Latest articles

HaaretzHumanityIslamic World
Erased Israeli Settlers' Brutal War on Palestinian Communities in the West Bank

Erased Israeli Settlers' Brutal War on Palestinian Communities in the West Bank

Erased Israeli Settlers' Brutal War on Palestinian Communities in the West BankScroll downCredit: Avishay Mohar, B'TselemHagar ShezafShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppThese images appear again and again – from the ground, from the air, and on maps: dozens of Palestinian communities wiped off the landscape, while illegal Israeli settler outposts continue to spread across the West Bank.Since October 7, 2023, this phenomenon has intensified significantly. Unlike the war in Gaza, there is no discussion in Israel about ending this parallel campaign of dispossession.

18m ago
The GuardianImmigrationUSA
ICE’s tactics look increasingly like torture | Judith Levine

ICE’s tactics look increasingly like torture | Judith Levine

Plans for gloves that can deliver electric shocks underline the homeland security department’s sadistic practicesOn 11 August, the Associated Press that the Homeland Security Agency will spend up to $20m to equip its agents with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to the skin of a person deemed uncooperative. The “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices”– branded Glove, for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter – will be supplied by their manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, through a .News of the acquisition inspired the editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes to publish a of an agent wearing the glove, underneath which are a branding iron, an iron maiden, a rack, and other compliance technologies. AKA, instruments of torture.

19h ago
The GuardianHumanityGermany
Scrapping of Berlin swimming day for Black children becomes latest in long list of race-linked pool rows

Scrapping of Berlin swimming day for Black children becomes latest in long list of race-linked pool rows

Rightwing voices seize on plans to offer Black children an exclusive afternoon at an outdoor pool in the German capitalIt was meant to be an outing for Black children in Berlin and their families, offering them an exclusive afternoon at an outdoor pool set up by a local theatre.But the plans, slated for earlier this month, had to be scrapped after they were seized on by rightwing and conservative voices to whip up outrage, leaving organisers fending off racist emails and threats.

1d ago
The Free PressDiplomacy
This Is How AI Starts a Nuclear War

This Is How AI Starts a Nuclear War

Robert Wright has been talking about human nature and technology since before most people knew what a podcast was, going back to a video platform he co-founded in 2005 called Bloggingheads.tv. His new book, The God Test, makes an argument that stuck with me: AI isn’t dangerous because it might spontaneously turn on us, but rather because it’s about to test whether human beings can get past the tribalism that’s plagued most of our recorded history.

19h ago
The GuardianHumanityIndia
Disciples review – fresh-faced boys are sucked into a nightmare of extremism in India

Disciples review – fresh-faced boys are sucked into a nightmare of extremism in India

A prestigious school in the holy city of Varanasi and its controversial, dogmatic teachings are the subject of this shocking documentaryThe effect of political and religious indoctrination on young minds resembles a slow-release poison. Unfolding in observational vignettes, Pankaj Johar and Sunaina Kapoor’s thought-provoking documentary centres on Vidya Mutth, a prestigious Hindu school in the holy city of Varanasi, India, where sectarian beliefs are drilled into its students, all in the name of cultural preservation.The film opens with controversial speeches made by the school’s spiritual leader, Guru Avimuktesh, who advocates the abolition of religious freedom, and for Indian Muslims to either convert to Hinduism or leave for Pakistan. A prominent Hindu figure with a large following, he personally oversees the entrance exam, a sequence captured in dynamic handheld shots. While boys take the test, their parents look on with apprehension and anxiety; to be accepted would be an honour, not only for their child but for the whole family.

21h ago
The GuardianSex & IdentityJamaica
The Disappearers by Marlon James review – a scorching exposé of homophobia in Jamaica

The Disappearers by Marlon James review – a scorching exposé of homophobia in Jamaica

This Booker-listed epic set in Aids-era Kingston is a triumph – bitter, bawdy and ravishingly queer“A sense of sweep,” replied Marlon James, when asked what moves him most in literature. “Sweep isn’t just about external journeys, but internal as well. It can be over years and decades, or across land and sea.” If that explanation is still hazy, pick up his mighty new novel, which is longlisted for this year’s Booker prize and is tirelessly – sometimes exhaustingly – grand and peripatetic. Mounting a grisly exposé of Jamaican homophobia, this polyphonic 640-page doorstopper is an emotionally bruising narrative that roves “uptown, downtown, ghetto and gully” through Aids-era Kingston with sidetrack excursions to 1950s England and a closing leap to 2000s United States.The novel’s defining event is a gruesome mob attack on eight queer men who have clandestinely come together to work on bringing John Herbert’s 1967 gay prison play, Fortune and Men’s Eyes, to the stage. The goal, in the words of director Havelock Titus, is to shatter “the whole fragile myth of Jamaican male sexuality”. “Because prison,” he explains, “is the ultimate male institution and yet masculine sexualities that could never happen outside in the normal world flourish in there all the time.”

