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Look, I want to make one thing clear: I’m not a selfish guy. I’m all for my employees discovering themselves and finding true love. The first time one of my top correspondents emailed out of the blue to say she’d decided to move to a tiny mountain town and take over a struggling antique shop, I said, “Good for you.” The second time it happened, this time with a struggling breakfast diner in an off-season tourist town, I was surprised, but I also said, “Good for you.”

But after the third and fourth times, I began to worry that a pattern was developing. And the twenty-sixth time an employee emailed me a no-notice resignation on account of having discovered both her soulmate and her passion for veterinary work in the quaint English village where I had sent her (all expenses paid) on assignment, I have to admit that I was less than pleased. Her email informed me that she was happy to forfeit her year-end bonus and the extremely competitive promotion she’d been up for because she was going off Wi-Fi forever, effective immediately. Last I knew, she didn’t even have a dog.

American interference, at the behest of Netanyahu’s far-right Israel, has left the Middle East in ruins, with over a million dead and open wars raging in Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, and with Iran on the brink of a nuclear arsenal. In the famous lines of Tacitus, Roman historian, “To ravage, to slaughter, Continue reading »

In the wake of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s 6-hour coup, Western pundits have opined that this was an affirmation of South Korean democracy’s robustness and resilience, its institutional maturity and strength. This is like saying after a survivor fights off an assault, that this demonstrates a mature state of legal order. Hardly. It Continue reading »

Medhurst was born in Damascus, Syria. His father is English and mother is Syrian. Both his parents served in United Nations Peacekeeping and Observer missions and were among the UN Peacekeepers awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988. Medhurst was born in Damascus, Syria. His father is English and mother is Syrian. Both his parents Continue reading »

“The first thing we’ll do is sack those 36000 public servants in Canberra” – David Littleproud, leader of Australia’s National Party. Donald Trump’s Cabinet is fraying at the edges before it gets down to business. Matt Gaetz surrendered the Attorney-General offer and Chad Chronister, fingered to be the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, self-ejected. Continue reading »

Government spending is keeping Australia out of recession, just as last week’s feeble GDP numbers tallied 7 consecutive quarters of negative growth. Michael Pascoe reports on the moaning business lobby. A funny thing happened after Wednesday’s weak national accounts figures: a large part of the economic commentariat poured scorn on government spending and investment for keeping the Continue reading »

In his acceptance speech after Labor won the 2022 election, Anthony Albanese promised to look after disadvantaged and vulnerable citizens. During the cost of living crisis over the past two years he told people he felt their pain and had their backs. He just inverted these assurances with a $600 million handout to one of Australia’s Continue reading »

Some of the most dangerous people in the world right now are those normalising and sanitising fascistic politics. It was not just in the banal media discussion that preceded Donald Trump’s re-election; it can also be found at the ABC, including on Radio National lifestyle programming. One of the tropes to look for is the Continue reading »

In 2019, I was Australia’s Consul-General in Makassar, and I remember meeting a group of Muslim Australians from western Sydney: they were planning to make a film about the Makassar-Northern Australia relationship. Their leader was Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, a tall, bearded man of middle-age, in haji cap and long white robes. Sheikh Wesam was born Continue reading »

The decision by Australia’s federal Opposition leader to avoid standing by the Aboriginal flag is a dangerously divisive and cynical move. In case he has not noticed the current Australian flag includes the Union Jack which symbolises an extremely controversial period in our history. Senator Lidia Thorpe recently drew attention to the negative impacts of Continue reading »

Although sponsored by Republicans, the new Crucial Communism Teaching Act bill enjoys widespread support from Democrats. Focused on China, Venezuela, Cuba and other targets of US empire, critics warn it will be used to promote war in public schools. 

The post Congress Revives Cold War Tactics with New Anti-Communism School Curriculum appeared first on MintPress News.

Hours before Assad fell, Congress moved to extend sanctions. Despite presidential waivers, Syria won’t open up until they’re off the books.

The post Keeping Sanctions in Force Would “Pull the Rug Out From Under Syria” appeared first on The Intercept.

Dear TomDispatch Reader, Two years ago, when I was putting together the end-of-year plea I always post to keep TomDispatch going in a tough world, I wrote: “This time around though, I have to wonder whether it may be the last such missive I’ll write.” Well, as it happens (thanks to the generosity of the readers of this website), it wasn’t. Seven hundred thirty days later — the beginning of our 24th year and halfway through my own 80th year on this ever more embattled planet — I’m back, asking for your support. Admittedly, there’s little I enjoy less at TomDispatch than bothering you for money (something I don’t enjoy when it happens to me). Still, you, the wonderful readers of... Read more

Source: Keeping TomDispatch Alive appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

How director Mani Ratnam managed to adapt Ponniyin Selvan, a 2,500-page serialized historical epic and one of the bestselling Tamil novels of all time.

Dear Believers, come gather ’round the flames of the hearth as I spin the adventurous tale of Kalki Krishnamurthy—shamelessly adopting his intimately omniscient tone in order to illuminate his prodigious life and work. Ramaswamy “Kalki” Krishnamurthy was an Indian freedom fighter who was imprisoned three times by the British, a journalist who founded a long-running weekly magazine, and a phenomenally popular author whose serialized historical epic Ponniyin Selvan (published between 1950 and 1954) is one of the bestselling Tamil novels of all time. For Kalki’s centenary, the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu nationalized his works, freeing them from copyright restrictions, so they could remain continually in print. And in 2022, after decades of doomed film adaptation attempts, director Mani Ratnam brought Ponniyin Selvan to the screen.

Taking advantage of Syria’s instability, Israel pushes its borders into the Golan Heights and beyond, fulfilling long-held ambitions to redraw the map of the region.

The post Inside Israel’s Brazen Syria Land Grab: A Decades-Old Plan Comes to Life appeared first on MintPress News.

Less than 5% of people with learning disabilities are employed, while 86% want to be. The Government must think about which Brits it values as being worthy of work

At Emers & Totch architectural firm, we specialize in arches. Not just any arches, but big arches. Monument arches. Think of the Gateway Arch: that kind of arch. No, we did not build the Gateway Arch, but that is the kind of arch we’re talking about. And we want to build an arch for your city, just like St. Louis has the Gateway Arch.

Who says only one city in the country can have an arch as part of its skyline? There’s no rule about that. Why can’t your city have a big arch too? What we’re saying is: it can.

What’s in your skyline now? Three tall buildings and a bridge? You need an arch. What’s your waterfront promenade missing? An arch. What’s towering over your convention center, nothing? It should be an arch. Your small to midsize all-American city deserves a striking skyline just as much as St. Louis does.

The decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity must be a watershed moment. Governments across the world not only have a duty to defend and enforce those specific warrants but, more broadly, to […]

Pretending that the distribution of income and wealth that results from a long set of policy decisions is somehow the natural workings of the market is not a serious position … Pretending that distributional outcomes are just the workings of the market is convenient for any beneficiaries of this inequality, even those who consider themselves […]