Month: March 2019

A T-50 prototype for the Su-57 flies at the MAKS 2011 air show. Wikicommons/ Alex Beltyukov . Some rights reserved. Russia’s massive Vostok-2018 military exercises from 11-17 September are receiving much attention in the western media, all too easily conjuring a spectre of the Russian bear once again ready to pounce on a weakened west….

There’s something about Lando. Although Han Solo is one of the most instantly recognizable — and bankable — characters in the possibly eternal “Star Wars” franchise, it’s Lando Calrissian, his conflicted and conflict-propelling best friend, who holds a special place in the series mystique. And in “Solo,” the first of possibly three spin-off films, it’s Lando who’s…

Helen often said that the reason she and Eva could live together so successfully was that they were such opposites. They wore different-size clothes, had different friends, came from opposite ends of the country, and kept rigorously aloof from dangerous confidences. Helen had an advertising job with a wholesale textile company, and Eva ran a…

Democratic senator and 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is expected to announce her plan for a new wealth tax that will affect the richest 0.1% of Americans. The tax is intended to help curb America’s astronomical gap in income equality. The wealthiest 1% of American households now hold 40% of the country’s wealth, the largest…

Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research Facebook page. Fair use. On December 17, 1918, the historic decision was taken in the Swedish Parliament in favour of introducing universal and equal suffrage for women and men. 100 years later, the date marks the very day when confirmation came that the Swedish Gender Equality Agency (Jämställdhetsmyndigheten) would be…

As he climbed the worn, elaborate stairs, Tim was dreaming again about the wonderful box down the street in the window of Rain’s Paints and Hardware. It was a small oblong of a box, shiny black on the outside, white inside, with a brush and six of the brightest colors of the rainbow packed in…

The world lost two icons by suicide this week, celebrity chef and adventurer Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade. While both deaths leave permanent holes in U.S. – and global – culture, they are an opportunity for a much-needed discussion on suicide prevention. The deaths come on the heels of an alarming report by the U.S….

No attribution required. لا أتذكر على وجه التحديد في أي سنة بدأت علاقتي مع الإذاعة المسموعة وشغفي بها، متتبعاً لعدد من برامجها، ولكن ما أعرفه أنني كنت مراهقاً لم يبلغ الخامسة عشر حينما تعلقت في أول برنامج، كان اسمه "زهور الحياة"، وكان يذاع كل يوم جمعة على إذاعة مصراته المحلية، التي ما تزال تبث برامجها…

The Texas city of Santa Fe was stunned by a school shooting on May 18 that took 10 lives and injured over a dozen people. One of the fatalities was 17-year-old Sabika Sheikh, an exchange student who was part of a U.S. government-funded educational program. Abdul Aziz Sheikh, Sabika’s father, was breaking his Ramadan fast thousands of…

The Tower of London poppy instillation in 2014. Image, Oosoom. For some, the key moment was when they painted a poppy on the side of an RAF Tornado. For others, it was the sense that the symbology was being used to silence criticism of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “It has” tweeted second world…