A group of self-avowed white nationalists barged into the Politics and Prose bookstore in Northwest Washington DC last Saturday afternoon, interrupting an appearance by author Jonathan M. Metzl, a psychiatrist and director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. As Metzl discussed his new book: Dying
In 2015, Dimension Data and Cisco, a Johannesburg-based technology company, introduced the Connected Conservation project. Using a mixture of CCTV, biometric scanning, wi-fi, thermal imaging, heat maps, and data analytics, the technology has dramatically reduced rhinoceros poaching in a South African game reserve, which was once hindered by a lack
Chinese authorities are waging a “war on terror” against the Uighur Muslim population in Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in north-western China. One million Uighurs have already disappeared into internment camps, forced to undergo “re-education” programs, where they learn Mandarin and criticize and renounce their faith. Aided by a vast system
Two military planes carrying around 100 Russian servicemen arrived in Caracas last week, sparking concerns in Washington that Moscow is bolstering its support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Facing growing U.S. criticism, including White House national security adviser John Bolton’s claim that recent Russian action constitutes a “direct threat to
The small, southeast Asian kingdom of Brunei has announced new draconian measures, punishing theft with the amputation of a hand and a foot, and homosexual sex and adultery with death. Beginning on April 3, individuals found guilty of the latter offences will be stoned to death. To be convicted, the crimes
In January 2018, eight conservation scientists from the Tehran-based Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF) were arrested, accused of setting camera traps to spy. This baseless claim has been propounded by Iran’s hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known as the Sepah. The conservationists, who have worked to preserve the critically endangered
The United States (US), Canada, and the European Union (EU) have imposed new sanctions on more than a dozen Russian officials and entities accused of supporting Russia’s occupation of Crimea. On Friday the US Treasury Department announced fresh sanctions against six Russian officials, six defense firms, and two construction firms
For over two months Sudan’s embattled President Omar al-Bashir has contended with emboldened protestors, calling for his resignation. Though public gatherings and protests have been inundated with violence and mass arrests, Sudanese demonstrators have persisted, forcing Bashir to confront sustained anti-government street unrests. Last Monday, in an attempt to quash
A suicide attack struck at the heart of central Cairo last Monday, killing three policemen and wounding two other policemen and a woman. While terrorist activity in the capital has largely been quelled by a years-long security crackdown under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Cairo has recently seen a spate of attacks.
Since the failed Catalan independence movement of October 2017, Spain has been seething with political tension. Twelve separatists leaders, now standing trial in Madrid, stand at the nexus of a political battle that stretches back decades. As the defendants appeared before the Spanish Supreme Court, the division that has formed
Across France, the the far-right group Generation Identity (GI) has stirred unrest and hatred, with their violent sentiments recently having manifested in an attack on a young woman in Lille, France. An undercover reporter for Al Jazeera’s investigative unit filmed the assault, in which three men are shown to have
The stirrings of what may turn into a nascent #MeToo movement have rattled Egypt. On August 15, an Egyptian woman, Menna Gubran, posted a video of a man, Mahmoud Soliman, approaching her on a suburban Cairo street. He invited her to coffee at On The Run, a nearby shop, but
