeli militants step up West Bank school attacks
Colombia president Gustavo Petro tells 57-country talks on a green energy transition that fossil fuel interests could destroy humanity Jonathan Watts and Fiona Harvey in Santa Marta, Colombia The world is threatened by a “suicidal” model of capitalism that is leading to war, fascism and the potential extinction of humanity, Colombia’s president has said, as he convened 57 governments… Read More ‘Suicidal’ model of capitalism leading to war and fascism, climate summit told
by Dr Mustafa Fetouri ( Middle East Monitor ) – The international community remains fixated on a phantom: Gaza’s “Day After.” While Washington, Cairo, and Doha debate elaborate governance frameworks and the “Board of Peace,” these plans share a fatal flaw—they lack a viable “buyer” on the ground. Smashed pipes, blocked off wells: Taps run dry in the… Read More No Day After for Gaza: Israel has Killed 1,000 during “Ceasefire”
NB: A gripping and very informative account of the intertwined crises that led to war and global confrontation in 1970-1971. I was a small witness to it from the Indian side of the border; and was caught up in the political cyclone which became the central theme for my novel Revolution Highway. Indeed, it was… Read More The Vortex
If Donald Trump fails to end the Iran war soon, its effects could last for decades, with unpredictable consequences Paul Rogers It is now clear that the war against Iran is going badly for Donald Trump. Binyamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) may be determined to carry on, but Trump is the war… Read More The US is facing its Suez moment – the outcome could change the world order
After the truth-shower 