Massive protest in Chongqing belies company’s recent labour awards from the official trade union

On 7 January, a massive protest broke out at the Zybio (Zhongyuan Huiji) medical supply factory in Chongqing that produces Covid-19 antigen test kits. About half of the company’s 20,000 workers were set to be terminated after orders for test kits have recently dropped. Workers were still owed some back pay and took to the streets to… Read More Massive protest in Chongqing belies company’s recent labour awards from the official trade union

People’s Union for Civil Liberties calls on Indian citizens to resist the government’s attacks on judicial independence

Resist the Executive’s Attempt to Discredit & Undermine Independence of the Judiciary Founder: Jayaprakash Narayan; Founding President: V M Tarkunde General Secretary: Dr. V. SureshE.mail: puclnat@gmail.com & pucl.natgensec@gmail.com As the Modi government reaches the final stretch of its second five-year term, one can see the beginnings of its new priorities. The drumbeats against the judiciary, the lone institution which… Read More People’s Union for Civil Liberties calls on Indian citizens to resist the government’s attacks on judicial independence

One Afghan refugee’s stunning photographs of the country’s ‘many stories that need to be told’

by Joey Watson with pictures by Muzafar Ali Muzafar Ali, who lives in Adelaide, grew up as a refugee in Pakistan after his family fled Afghanistan in the mid-1980s. As a child, the only pictures he saw of his birth country were through Taliban-issued jihadi calendars and the occasional news report. Photo: Muzafar Ali / The Guardian Ali is… Read More One Afghan refugee’s stunning photographs of the country’s ‘many stories that need to be told’

Nadoja Sara Aboobacker

Chandan Gowda Sara Aboobacker and her husband, an engineer with the government, moved to Bangalore in 1981. He had been transferred from Mangalore. One day, as she was heading out of a public library in Halasur, Lankesh Patrike, which was dangling in a roadside stall, caught her eye. She bought a copy of the eight-page Kannada… Read More Nadoja Sara Aboobacker

Saudi Arabian academic on death row for using Twitter and WhatsApp

Stephanie Kirchgaessner A prominent pro-reform law professor in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to death for alleged crimes including having a Twitter account and using WhatsApp to share news considered “hostile” to the kingdom, according to court documents seen by the Guardian. The arrest of Awad Al-Qarni, 65, in September 2017 represented the start of a crackdown against dissent by… Read More Saudi Arabian academic on death row for using Twitter and WhatsApp

Two Popes: Mohan Bhagwat’s feeble attempts to reassert himself

Bharat Bhushan Bhagwat claims that the ‘1000-year war’ against ‘foreign aggressions’ has now been transformed into a war with the “enemy within’ It is a measure of the marginalisation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) under the Narendra Modi regime that its head Mohan Bhagwat is compelled to symbolically reassert his authority time and again. His latest… Read More Two Popes: Mohan Bhagwat’s feeble attempts to reassert himself

‘Truth is one of our rights’: victims of Indonesia’s bloody past want more than regret from their president

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

‘Only place we’ve ever known’: As Joshimath crumbles, the displaced demand ‘fair compensation’

SIMRIN SIRUR Joshimath: The land below their feet sinking, helpless residents of Joshimath town were gathered in front of the battered Malari Inn hotel for a second consecutive day of protests Wednesday. They were demanding “fair compensation” for being driven out of their homes and possibly the town itself.  Tensions between the displaced residents on the one… Read More ‘Only place we’ve ever known’: As Joshimath crumbles, the displaced demand ‘fair compensation’