23h ago
The GuardianGlobal AffairsEngland
The other Post Office scandal: how organised crime launders money on the high street

The other Post Office scandal: how organised crime launders money on the high street

Hundreds of millions of pounds of dirty money are being deposited at post offices every year. So why are the police reluctant to investigate the scale of the problem?Last chance to buy the summer issue of The Long Read magazine, now with 15% off. to order Leicestershire police won’t say who first told them about Jigar Gheewala, but you can see why, once they had heard of him, they decided to find out more. Gheewala was unemployed, had no apparent income, yet lived in a £1.3m house and sent his three children to private school. “He was a declared bankrupt, with a bank account that was absolutely not reflective of what it should be,” said financial crime supervisor Laura Panter of Leicestershire police’s economic crime team. “That was our starting point.”Over the course of 2020, despite being on benefits, Gheewala’s bank account received more than £880,000 in cash in 200 different deposits. He was, it turned out, a money launderer, but not the kind you’ll see in the movies. Gheewala’s deposits had been made not in Liechtenstein or on Grand Cayman, but at various post office branches in Leicester, one thick wodge of banknotes after another.

1h ago
The GuardianDiplomacyIran
Iran vows to retaliate against countries that cooperate with fresh US sanctions

Iran vows to retaliate against countries that cooperate with fresh US sanctions

Test of US rhetoric will rest on whether nations such as India, China and Russia view economic threats as credibleTehran has vowed to retaliate against any country that cooperates with the US in what the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has billed as “the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary”.In advance of the US announcement, the United Arab Emirates, Iran’s single biggest trading partner in the Middle East, announced it was ending all trade with Iran, a move Tehran believes was coordinated between Washington and the UAE.

17h ago
The GuardianEconomy
China is the biggest buyer of Iran’s oil. Could US sanctions threaten those ties?

China is the biggest buyer of Iran’s oil. Could US sanctions threaten those ties?

The US has put the world on notice to cease doing business with Iran, but experts say Washington is wary China could retaliate against any sanctionsThe US has unveiled an expansion of sanctions that it says will but stopped short of the most punishing measures, instead putting the world on notice to cease doing business with the Islamic republic.Treasury secretary Scott Bessent ⁠warned other countries would need to sever ⁠business ties with Iran or risk being ​forced out of the dollar-based financial system. He previously urged cooperation from China – the biggest buyer of Iranian oil for several years – although the US blockade of Iran’s ports, renewed in mid-July, has already cut much of the Iranian oil flows to China.

2h ago
The GuardianDiplomacyWorld
US threatens severe sanctions against countries with economic ties to Iran

US threatens severe sanctions against countries with economic ties to Iran

Washington launches campaign to isolate Tehran but it is unclear whether it would apply sanctions to ChinaThe US has threatened to impose severe sanctions against any country or entity maintaining economic ties with Iran, hoping to achieve with economic measures what military means have so far failed to do.However, it is unclear how far the Trump administration is prepared to go in confronting China, Iran’s biggest trading partner, which has signalled its resistance to US economic pressure to cut off links with an ally.

10h ago
The GuardianDiplomacy
Iran’s foreign minister calls threat of new US economic sanctions ‘desperate’

Iran’s foreign minister calls threat of new US economic sanctions ‘desperate’

Abbas Araghchi says country is unbowed but president Masoud Pezeshkian admits its people face ‘many problems’Iran’s foreign minister has dismissed the threat of a fresh round of US economic sanctions as a “desperate” ploy, even as its president acknowledged that the Iranian people are facing “many problems” amid Washington’s efforts to isolate and debilitate the country’s economy.Last week, Donald Trump announced , calling it “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country”. The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, is expected to announce further punitive economic measures on Iran – which he has described as “the toughest sanctions in history” – on Monday.

1d ago
The GuardianImmigrationUSA
Trump administration plans to revoke 200,000 visas of asylum seekers

Trump administration plans to revoke 200,000 visas of asylum seekers

The state department will revoke B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026, whose holders have sought or are now seeking asylumDonald Trump’s administration said on Monday it planned to revoke the non-immigrant visas of foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the US, marking its latest step in a sweeping immigration crackdown.A state department spokesperson said it was coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security “to identify and revoke the non-immigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently”.

