Civil rights

The waiving Covid vaccine patents: protect the world, not big pharma

Editorial — The Guardian

Editorial – The Guardian The US is now backing plans that could help billions more access vaccines. The UK should follow suit The rapid emergence of Covid vaccines has been a remarkable yet bittersweet success, pointing to both humanity’s scientific achievements and its social…

7 May 2021 · 3 min read
Children

A Mother, Separated from Her Children at the Border, Comes Home

By Jonathan Blitzer — The New Yorker

By Jonathan Blitzer* – The New Yorker The Biden Administration has begun an ambitious effort to reunite more than a thousand families torn apart by Trump. For the past two years, Keldy Mabel Gonzáles Brebe de Zúniga kept a daily ritual.

7 May 2021 · 14 min read
Armed conflicts

United States Withdraws From Afghanistan? Not Really

By Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad

By Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad (*) – Independent Media Institute The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 was criminal. It was criminal because of the immense force used to demolish Afghanistan’s physical infrastructure and to break open its social bonds.

6 May 2021 · 8 min read
Digital Age

Facebook is pretending it cares how its platform affects the world

By Siva Vaidhyanathan — The Guardian

By Siva Vaidhyanathan* – The Guardian The reality is that Trump used Facebook most effectively as an organizing and fundraising tool, not as a platform for ‘posting’ The world is a lot better off without Donald Trump as president of the United States. And Facebook is a lot more…

6 May 2021 · 6 min read
Economy / Finance

As China Ditches High Growth, the World Must Adjust

By Michael Hirson, Tsveta Petrova, and Rickard Nyman (*) – The Diplomat Observers of China’s economy need to become more sophisticated in their understanding Beijing’s evolving and competing policy priorities as growth targets fall out of favor When senior Biden administration…

5 May 2021 · 7 min read
authoritarianism

Orbán has begun taking steps to preserve his power

By Fábián Tamás — Telex

By Fábián Tamás – Telex (*) With a year left until what looks to be a tight election, the government is reallocating considerable amounts of public assets away from the state and into, e.g., foundations. The goal could be to sustain Orbán’s “System of National Cooperation” in…

4 May 2021 · 12 min read
Armed conflicts

Myanmar's media under pressure from all sides

Deutsche Welle (DW) *  The Burmese military regime has routinely arrested journalists and banned independent media. But reporters continue to work underground — under pressure from the ruling junta, but also from the opposition. Myanmar’s military government, which…

3 May 2021 · 10 min read