Since Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 1999, the Russian authorities have responded to any threat, whether real or imagined, with repressive legislation. The history of the power vertical is thus one of the methodical restriction of citizen’s rights and freedoms. Meanwhile, Russia’s over-centralised state is increasingly isolating itself from the “multinational people of the…
Category: News
How Health Care Costs Keep Me From Getting Married
I always wanted to get married, even when I didn’t. Before I was 4, my mother and father called it quits. By the time I was 8, my mother separated from her second husband, who then skipped town altogether. My early life was marked by the abandonment of men who split when things became too…
Book review: Veiled and unveiled in Chechnya and Dagestan
Chechen women cry watching a performance about Stalin’s deportation of the Chechens to Central Asia, Grozny, 2013. Photo (c): Associated Press / Musa Sadulayev. All rights reserved.When I was offered to review Veiled and Unveiled in Chechnya and Dagestan, I was thrilled. The book is based on a decade of fieldwork and interviews with many…
John McCain’s Weird Excuse For His Strange Questioning Of Comey
John McCain’s rambling questions for former FBI Director James Comey became the focus of their own inquiry on Twitter. What exactly did the Arizona senator mean when he asked, “You’re going to have to help me out here. We’re complete—the investigation of anything former secretary Clinton had to do in the campaign is over, and…
Avoiding a precedent in Syria and the Balkanisation of the Middle East
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and United States Secretary of State John Kerry and United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.Sept. 22, 2016. Jason DeCrow/Press Association Images. All rights reserved. The next US president is going to be in the unenviable position of having to make some difficult decisions in trying to effect positive…
Texas Is On The Verge Of Banning Transgender High School Athletes
When Mack Beggs won the Texas high school state wrestling championship in March, an uproar ensued. Neither side of the argument was happy with the outcome. The high school junior was born a girl, but is in the process of transitioning to become a boy. However, outdated rules by the University Interscholastic League (the governing…
Isidro Baldenegro assassinated in Mexico: another case of lethal collision between environmental activism and organized crime
Indigenous environmental activist Isidro Baldenegro López. 2005 Goldman Prize ceremony. All rights reserved. Isidro Baldenegro López was shot dead on January 15 in the Coloradas de la Virgen community in the Guadalupe and Calvo municipality of Chihuahua state. The murder quickly drew attention to collusion between drug trafficking cartels and the illegal timber industry, which López…
The Man Who Taught Canada To Love Basketball
When the Toronto Raptors joined the NBA in 1995, fans in the Great White North were resistant, particularly without any superstar players. That all changed when the team traded for Vince Carter during the 1998 NBA draft, when Carter was selected #5 overall by the Raptors. Canada broke out with “Vinsanity” and dubbed their new superstar “Air…
This District Is So Broke, It’s Closing Almost 200 Schools
Move over, Chicago—there’s a new holder of the dubious record for the largest mass school closure in United States history. Ok, ok, since Puerto Rico’s statehood efforts failed and it’s still only a U.S. territory, technically Chicago’s shuttering of nearly 50 campuses at once in 2013 is still the biggest. But the decision to close…
Letters from Raqqa, 2014-16
Raqqa, Syria. Militant Website, File AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved. Introduction Ten “letters from Raqqa” have been published in openDemocracy covering a period of a little over two years, the most recent one being on 8 December 2016. They are part of my regular series of weekly articles which have been published since September…