ROBBIE GRAMER – India Overtakes Britain as the World’s Sixth-Largest Economy

Score one for the post-colonial underdog. India’s economy has reportedly overtaken the United Kingdom’s for the first time in over 100 years, now standing as the world’s sixth-largest economy by GDP after the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and France. The milestone is a symbol of India’s rapid economic growth and, conversely, the U.K.’s post-Brexit slump. Economically, it’s been a …

JOHN GRAY – Europe’s states of disorder

It is too early to gauge the full impact of the Austrian election and the Italian constitutional referendum. The increased majority for the Green-backed candidate in Austria shows a European electorate refusing to elect a president from an organisation that was founded by a former SS officer. But Norbert Hofer’s Freiheitliche Partei Öster­reichs (Austrian Freedom Party) managed to command nearly …

Normalizing fascists

How to report on a fascist? How to cover the rise of a political leader who’s left a paper trail of anti-constitutionalism, racism and the encouragement of violence? Does the press take the position that its subject acts outside the norms of society? Or does it take the position that someone who wins a fair election is by definition “normal,” …

Half of people believe fake facts

Around 50% of us are susceptible to believing we’ve experienced fictitious events, University of Warwick research finds False memory study included over 400 people Raises questions around the authenticity of memories used in forensic investigations, court rooms. Misinformation in the news can create incorrect collective memories, affecting behaviour and attitudes of society. Many people are prone to ‘remembering’ events that …

Italy’s Government on Verge of collapse: Next Trumpian Domino to Fall?

Italy’s government is on the verge of collapse. Prime minister Matteo Renzi reiterated his position just yesterday, he will not hang on if a referendum he seeks does not pass. Polls show the referendum will fail. Then again, polls have not been remarkably accurate recently, to say the least. On the other hand, this poll shows a strong preference to …

John Harris – Does the left have a future?

There is more than one spectre haunting modern Europe: terrorism, the revival of the far right, the instability of Turkey, the fracturing of the EU project. And in mainstream politics, all across the continent, the traditional parties of the left are in crisis. In Germany, the Social Democratic party, once a titanic party of government, has fallen below 20% in the …

MICHAEL R. GORDON – Neglect May Do What ISIS Didn’t: Breach Iraqi Dam

WASHINGTON — More than 16 months after Iraqi and Kurdish forces reclaimed Mosul Dam from Islamic State fighters, the structure faces a new threat: the danger that it may collapse because of insufficient maintenance, overwhelming major communities downstream with floodwaters. In the worst-case scenario, according to State Department officials, an estimated 500,000 people could be killed while more than a …

Pesticides on Planes: How Airlines Are Softly Killing Us By Maryam Henein

How many of you have felt sick following a flight, only to chalk it up to a virus or sinus infection you caught from a fellow passenger? What if I told you, you may have been poisoned by pesticides on the plane without knowing it? If you have a fear of flying, the terror just catapulted to a whole new level. While …

Italian Paper Breaks Silence Over Political Assassinations in Kiev – Daniele Pozzati

Italy’s second largest newspaper La Repubblica has broken western media’s silence over the latest wave of political murders in Ukraine. In an unusual for mainstream western media frank assessment of Kiev’s post-Maidan regime, La Repubblica has denounced “a ruthless sweeping away of every form of political opposition taking place in Kiev”. The paper was reacting to yet another assassination in Ukraine — this time of a popular journalist Oles …