Trump Faces Palestine

Aviva Chomsky In the colonial view of the world — and, in its own strange fashion, Donald Trump’s view couldn’t be more colonial — White European colonizers were embattled beacons of civilization, rationality, and progress, confronting dangerous barbaric hordes beyond (and even, sometimes, within) their own frontiers. Colonial violence then was a necessary form of… Read More Trump Faces Palestine

Edward White: The Short, Daring Life of Lilya Litvyak; the world’s first female fighter ace

Lilya Litvyak became the world’s first female fighter ace, and is better known as the White Rose of Stalingrad On June 22, 1941, the Third Reich launched its ill-fated invasion of Russia. It was pestilential in scale; more than three million Axis soldiers swarmed Russia’s borders in a matter of hours, overwhelming Soviet defenses. Hitler… Read More Edward White: The Short, Daring Life of Lilya Litvyak; the world’s first female fighter ace

Irina Rakobolskaya Member of the all-female Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment of the Red Army, dies at 96. RIP comrade

Irina Vyacheslavovna Rakobolskaya, physicist and second world war veteran, born 22 December 1919; died 22 September 2016 First posted October 17, 2016 Major Irina Rakobolskaya in the early 1940s During the second world war, Irina Rakobolskaya, who has died aged 96, was a member of the all-female Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment of the Red Army that… Read More Irina Rakobolskaya Member of the all-female Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment of the Red Army, dies at 96. RIP comrade

Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944). Shrabani Basu on the spy who saved Europe

On Jan. 16, 1946, the French posthumously awarded Noor the Croix de Guerre, the highest civilian honor. Three years later, England awarded her the George Cross… In France, Noor is remembered as Madeleine, a heroine of the Resistance. There is a plaque outside her family home in Suresnes and a band plays outside her house… Read More Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944). Shrabani Basu on the spy who saved Europe

Rare colour photographs from London in World War Two / The Second World War in Colour – in pictures

First posted July 2015 The blitz: rare colour photographs – in pictures As the 75th anniversary of the blitz – Germany’s sustained bombing campaign of the UK in the second world war – approaches, these beautiful and striking pictures show the famous bombsites, the tin helmets, the victory rolls and the carry-on spirit http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/jul/10/the-blitz-rare-colour-photographs-in-pictures Battle… Read More Rare colour photographs from London in World War Two / The Second World War in Colour – in pictures

Arun Shourie on Savarkar, Hindutva and polarisation in India | BBC News India

Arun Shourie on Savarkar, Hindutva and polarisation in India | BBC News India Arun Shourie, journalist, author, economist and former federal minister, speaks to the BBC’s Jugal Purohit about his new book ‘The New Icon: Savarkar and the Facts. Shourie revisits the controversial legacy of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, his ideological opposition to Mahatma Gandhi, and… Read More Arun Shourie on Savarkar, Hindutva and polarisation in India | BBC News India

No Alternative?

Both Perestroika and Thatcherism, then, meant scaling back economic and social security to drive efficiency gains and shift labor and capital from declining to rising industries. If this similarity between East and West is unsettling to readers today, it is nonetheless one that, as Bartel’s archival work demonstrates, was recognized behind closed doors at the… Read More No Alternative?

American Freefall

It was never about eliminating antisemitism. It was always about silencing Palestine By Patrick Lawrence / Consortium News Some people worth citing this week. They speak of different matters, but when we put all their apples and oranges into a basket we discover they belong together, their bright colors confronting us with a challenge: It is… Read More American Freefall