3h ago
BBCSex & IdentityUSA
Kanter Freedom ejected from WNBA game over player row

Kanter Freedom ejected from WNBA game over player row

Enes Kanter Freedom and Natasha Cloud argue during the Chicago Sky's defeat Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected from Sunday's Women's NBA match between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever after becoming involved in a verbal altercation with Sky guard Natasha Cloud. Sitting at courtside, Kanter Freedom stood up with his arms outstretched and took steps towards the court after Cloud began pointing and shouting at him during a timeout.

16h ago
The GuardianSex & IdentityUSA
Enes Kanter Freedom ejected from WNBA game after confrontation with Natasha Cloud

Enes Kanter Freedom ejected from WNBA game after confrontation with Natasha Cloud

Former NBA center criticized WNBA’s transgender policyCloud yelled and pointed in his direction after scoringFormer NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected from Sunday night’s Indiana Fever v Chicago Sky WNBA game after he was confronted by Sky guard Natasha Cloud late in the third quarter.Freedom was sitting along the baseline. He had on a black shirt that read “WOMAN. Noun. Adult human female.”

1d ago
The GuardianHumanity
Mark Ruffalo fires back at Paramount Skydance after it accuses him of using ‘antisemitic tropes’

Mark Ruffalo fires back at Paramount Skydance after it accuses him of using ‘antisemitic tropes’

Actor says highlighting role of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in media company’s merger with Warner Bros Discovery has been ‘dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel’Mark Ruffalo has fired back at Paramount Skydance after the media company accused him of invoking “antisemitic tropes” in his criticism of its $111bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).The actor, who has long been outspoken against Israel’s military conduct in Gaza and for the rights of Palestinians, shared a statement on social media on Friday in which he highlighted the links between Paramount Skydance, run by CEO David Ellison, and Oracle, the technology company run by Ellison’s father, Larry.

1d ago
The GuardianHealthcareCongo
After 100 days of the deadliest Ebola outbreak, it can be stopped. Here’s how | Jean Kaseya and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

After 100 days of the deadliest Ebola outbreak, it can be stopped. Here’s how | Jean Kaseya and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Ebola is a disease that spreads through communities, so we need to listen to communities if we want to halt its spreadEach time we travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), we go first to listen. In Bunia, we have met dozens of community representatives: survivors, women, young people, local organisations, health workers and leaders from affected areas.Their message was direct: involve us. We know our communities. We know where families seek care, how information moves and why trust is breaking down. Give us the means to help drive the response. They were right.

17h ago
The GuardianDiplomacyEastern Europe
Burnham accuses Russia of ‘outrageous threats’ against UK as he visits Kyiv

Burnham accuses Russia of ‘outrageous threats’ against UK as he visits Kyiv

Moscow warns of increased tensions with Britain as Burnham offers Ukraine declassified details of missile componentsAndy Burnham has accused the Kremlin of “outrageous threats” against the UK as Russia warned of an escalation in tensions after the UK’s decision to present Ukraine with newly declassified blueprints to allow Kyiv to improve its production of long-range missiles.Speaking in Kyiv, Burnham compared Ukraine’s struggle to Britain’s fight against Nazi Germany. “My nation kept the flame of European freedom alive in the 20th century, you hold that flame in the 21st,” Burnham said in a speech in front of St Sophia cathedral to mark the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.

17h ago
The GuardianHumanityGreater Glasgow
The ear witness: Turner-winner Lawrence Abu Hamdan and his ‘sound evidence’ exposés of human rights abuses

The ear witness: Turner-winner Lawrence Abu Hamdan and his ‘sound evidence’ exposés of human rights abuses

From killings in Gaza to the alleged use of a sonic weapon on a vigil in Belgrade, the Lebanese-British artist reveals how his work for activist group Earshot is inseparable from his artLawrence Abu Hamdan has a double identity. He is an artist who, in 2019, jointly won the ; and one of his works is, for my money, among the most striking at this year’s Venice Biennale. But he is also the director of a young NGO, founded in 2023, called , which investigates human rights abuses using sound evidence. In less euphemistic language, that means, on occasion, investigating horrific killings. He and his team might analyse the direction and position of bullets Israeli soldiers have fired at emergency workers in Gaza, or build evidence that a sonic weapon was likely used to disperse a mass silent vigil in Belgrade.The he did in this field was a project with the London-based research agency Forensic Architecture for Amnesty International. Back in 2016, he interviewed rare survivors of the unimaginably barbaric conditions in Syria’s Sednaya prison. There was a paradox at play in this murderous place – prisoners were held in complete darkness, and enforced silence, killed for making any sound. Listening was both , and a tool for survival and resistance. Their acute sonic memories of screams of distress and pain; keys turning in locks; bread being slapped down outside their cells; even of lice being snapped – helped Abu Hamdan and his colleagues build a picture of the prison architecture and its conditions, nearly a decade before it was opened to the light after the fall of the bloody Assad regime.

1h ago