Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman wrote Manufacturing Consent in the late 1980s to describe the structural forces which cause an otherwise free media—one lacking government censorship, fear of prison for journalists (aside from those sharing designated government secrets), and staffed with people who genuinely see themselves as holding power accountable—can nonetheless produce systematic propaganda, with a highly More
The regime wants to crush resistance. But those it rules continue to push back against its brutalityThe protests that exploded across Iran following Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in September 2022 were a turning point. The young Iranian-Kurdish woman had been detained by the “morality police” for “improper hijab”. Not only did young women take to the streets and cast off their scarves in fury, but parents and grandparents came too. The protests were strikingly socially diverse. Critically, men...
Our generation has endured and witnessed more changes than any other in modern history.
Katrina vanden Heuvel A strategy for building a rural-urban working-class coalition.
While Donald Trump is in court, House Republicans rejected their presidential nominee’s bad land-for-peace deal in Ukraine In chaos theory, the flapping of butterfly wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world. This weekend, Ukraine experienced a butterfly moment. Donald Trump’s efforts to conceal the fact that he bought the silence of a porn star before the 2016 election landed him in court, facing charges that preoccupy him enough for congressional Republicans to reject his...
The radical right is set to dominate forthcoming European elections. Progressives need a fresh start and a new approachThe political signals coming from France are ominous. According to one poll last week, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party (RN) has increased its lead to a runaway 15 points ahead of June’s European elections. For Emmanuel Macron, who pledged to use the French presidency to halt the rise of the far right, all indicators point to a humiliating defeat that would overshadow the...
Both Iran and Israel are calibrating their responses. That does not mean the region should breathe easyThe danger facing the Middle East is not from wild or impulsive action, but from the considered decisions of men who believe they know what they are doing and how their opponents will respond. Their confidence is not reassuring when their judgment has previously fallen short.On Friday, Iran was quick to play down the overnight strike by Israel, suggesting that it was unclear who was responsible...
Hopes of a ceasefire have ebbed, concerns about an assault on Rafah endure, and aid remains wholly insufficientThe Middle East is “on the precipice” and “one miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake, could lead to the unthinkable,” the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned on Thursday. Israel has vowed to retaliate to Iran’s weekend barrage of missiles and drones – itself a response to Israel’s killing of two generals at an Iranian diplomatic facility in Damascus. It is hard to...
The region is turning towards Russia and other global players when it comes to security. Tackling the climate crisis would contribute to a solutionTwo apparently separate developments in the Sahel are linked by more than geography. Last week, the US confirmed that it will withdraw more than 1,000 troops from Niger after the military junta revoked a security pact – just six years after a new $110m military base opened. Meanwhile, a record heatwave is the latest deadly extreme weather event.The US...
"It's a reflection of how much the war is upsetting students and the idea that the United States should be more cautious with what it does with its military aid," says NYU history professor Robert Cohen.
While most who wrote in favoured some sort of action to reduce the damage caused by tobacco, some warned about the UK becoming a ‘nanny state’Dozens of people have shared with the Guardian how they feel about Rishi Sunak’s tobacco and vapes bill, which aims to create the UK’s first smoke-free generation. The proposed legislation would not ban smoking outright, but ensure that anyone born after 1 January 2009 would be banned from buying cigarettes.About half of respondents said they were in...
Indian voters ought to think hard about giving Narendra Modi another popular mandateThe world’s largest elections begin this weekend in India, amid claims that the race to lead the country has already been won. If Narendra Modi were to secure a third term with a big parliamentary majority, his achievement would match that of the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Whatever the outcome, the loser has been Indian democracy. Unlike Mr Nehru, who anonymously criticised his own...