Kanhaiya Kumar, March 16, 2016. Wikicommons/ Hemanth5432. Some rights reserved.Since 2014, Indian universities have been subject to the authoritarian impulse of the state, with the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Narendra Modi seeking to fundamentally transform the character of these universities, imposing unqualified administrators that are close to the party line, implicitly…

Samantha Bee is one of our strongest comedic voices, and her show Full Frontal often reminds viewers of the best days of The Daily Show with a powerful, feminist kick. But there’s no denying one recent joke on the show went from political kick to foot in the mouth after one of Bee’s correspondents accidentally mocked a…

«Mexico woke up" by Katka Kincelová. Creative Commons. Some rights reserved. “A government on its knees”: this is how Gil Ramos describes Mexico’s current administration. With an average of nearly 100 homicides per day, 7 journalists killed in 8 months, an epidemic of disappearances of social activists, students and civilians, and hundreds of human right…

Right before the Super Bowl aired this past Sunday, viewers tuned in to a taped interview between Donald Trump and Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly. During the interview, Trump suggested he would potentially pull federal funding from California as retaliation for the state’s promise to protect immigrants’ rights, claiming sanctuary cities “breed crime.” “If we have to,…

Corbyn welcomes Jim McMahon to Parliament. Mark Kerrison/Demotix. All rights reserved.In mid-August 2015, and in a departure from the norm, one of these columns speculated on Jeremy Corbyn’s first hundred days as leader of the Labour Party, three weeks before he had even won the election (see "Jeremy Corbyn's first 100 days", 19 August 2015)….

On Friday, famous comedians took to Facebook for a live stream to benefit the American Civil Liberties Union. In a single night, the funny men and women were able to raise more than $500,000 to add to the ACLU’s astonishing 2017 donations. But beyond raising cash, Tina Fey also sent a message to white, college-educated women…

Last week’s clashes on the Line of Contact (LoC) separating Armenian and Azerbaijani troops in and around Nagorno Karabakh stirred up nationalism and animosity not only in Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also in neighbouring Georgia. The worst clashes in nearly 22 years, alarm bells were ringing in the capital Tbilisi — not least because of…

Friday Night Lights star Zach Gilford raised funds for Planned Parenthood by running yesterday’s LA Marathon. Gilford claims he was moved by recent efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and the array of services the nonprofit provides for women, and he used the 26.2 mile run from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica to raise funding and awareness for…

It’s understandable for heads to spin as President Donald Trump ushers in a “post-truth” era. Despite new technology making it easier than ever to hunt down the facts, we’re finding it increasingly difficult to sift out sly deceits and distill credible information. We’re finding ourselves overwhelmed by the new administration’s lies—both big and small. But…

Press Association/AP/Nasser Nasser. All rights reserved.The question of the Egyptian revolution’s future has become as much a cliché as the discourse on its utopian history. The former is as excessive in its pessimism as the latter is in its optimism. Although neither abide by empirical rationale, both are politically understandable. But before asking the classical…