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Arab Winter of Discontent Lingers

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 realized. An excerpt of Manthorpe’s new column: 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 picture is not all of doom and gloom, however. In all four countries

On the real weapon of mass destruction

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 published a letter in which he said he felt guilt-ridden. International affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe, who has had many close encounters with the AK-47, examines its impact. An excerpt: 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

Privacy Tools: How to Safely Browse the Web

  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 One of the easiest and simplest things you can do to protect your privacy is to be a smarter Web browser. This is surprisingly difficult because most popular Web browsing software is set up to allow users to be tracked by default. The reason is simple economics — you don’t pay for Web browsing software, so the companies

Extremes, more than averages, are the killers

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 column: 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, small-time municipal councillors, and a certain spotlight-seeking New York City property magnate and game-show host, the occurrence of cold and — OMG! — snow,

Week in Review

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 of the existence of a polar vortex — a fierce whirlwind that usually stays put at the poles — and that it had broken loose from its normal pattern to descend on areas of Europe and North America utterly unprepared for minus 40 degree cold — or worse. Amid intense debate over the role of climate change in

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