The so-called Arab Spring inflamed democratic imaginations even as activists, citizens, soldiers and rulers clashed violently throughout the region. More than three years after it began, writes international affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe, the democratic potential of the revolution has yet to be
JONATHAN MANTHORPEJanuary 17, 2014 Three years after the flight into exile of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali triggered popular uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East, there is little to show for the cost in blood and chaos. The
DEBORAH JONES: FREE RANGE Published January 15, 2014 We knew the tree as an insect haven, a woodpecker station, a squirrel highway, and a perch for raccoons. She held our clothesline, and lent us her leaves for summer shade and winter compost. The
The Russian inventor of the AK-47, Mikhail Kalashnikov, died last month aged 94. In life he publicly denied responsibility for what became of his weapon: politics and politicians bore responsibility for the millions killed with it, he said. Last week, a newspaper
JONATHAN MANTHORPEJanuary 15, 2014 Somewhere in the corner of one of the drawers in my desk is a bag containing bullets and cartridge cases I picked up on various battlefields in Africa. For some I have special affection because they were fired
In the course of writing her book, Dragnet Nation, ProPublica reporter Julia Angwin tried various strategies to protect her privacy. In this blog post, she distills the lessons from her privacy experiments into useful tips for readers. by Julia Angwin, ProPublica
Paid propagandists blow hot or cold about climate change, depending on the weather of the day. But the fact is that averages rarely kill — it’s the extremes that do that, writes Natural Security columnist Chris Wood. An excerpt of Wood’s new
CHRIS WOOD: NATURAL SECURITYPublished January 15, 2014 North America’s recent wintry blast, and one unfortunate crew of ice-detained eco-cruisers in the south polar sea, have stirred the blood of the science deniers. According to well-paid propagandists working for media outlets,1 small-time municipal
Climate chaos dominated world news again this week. A heat wave broke records in Western Australian, with reports of tens of thousands of bats falling dead from the sky and kangaroos collapsing. Meanwhile frozen residents of the northern hemisphere became acutely aware
Expect more turmoil next week in Thailand’s dysfunctional political culture, writes international affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe. The big question in the expected fracas between the two main factions – identified by the yellow shirts worn by urbanites or the red garb of
